Steaua is the only Romanian team that will play in the Europa League group phase!

Ciprian Tătăruşanu kept Steaua in the Europa League with his two penalty saves from last night's shootout with Grasshopper.

Steaua was fortunate to have a sunny weather at Zurich and a splendid pitch. Only 5.000 fans in the stand, almost all of them swiss. A home side that is among the last teams in the Switzerland championship managed to dominate Steaua.

Abrudan-Geraldo-Dorel Stoica, the weak link
Ilie didn't want any long passes and forced his defenders to run with the ball and to use many short passes. A tough decission for Geraldo and Abrudan. The ex-Brasov player's mistake almost cost Steaua, but Tatarusanu manage to save Zuber's shot. Emeghara missed the goal from only six metres, but it was only a minor chance because the Swiss were the ones in control.

Steaua had yet another problem when both their central defenders  received yellow cards. Then all was calm. Latovlevici took his chance in the last minutes of the first half, but Benito managed to pull a save. After the break, Dumitrescu changed Dorel Stoica and the game started going towards Tatarusanu's goal.

No inspiration!
Anghelov's entry didn't bring Steaua any safety. The pulse was almost 200 as the game was heading to its end. Surdu missed a double change, but Benito was there on both ocassions. It was only a fluke. Salatici recovered a ball and scored from near the goal taking the match in extra-time.

1-0 and the final moments of the game were terrible. Stancu could have qualified Steaua but narrowly missed the goal. Tatarusanu managed to keep the Romanians in the game with a magnificient save.

In extra-time Steaua was lucky enough to evoid conceding a goal. Tatarusanu again managed to be their guardian angel saving two great shots. In the end, Steaua won the penalty shootout. Tatarusanu was number one, but Steaua dissapointed in Switzerland.