Steaua advances to the Europa League Round of 16

The Romanian football club Steaua Bucharest will take on Chelsea London in the Europa League round of 16. The first leg is scheduled for March 7th in Bucharest, while the return leg will be played in London a week later.

The team from Bucharest secured their qualification after defeating the Dutch side Ajax Amsterdam.

In the first leg played last week Ajax saw off Steaua with a 2-nil win, although the Romanian players were close to scoring on several occasions.

On Thursday, however, the good fortunes were with the Romanian side. Steaua made up for the two-goal gap and sent the match into extra time, as the scoreboard read 2-nil at full time.

The extra time brought little change in the game, and the match was to be decided in the penalty shootout. The Romanian players showed great concentration and composure, converting each penalty kick, while the Dutch side spurned two shots.

Tataruseanu saved Lasse Schøne’s strike while Niklas Moisander sent it over the post. Scoring for the Romanian side Were Raul Rusescu, Stefan Nikolic, Lucian Filip and Iasmin Latovlevici, while Christian Eriksen and Siem de Jong scored for Ajax.

After the match, Steaua fans gathered in downtown Bucharest until late into the night, to celebrate this historic triumph. Laurentiu Reghecampf‘s players believed in their chances until the very end. Winning their upcoming game against Chelsea in the Europa League round of 16 will be a very difficult, but not impossible task, with Steaua having little to lose after knocking out Ajax.

In the round of 32, Chelsea won against AC Sparta Prague thanks to a last-minute goal scored by Eden Hazard. Chelsea already had a 1-nil lead after the first leg against Sparta, so they moved on with a 2-nil win on aggregate. In the other fixture of the day, the Romanian champions CFR Cluj admitted a 3-nil home defeat to visitors Internazionale Milano, with the Italian side also securing a 2-nil win in the first leg.