Our men’s team collected all three points in Bistrița in the opening round of the Romanian Cup group stage. We scored late in both halves to secure a convincing victory away to our second-tier opponents.
Our men’s team collected all three points in Bistrița in the opening round of the Romanian Cup group stage. We scored late in both halves to secure a convincing victory away to our second-tier opponents.
With our league campaign and the busy fixture schedule also in mind, we fielded a much-changed starting line-up on Wednesday evening at the Jean Pădureanu Sports Complex in Bistrița. Several players who had received fewer minutes in recent weeks were given an opportunity in István Szabó’s side.
We created the more dangerous chances in the first half. In the 33rd minute, Albert Stahl found himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper following an individual move, but he was unable to score from close range. Nine minutes later, our forward made no mistake: he met Ádám Czékus’s cross from the right superbly and headed home from close range (0–1).
The hosts put us under greater pressure after the break. Gloria tried to push higher up the pitch, but our defence withstood their attacks in an organised manner, while Márk Karácsony kept a clean sheet.
In the 58th minute, István Szabó freshened up his team with an attack-minded triple substitution, introducing Artúr Horváth, Márton Eppel and Szabolcs Szalay. Despite the pressure from Bistrița, it was our team who struck again in the closing stages. In the 89th minute, at the end of a well-worked counterattack, the home goalkeeper saved Răzvan Trif’s shot, but Márton Eppel was on hand to convert the rebound from close range and seal a 2–0 victory.
With this away win, our team began its Romanian Cup Group C campaign with three points.
“Congratulations to the home team because they have a good side. The league is also very important to us, as we are not doing well there, so I had to choose a kind of hybrid solution: I could not name all of my regular starters in the starting eleven. That obviously influenced the match. We saw two contrasting halves. In the first half, we created more chances and could have decided the match then. In the second half, only our defending really worked the way I wanted it to, because the home side put us under a great deal of pressure, but that is normal in the Cup,” head coach István Szabó said in his assessment.
The head coach also mentioned that the team had spent a great deal of time travelling since the beginning of the season.
“For the time being, we will not have another away match in the Cup until December. We travel a great deal: of the eight or nine matches we have played so far, six have been away from home. We will already be leaving for Arad on Friday afternoon. I wish Gloria every success in the league,” our head coach added.
CS Gloria Bistrița–FK Csíkszereda 0–2 (0–1)
Bistrița, Jean Pădureanu Sports Complex.
Referee: Claudiu Cristian Găitin (Timiș).
Assistant referees: Claudiu Șchiopet (Brașov), Barna Tamás Bíró (Covasna).
Fourth official: Dragoș Ionuț Jurcan (Neamț).
Goalscorers: Albert Stahl (42), Márton Eppel (89).
Yellow cards: Viorel Lică (65), Ibuchi Chukwu (81); Artúr Horváth (70), Márton Eppel (72).
CS Gloria Bistrița: Alexandru Greab (c) – Viorel Lică, Antonio Bradu, Otega King, Gheorghe Șofroni (Dragoș Rîpeanu, 46), Darius Suciu (Marius Lupu, 46), Sergiu Pîrvulescu (Costyn Gheorghe, 89), Ibuchi Chukwu, Emmanuel Asibey, Răzvan Mogoș (Branimir Čavar, 89), Mehdi Lehaire.
On the bench: Darius Iurașciuc, Mihai Bara, Fabio Blaga, Daniel Țăran, Onișor Covaci.
Head coach: Nicolae Grigore.
FK Csíkszereda: Márk Karácsony – Raul Palmeș, Alex Szabó, Szilárd Veres (c), Előd Tóth-Pál (Darius Bota, 65), Ádám Czékus (Lóránd Pászka, 79), Mátyás Tajti (Artúr Horváth, 58), János Hegedűs, Răzvan Trif, Zsolt Magyar (Márton Eppel, 58), Albert Stahl (Szabolcs Szalay, 58).
On the bench: Zsombor Deák, György Papp.
Head coach: István Szabó.
Our team will next be in action on Saturday, 5 September, at 17:30, when we visit UTA at the Francisc Neuman Stadium in Arad in the eighth round of the Superliga regular season.
R. A.
Photo: Gloria Bistrița