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Already in international tournaments, "Ekranas" drew lots for the team to meet with the most titled and famous teams from those countries this year. "Shamrock Rovers" from Ireland, Belgium's RSC "Anderlecht," and now Romania's flagship - Bucharest's "Steaua."
The club was founded in 1947 and was known as the sports club of the Romanian army. In 1998, "Steaua" separated from the military unit and became an independent sports club. Throughout its history, "Steaua" competed in the highest Romanian championship, finishing below 6th place only 5 times.
They are 23-time Romanian champions, 21-time cup winners, and 5-time super cup winners - this is the main statistics of "Steaua's" Romanian trophies. And what about achievements in Europe?
"Steaua" players on the field have been attacked by hooligans (AP photo).
In 1986, the Romanian team - for the first time a club from Eastern Europe - won the UEFA European Cup (current Champions League) tournament, defeating "Barcelona" in an 11-meter penalty series. That same year, they also won the European Super Cup, beating Kiev's "Dynamo" 1-0. In 1989, the Romanian team again reached the final of the UEFA European Cup, but lost 0-4 to "A.C. Milan."
In recent times, "Steaua" often participates in the main stages of European tournaments. In the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 seasons, the team played in the group stage of the Champions League. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, the team reached the group stage of the Europa League. In the last Europa League tournament, "Steaua" finished second in the group stage, behind Gelsenkirchen's "Schalke 04." In the knockout stages this year in February, they met Enschede's "Twente" (Netherlands) and lost twice 0-1.
They have represented the country 22 times in the UEFA Champions League tournament, 15 times in the current Europa League, and 11 times in the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup tournament. In total - 251 international matches, 92 wins, 70 draws, 89 losses.
Since in the last Romanian championship "Steaua" finished in 3rd place, this year the Bucharest team started international competitions from the third qualifying round of the Europa League and met with Slovakia's "Spartak Trvana" team. The first match unexpectedly ended with a 1-0 victory for the Slovaks in Romania. In the return match, "Steaua" took advantage of their opportunities and did not give their opponents any chances, winning 3-0. Goals were scored by Raul Rusescu, Adi Rocha, and Stefan Nikolič.
The team has 6 foreigners: two Brazilian strikers Adi Rocha and Gabriel Machiado, Montenegrin footballer and forward Stefan Nikolič, Serbian defender Novak Martinovič, Macedonian and Australian nationalities defender Daniel Georgievski, and the player with German and Polish nationalities Łukasz Szukała.
In this new season of the Romanian championship that started this summer, the most prolific scorers in the ranks of "Steaua" are Raul Rusescu, who has scored 4 goals, and Adi Rocha and Christian Tanase, who have each scored 3 goals. By the way, the latter player is suspended for the first match in Vilnius.
Defensive midfielder Alexandru Bourceanu joined the team in 2011 and soon after, the team entrusted him with the captain's armband. It is also necessary to keep an eye on forward Stefan Nikolič, a young but very promising player from Montenegro.
A large group of players - Florin Gardos, Vlad Chiriches, Alexandru Chipciu, Ciprian Tatarusanu, Alexandru Bourceanu, Cristian Tănase, Iasmin Latovlevici, Mihai Pintilii - represent the national Romanian football team or are its candidates. It is worth mentioning Ch.Tănase separately, who is one of the leaders of the national team, having played 22 official matches for Romania.
We remind you that the match will take place on August 23 at 19:45 at the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF) stadium. Ticket prices are 15Lt and 30Lt. You can buy them in advance in the bilietai.lt distribution system or on the match day, Thursday from 16:00 at the LFF stadium ticket office (Liepkalnio g. 13/2, Vilnius).
