Gods smile upon Unirea's Onofraş
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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The miracle Marius Onofraş prayed for came as he hit a late leveller at home against Rangers FC, with the FC Unirea Urziceni substitute telling uefa.com of his "incredible joy" at a hard-earned point.
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FC Unirea Urziceni goalscorer Marius Onofraş told uefa.com he was "praying for a miracle" after Rangers FC had taken the lead late on in Bucharest. His appeal for divine intervention was answered with only two minutes remaining as he thundered home an equaliser to earn the Romanian champions a 1-1 draw.
'Incredible joy'
"The miracle came," said Onofraş, who for the second time against Rangers was brought off the bench by coach Dan Petrescu early in the match. He almost made an immediate impact with a long-range effort that worried Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor before landing on the roof of the net, but at the death he was not to be denied. "I received the ball and managed to shoot and then I saw the ball in the top corner of the net," Onofraş added. "It was a feeling of incredible joy. I'm happy that it was me who scored but most of all I'm happy for the point against a very strong team."
Moral victory
After stunning the same opponents with a 4-1 victory in Glasgow two weeks ago, the striker and his team-mates expected the return to be far more problematic. "Rangers suffered a humiliation in Glasgow and we knew they would come to avenge that big defeat," Onofraş said. "I'm sorry we could not win but the point is OK, even though it came in the dying minutes and even though we deserved the victory given the chances we had and the total commitment which we showed. But it was not our day and after we scored some goals in Glasgow that were a little fortunate it was somehow to be expected that today the opposite would happen."
Second place
With VfB Stuttgart securing a draw away to Sevilla FC, Unirea's next opponents on Matchday 5, the Romanian champions remain in second place on five points, two ahead of the German team and three ahead of Rangers. "I honestly don't know if the draw in Seville is good for us or not," said Unirea captain George Galamaz. "We will see at the end of the group where we are and what happens next. We are fighting for second place and we will try and make history for Romania." Rangers lie bottom ahead of a home game against Stuttgart. Defender David Weir told uefa.com: "It's still up for grabs, but it's going to be difficult for us now. A win would have made a big difference to us and we are still in with a chance but there is a lot for us still to do."