2021–22 Moldovan National Division

The 2021–22 Moldovan National Division (Romanian: Divizia Națională) was the 31st season of top-tier football in Moldova. The season started on 1 July 2021 and ended on 14 May 2022. Sheriff Tiraspol were the defending champions. The winners of the league this season earned a spot in the first qualifying round of the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League, and the second, third and fourth placed clubs earned a place in the first qualifying round of the 2022–23 UEFA Europa Conference League.^[1]

Divizia Națională

Season	2021–22
Dates	1 July 2021 – 14 May 2022
Champions	Sheriff 20th title
Relegated	Florești
Champions League	Sheriff
Conference League	Petrocub Milsami Sf. Gheorghe
Matches played	112
Goals scored	343 (3.06 per match)
Top goalscorer	Vladimir Ambros (17 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Georgios Athanasiadis (13 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Sheriff 7–0 Dinamo-Auto (28 November 2021)
Biggest away win	Dinamo-Auto 0–7 Sheriff (25 September 2021)
Highest scoring	Sheriff 7–1 Dinamo-Auto (7 August 2021)
Longest winning run	9 matches Sheriff
Longest unbeaten run	18 matches Sheriff
Longest winless run	28 matches Florești
Longest losing run	28 matches Florești
← 2020–21 2022–23 →

Teams

A total of 8 teams are competing in the league. These include 7 teams from the 2020–21 season and one promoted team from the "A" Division: Bălți.

Changes

Bălți (promoted after a two-year absence) were promoted from the "A" Division. Dacia Buiucani (relegated after one year in the top flight) and Codru Lozova (relegated after two years in the top flight) were relegated to "A" Division. Additionally, Speranța Nisporeni were expelled from the league, and thus ending their six-year stay in the top flight.

Bălți

Florești

Milsami

Petrocub

Sf. Gheorghe

Tiraspol

Zimbru

Tiraspol teams:
Dinamo-Auto
Sheriff

Team	Place	Ground	Capacity	Coach
Bălți	Bălți	Bălți Stadium	7,000	Serghei Cebotari
Dinamo-Auto	Tiraspol	Dinamo-Auto Stadium	1,300	Igor Dobrovolski
Florești	Florești	Bender Stadium	5,000	Iurie Groșev
Milsami	Orhei	CSR Orhei	3,000	Serghei Dubrovin
Petrocub	Hîncești	Hîncești Stadium	1,200	Lilian Popescu
Sfîntul Gheorghe	Suruceni	Zimbru-2 Stadium	1,500	Nicolai Mandrîcenco
Sheriff	Tiraspol	Sheriff Stadium	12,726	Yuriy Vernydub
Zimbru	Chișinău	Zimbru Stadium	10,400	Michele Bon

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Sfîntul Gheorghe	Serghei Cebotari	Resigned	27 September 2021	6th	Stanislav Luca	28 September 2021[2]
Zimbru	Vlad Goian	Demoted to assistant coach	18 November 2021	7th	Michele Bon	18 November 2021[3]
Bălți	Ihor Rakhayev	Resigned	2 December 2021[4]	6th	Serghei Cebotari	10 January 2022[5]
Sheriff	Yuriy Vernydub	Temporary leave to join Ukrainian Army	28 February 2022[6]	1st	Victor Mihailov (caretaker)	1 March 2022
Dinamo-Auto	Igor Dobrovolski	UEFA Pro Licence expired on 31.12.2021	13 March 2022	5th	Oleg Bejenar	13 March 2022[7]
Sfîntul Gheorghe	Stanislav Luca	No UEFA Pro Licence	19 March 2022	4th	Nicolai Mandrîcenco	19 March 2022[8]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sheriff Tiraspol (C)	28	22	4	2	75	8	+67	70	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Petrocub Hîncești	28	20	4	4	62	20	+42	64	Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round
3	Milsami Orhei	28	15	6	7	50	31	+19	51
4	Sfîntul Gheorghe	28	10	8	10	38	39	−1	38
5	Bălți	28	11	3	14	39	39	0	36
6	Dinamo-Auto	28	9	5	14	35	72	−37	32
7	Zimbru Chișinău (O)	28	7	6	15	32	46	−14	27	Qualification to Relegation play-off
8	Florești (R)	28	0	0	28	12	88	−76	−6[a]	Relegation to Liga 1[b]

Source: FMF, UEFA, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-off (only if deciding champion when two teams tied); 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Head-to-head away goals scored; 6) Head-to-head goals scored; 7) Matches won; 8) Goal difference; 9) Goals scored; 10) Least red cards; 11) Least yellow cards.^[12]
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. Florești had 6 points deducted for alleged match-fixing.^[9]
2. On 17 January 2022, Florești were excluded from competition for match-fixing allegations and relegated to the second tier league for next season. All remaining 9 matches were awarded 0–3 against them.^[10][11]

Results

Teams played each other four times (twice at home, twice away).

Rounds 1−14

Matches 1−14

Home \ Away	BĂL	DIN	FLO	MIL	PET	SFÎ	SHE	ZIM
Bălți	—	2–4	3–1	0–1	2–4	1–2	0–2	2–1
Dinamo-Auto	1–4	—	1–0	1–3	0–2	2–2	0–7	3–3
Florești	1–3	0–1	—	0–3	0–1	1–5	1–3	1–3
Milsami Orhei	1–1	4–1	4–1	—	2–1	1–1	0–1	1–0
Petrocub Hîncești	3–0	6–1	2–0	1–1	—	5–0	0–2	1–0
Sfîntul Gheorghe	1–1	0–1	4–1	3–4	0–1	—	0–3	1–0
Sheriff Tiraspol	0–1	7–1	4–0	1–0	2–0	4–0	—	6–0
Zimbru Chișinău	2–3	3–0	4–0	0–2	0–1	1–1	1–1	—

Source: FMF, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Rounds 15−28

Matches 15−28

Home \ Away	BĂL	DIN	FLO	MIL	PET	SFÎ	SHE	ZIM
Bălți	—	3–0	3–0[a]	0–1	1–2	0–0	0–3	1–0
Dinamo-Auto	1–0	—	3–0[a]	2–2	0–0	0–1	0–3	0–0
Florești	0–3[a]	1–5	—	0–3[a]	3–4	0–3[a]	1–3	0–3[a]
Milsami Orhei	0–2	2–5	5–0	—	1–3	2–2	1–1	3–0
Petrocub Hîncești	3–2	5–0	3–0[a]	1–0	—	1–1	0–0	5–1
Sfîntul Gheorghe	1–0	4–0	3–0[a]	2–0	0–4	—	0–2	0–1
Sheriff Tiraspol	2–0	7–0	3–0[a]	0–1	1–0	2–0	—	4–0
Zimbru Chișinău	2–1	1–2	3–0	1–2	0–3	1–1	1–1	—

Source: FMF, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

1. Technical wins/losses

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28
Bălți	3	4	3	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	5
Dinamo-Auto	7	6	4	5	7	7	7	7	7	7	5	5	6	6	5	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6
Florești	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8
Milsami Orhei	5	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	1	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Petrocub Hîncești	2	3	5	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	2	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Sfîntul Gheorghe	4	5	6	7	4	4	4	5	6	5	6	6	5	5	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Sheriff Tiraspol	6	7	7	6	5	5	5	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Zimbru Chișinău	1	1	2	4	6	6	6	6	5	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7

Source: fmf.md

Results by round

The following table represents the teams game results in each round.^[13]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28
Bălți	W	L	D	W	L	W	W	L	D	L	L	L	W	W	L	L	L	L	L	L	W[a]	L	W	D	W	L	W	W[a]
Dinamo-Auto	L	D	W	L	L	L	L	D	W	W	W	L	L	L	W	L	W	W	L	D	W	D	L	W[a]	L	L	L	D
Florești	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L[b]	L[b]	L[b]	L[b]	L[b]	L[b]	L[b]	L[b]	L[b]
Milsami Orhei	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	D	D	W	W	L	W	D	W	L	W	W	L	W	L	L	L	L	W	W[a]	D	D
Petrocub Hîncești	W	L	W	W	W	W	W	L	D	W	W	W	W	W	L	W	D	W	D	D	W	W[a]	L	W	W	W	W	W
Sfîntul Gheorghe	D	D	D	L	W	W	L	L	W	L	D	W	L	D	W	W	D	D	L	W[a]	L	W	W	D	L	L	W[a]	L
Sheriff Tiraspol	L	W	W	W	W	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	D	W	W	W	L	W	W	W	D	W[a]	W	D	W
Zimbru Chișinău	W	W	L	L	L	L	D	W	D	L	D	L	L	L	W	L	L	D	L	W	L	D	W[a]	D	L	W	L	L

Relegation play-off

A play-off match was played between the seventh-placed team from Divizia Națională and the fourth-placed team from Divizia A for one place in the next season. The "home" team (for administrative purposes) was determined in a draw held on 19 May 2022.^[14]

26 May 2022 (2022-05-26)

19:00 EEST

Spartanii Selemet	0–1	Zimbru Chișinău
	Report	O. Gomes 17'

Municipal Stadium, Hîncești

Attendance: 580

Referee: Petru Stoianov

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[15]
1	Vladimir Ambros	Petrocub	17
2	Sergiu Istrati	Milsami	15
3	Momo Yansané	Sheriff	11
	Mihai Plătică	Petrocub
5	Emmanuel Alaribe	Bălți	8
	Adama Traoré	Sheriff
7	Victor Stînă	Sf. Gheorghe	7
	Artem Fedorov	Petrocub (2) & Dinamo-Auto (5)
	Serhii Molochko	Bălți
	Nichita Moțpan	Bălți

Hat-tricks

Player	Home	Away	Result	Date
Artiom Puntus	Milsami	Dinamo-Auto	4–1	21 August 2021
Radu Gînsari	Sf. Gheorghe	Milsami	3–4	25 August 2021
Vladimir Ambros	Petrocub	Bălți	3–0	26 September 2021
Momo Yansané	Sheriff	Zimbru	4–0	11 December 2021
Vladimir Ambros	Petrocub	Dinamo-Auto	5–0	8 May 2022

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[16]
1	Georgios Athanasiadis	Sheriff	13
2	Emil Tîmbur	Milsami	8
3	Igor Mostovei	Petrocub	6
	Mickaël Meira	Petrocub
	Nicolai Calancea	Sf. Gheorghe
6	Victor Străistari	Bălți	4
	Maxim Bardîș	Dinamo-Auto
8	Razak Abalora	Sheriff	3
	Silviu Șmalenea	Zimbru
10	Dušan Marković	Sheriff	2
	Cristian Apostolachi	Dinamo-Auto

Notes

1. Technical win
2. Technical loss