The titular champion of Romania “Farul Constanta” became the first team of the domestic championship to play in the European Cups of the 2023-2024 season. The team coached by Hyke Hagi will face Tiraspol Sheriff in the first preliminary round of the Champions League at 20:30.

• The match “Farul” against “Sherif” will take place at the stadium in Ovidio, it will be LiveBLOG on HotNews.ro and live on Digisport 1 and Prima Sport 1.

Probable teams

Lighthouse: Ioanni – Kiki, Boly, Artean, Borza – Nedelka, Baluta, Borginho – Mazilu, Alibek, Rivaldinho. Coach: Gika Hagi

Sheriff: Koval – Bueno, Garananga, Gabi Kiki – Zohuri, Kyabu, Badolo, Luvannor, Talal – Ricardinho, Paiva. Coach: Roberto Bordin

“It’s a feeling of happiness, joy, because last year we did an extraordinary job and playing in the Champions League qualifiers is a big, big challenge for us.

We’ve been working with that mindset since the Super Bowl, let’s see which players are fit and ready for this matchup. We are trying to build a very good team, which last year showed extraordinary results, we became champions.

We are facing a team that has a lot more experience than us in Europe, a team that has made some changes, a team that has an Italian coach. In Italy it is based on discipline and tactics. They are a disciplined team that keeps themselves on the pitch very well, that plays multiple systems, so we have to pay attention to all the details.

I think we know them well, we hope to have a nice day at home. But we must not forget that there are two matches, one at home, the other away. I think we can win this qualification. Nothing is easy, but the team believes that if we get back to ours, they have the potential to pass them.

I do not see favorites, the match is balanced. There are two matches, so basically we have to do both in attack, in defense, in transition, much better than they do.” Hika Hagi.

Know

• If Tiraspol “Sherif” gets past, then in the second preliminary round of the Champions League “Farul” will beat the winner of the double between “Hamrun Spartans” (Malta) and “Maccabi” from Haifa (Israel). However, for the Israelis, the return looks like only a formality: they won 4:0 on the road.

• If qualified, Farul will play the first match at home on July 25 or 26, and the second leg away on August 1 or 2.

• In recent years, Tiraspol “Sheriff” has been one of the unexpected teams in Europe. They qualified for the 2021-2022 Champions League groups (winning away to Real Madrid and at home to Shakhion Donetsk) to qualify for the 2022-23 Europa League groups, and from there to the Conference League. , where after 0:1 at home and 3:1 away with “Partizan” (Belgrade) was eliminated in the round of 16 by “Nice” with a score of 0:1 at home and 1:3 away.

• Tiraspol “Sheriff” has a lot of 13.33 million euros, and the player with the best market price is Rashid Akanbi (Nigeria) with 1.2 million euros. The coach of the team is Italian Roberto Bordin (58 years old).

• It has a stadium with a capacity of 12,764 seats and the group was founded in 1997.

• The Tiraspol team has 21 Moldovan championship titles and 12 Moldovan Cup winners.

• If eliminated from the first preliminary round, Farul will continue their European adventure in the Conference League (the second preliminary round is the path of the champions).