FCM Ungheni claimed their first win of the season on Saturday, 15 August, beating CF Univer 6-2 at the Town Stadium in Ungheni, in the third round of Liga 1 — the second tier of Moldovan football. It was their first home match after the opening-round defeat and the town side’s first success in this campaign, secured by a clear margin: Ungheni led 5-1 by half-time.
The three points lift FCM Ungheni from 5th to 3rd in Group A, two points off the top two — the places that, at the end of the first stage, go straight into the promotion group. It is the team’s best moment of the early season, after a 1-3 in round one and a 1-1 in round two.
Five goals before half-time
The match was settled in the first half, when Ungheni scored five times. Florin Cojocaru opened the scoring in the 11th minute, and two minutes later Stanislav Sarain made it 2-0. The visitors pulled one back in the 21st minute through Artiom Zeleniuc, but the hosts’ reply came at once: Dmitri Maneacov scored twice, in the 30th and 39th minutes, and Andrei Stratan made it 5-1 in the 43rd. At the break, the board read 5-1 for Ungheni.
In the second half, the goals slowed. CF Univer pulled another one back through Mihail Botnarenco in the 77th minute, and the last goal of the game was scored by Bogdan Placinta in stoppage time, in the 90+3rd — 6-2, the final score.
According to the match protocol published by the divizia-a.md portal, the hosts finished the game a man down: Sergiu Babin, who had come on in the 46th minute, was sent off in the 79th. The federation’s communiqué makes no mention of cards. Ungheni scored the sixth goal already with ten men.
Who played
The starting line-up, the substitutions and the sending-off above come from the match protocol on divizia-a.md. The side coached by Dorin Bambuleac started the match with Octavian Vătavu as captain and Andrei Stratan in the eleven — unlike the second round, when Stratan had come on only at half-time.
- Goalkeeper: 25 Cristian Cebotari
- Outfield: 3 Nicu Grițunic · 4 Vasile Marjin · 7 Dmitri Maneacov · 8 Ilia Pavlov · 10 Florin Cojocaru · 11 Stanislav Sarain · 22 Alexandru Ursu · 27 David Cemschi · 77 Octavian Vătavu (captain) · 80 Andrei Stratan
The coach used five substitutions. Sergiu Babin came on in the 46th minute for Alexandru Ursu, and in the 78th Artiom Zvezdenco (for Maneacov), Artiom Sigal (for captain Vătavu) and Bogdan Placinta (for Stratan) were sent on. In the 90th minute, Adrian Enache replaced Florin Cojocaru. Goalkeeper Lucian Cebotari and Denis Vătavu stayed unused on the bench.
Who CF Univer are
Saturday’s opponents come from Comrat, in Gagauzia, and are one of the youngest clubs in the tier: founded in 2022. The team is coached by Alexandr Gheorghiev and had entered this round after a commanding 4-2 win over Zimbru-2 in the previous round. The defeat in Ungheni leaves them 4th, on three points, just below the town side in the table.
What the table shows after three rounds
Group A has clarified after three rounds. Vulturii Cutezători — the team that had beaten Ungheni in the first round — have broken clear at the top with a maximum haul, while Spartanii-Sportul remain at the bottom.
| Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vulturii Cutezători | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 12-4 | 9 |
| 2 | FC Iskra | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5-4 | 6 |
| 3 | FCM Ungheni | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8-6 | 4 |
| 4 | CF Univer | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6-10 | 3 |
| 5 | Zimbru-2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 7-6 | 3 |
| 6 | CSF Spartanii-Sportul | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3-11 | 1 |
FCM Ungheni now have a record of one win, one draw and one defeat. The stakes remain those explained at the start of the championship: at the end of the 15 rounds of the first stage, the top two teams in the group take the short road to promotion, and the other four the long one, through the play-offs — exactly the road on which Ungheni stopped last season.
The round’s other results
In the two other matches, played on Friday, 14 August, FC Iskra beat Zimbru-2 2-1, and Vulturii Cutezători saw off Spartanii-Sportul 6-2.
What comes next
Round four takes FCM Ungheni away, on Friday, 21 August, at 18.00, to Zimbru-2, on the pitch in Chișinău. A home match against FC Iskra follows, on Friday, 28 August, at 17.00.