Craiova wins, Rădoi sent off; Blănuță nets first Dinamo Kyiv goal
CS Universitatea Craiova secured their first victory in the Conference League unified group, defeating Rapid Vienna 1-0 in Austria.
The "White-Blues" delivered a strong performance and could have won by a larger margin, but inexplicably missed several key chances. Amidst heightened match tension, coach Mirel Rădoi received two rapid yellow cards and was sent off. Ukrainian Oleksandr Romanchuk scored the only goal in the 37th minute, set up by Costa Rican Carlos Mora.
Following the win, CSU Craiova currently holds 20th place in the standings with 4 points.
In other European action, Vladislav Blănuță, a striker from the Republic of Moldova, scored his first goal for Dinamo Kyiv. The Ukrainian side routed Bosnian team Zrinjski Mostar 6-0 in a friendly played in Lublin, Poland. Blănuță came on in the 67th minute and netted the final goal in the 83rd minute, a memorable first Vladislav Blănuță goal. Other scorers for Dinamo Kyiv included Denis Popov, Panamanian Eduardo Guerrero, Vladislav Kabaev, Vitaliy Buyalskyi, and Andriy Yarmolenko. Moldovan international Vitalie Damașcan started for Zrinjski but was substituted in the 57th minute.
Spanish club Rayo Vallecano achieved a dramatic 3-2 comeback victory against Polish champions Lech Poznan. Lech led 2-0 at halftime, but the introduction of Romanian defender Andrei Rațiu helped trigger a turnaround. The Madrid team scored three times, with Álvaro García netting the winning goal deep into stoppage time in the 90+4th minute.
Meanwhile, German side FC Mainz 05 won their home fixture 2-1 against FC Fiorentina. They now boast a maximum nine points after three matches, alongside Samsunspor (Turkey) and NK Celje (Slovenia). The Viola team (Fiorentina), two-time competition finalists, initially took the lead through Swiss player Simon Sohm, but Mainz 05 overturned the score in the final half-hour thanks to goals from Benedict Hollerbach and South Korean Jae-sung Lee.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
