Steaua - SPA - 2009 - statistics

St Patrick's Athletic's brave bid to reach the group stages of the Europa League appears doomed to failure after they collapsed to a 3-0 defeat against Steaua Bucharest. Jeff Kenna's men had travelled to Romania full of hope following a stunning upset win over fancied Russians Krylya Sovetov in the previous round. The Irish side defended stoutly in a first half in which they seldom made it out of their own half as the hosts, featuring a number of international players, completely dominated. Saints' cause was bolstered by an eerie atmosphere brought about by UEFA's insistence the match be played behind closed doors due to previous incidents involving Steaua supporters. However, their resistance finally cracked in the 55th minute when Banel Nicolita opened the score and a double from Bogdan Stancu in the 65th and 80th minutes looks to have made next week's second leg a formality. Nicolita received a pass from Kapetanos, entered in the box on right side and defeated Rogers with a strong shot at long corner: 1-0. In 65th minute, the same Nicolita passed excellent to Bogdan Stancu, who just pushed the ball into net from 4 meters. Stancu succeeded the double with 10 minutes before the final, sending the ball into the net after a pass from Surdu. Steaua remains without goal received on own field in European cups from this season, after 2-0 with Ujpest and 3-0 with Motherwell.

Cristiano Bergodi, coach of Steaua: "We obtained a very good result. I am pleased with this 3-0, but I didn't like our game from first half, even if we had three clear opportunities. In second half we tried to play with three strikers and that helped us to score. We have risked playing with three attackers, so our opponents had a few opportunities too. Saint Patrick's Athletic weren't so dangerous and I decided to play with three strikers. I considered that three midfielders are enough. I think this was our weapon to score".