Universitatea Craiova takes big step towards Champions League second qualifying round

Universitatea Craiova has taken a significant stride toward the next round of Champions League qualifiers, achieving a decisive 4-1 victory over Belarusian champions Vitebsk. The match, played on neutral ground in Hungary without spectators, saw the Romanian team assert control from the outset.

Craiova opened the scoring in the third minute with a well-placed shot from Baiaram. However, Vitebsk responded with a spectacular equalizer in the 20th minute, courtesy of a powerful 25-yard strike from Gromyko. The Romanian side quickly regained their advantage just four minutes later when Etim earned a penalty after being fouled by Bocherev. Al-Hamlawi confidently converted the spot-kick.

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A very important victory. It's the first time in my career I play on my birthday. It's a beautiful birthday, alongside my second family. It's very beautiful, because we won this match. The parties are over, enough! We no longer have time. Now we have to recover. It was not such an easy match because they formed an aggressive team. We must be more careful, because a moment of attention can cost us. It is just one match. It's good that we won, but it's not over yet. Anything can happen in football and we must be careful. We are happy that we scored four goals away.

Before halftime, Universitatea Craiova was awarded a second penalty. Initially ruled an attacking foul, a VAR intervention prompted the referee to overturn the decision. Al-Hamlawi again stepped up and scored, extending Craiova's lead to 3-1 in the 43rd minute. In the second half, Vitebsk had a goal disallowed for offside, and Baiaram of Craiova also saw an effort ruled out for the same reason.

The match concluded with Universitatea Craiova adding a final goal in the third minute of stoppage time through Nsimba, solidifying their commanding first-leg victory. "A very important victory. It's the first time in my career I play on my birthday. It's a beautiful birthday, alongside my second family," said Alexandru Cicâldău, who celebrated his 29th birthday. He added, "It's just one match. It's good that we won, but it's not over yet. Anything can happen in football and we must be careful. We are happy that we scored four goals away."

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We are all happy for the victory. If we look at the result, it seems we had an easy match, but it was not like that. We are happy that we started with a victory, but we still have a lot to improve. It is always very important to be competitive as a group. We had several good moments during the match, but also moments when we suffered. It is clear that we need to pay attention to certain things. Even in terms of physical condition, but here it is normal because we are at the beginning of the season. I don't like to talk in percentages about the team's physical level, ultimately it is important that we won.