Romania round-up: Dinamo hit the ground running

Champions FC Dinamo Bucuresti began the new Romanian season in style with a 5-0 home win against FC Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt.

New coach and captain
The Bucharest side, starting the campaign with a new coach, Ion Moldovan, and a new captain, Gheorghe Popescu, showed no ill effects from their recent defeats in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round and the Romanian Super Cup. 

Niculescu hat-trick
Claudiu Niculescu scored a first-half hat-trick and Ionel Danciulescu, his strike partner, added two more after the break. With the score at 3-0, Ceahlaul lost Alin Forminte to a red card on 61 minutes and not long after the club's president, Gheorghe Stefan, showed his disappointment by leaving his place on the bench to return to the team's hotel.

Verdes equaliser
Ceahlaul were not the only away side to suffer. In the five matches played today only one goal was scored by a visiting team - Cristian Craciun of SC Astra Ploiesti got it early in the match at FC Universitatea Craiova but it proved simply the prelude to a 3-1 defeat. Universitatea have retained only two players from last season, Gabriel Vochin and Bobi Verdes, and it was the latter who scored their 20th-minute equaliser against Astra.

Australian makes history
Ionet Lutu, one of the many new faces, made it 2-1 before the break and from his 85th-minute corner, Alin Rada headed the third in front of 25,000 spectators at the Central stadium. Ten minutes earlier David McBreen appeared as a subsitute for Universitatea to make history as the first Australian to play in the Romanian league.

New boys
Politehnica AEK Timisoara marked their first appearance in the Romanian top flight with a 2-0 home victory over FCM Bacau. Politehnica have the youngest coach in the division, the 32-year-old Basarab Panduru, and they enjoyed the enthusiastic support of 20,000 fans as goals from Nicolae Balauru and Mihai Nicolae secured an historic win. Balauru struck from the edge of the area on 33 minutes and Nicolae made sure of the points with a fine free-kick 17 minutes from time.

Gloria claim a point
CS Otelul Galati beat FC Arges-Dacia Pitesti 2-0 through first-half goals from Mihai Gurita and Cornel Cornea, while FC Gloria Bistrita FC claimed a point in a scoreless draw at FC Farul Constanta. The final three games of the first round will be played tomorrow afternoon: UTA Arad v FC National Bucuresti, FC Brasov v FC Steaua Bucuresti and FC Rapid Bucuresti v Sportul Studentesc Bucuresti.