VfB v. Unirea Urziceni | Match Preview
VfB’s up-coming opponents in the UEFA Champions League, Unirea Urziceni drew attention to themselves on the international stage for the first time last season.
Having finished in fifth place in the Romanian league at the end of the 2007/2008 season, the regional club subsequently faced HSV in the first round of the UEFA Cup. The current Bundesliga
leaders Hamburger SV, progressed passed the Romanian club with a 0-0 draw in Germany and a 2-0 win away, but the Romanians had plenty to celebrate in spite of the defeat. It was Unirea’s
first game on the international stage, having only won promotion to the Romanian top flight, Liga 1, in 2006. The club from Urziceni, which has a population of just 17,000, was formed in 1954
and is based a mere 55 kilometers from the country’s capital of Bucharest.
In 2002, the entrepreneur Dumitru Bucsaru took charge of the club. Along with his company Valahorum SA, the new president invested vast amounts of money in the infrastructure of the club and
the team. With Dumitru Bucsaru at the helm, Unirea won the Liga 1 Romanian title for the first time in their history in 2009. After eight games in the current campaign, trainer Dan Petrescu’s
side are top of the league and are holding their own against their more renowned neighbours from Bucharest. In their first UEFA Champions League group game, Unirea were beaten 0-2 away to
Spanish side FC Sevilla. Their up-coming home game against VfB, as well as the rest of their Champions League games will not be played at their home ground but rather at the more formidable
Ghencea-Stadium from Steaua Bucharest. The true star of the side is trainer Dan Petrescu, who during his active career played for FC Chelsea, FC Genua and FC Southampton.
Manager Markus Babbel said:
“Urziceni live from an enormously compact team and we will have to be highly concentrated from the very first minute. We will need to be equally compact and approach the game
confidently. Our target is naturally to take all three points, even if the task will be anything other than an easy one.”