2022–23 Moldovan Super Liga

The 2022–23 Moldovan Super Liga was the 32nd season of top-tier football in Moldova. The season started on 30 July 2022 and ended on 20 May 2023. The winners of the league this season earned a spot in the first qualifying round of the 2023–24 UEFA Champions League, the second placed club earned a place in the second qualifying round and the third and fourth placed clubs earned a place in the first qualifying round of the 2023–24 UEFA Europa Conference League.

Super Liga

Season	2022–23
Dates	30 July 2022 – 20 May 2023
Champions	Sheriff 21st title
Relegated	Dinamo-Auto
Champions League	Sheriff
Conference League	Petrocub Zimbru Milsami
Matches played	86
Goals scored	183 (2.13 per match)
Top goalscorer	Rasheed Akanbi Alexandru Dedov (8 goals each)
Best goalkeeper	Nikos Giannakopoulos (10 clean sheets)
← 2021–22 2023–24 →

Teams

A total of 8 teams competed in the league. The top 7 teams from the 2021–22 season and one promoted team from the Divizia A: Dacia Buiucani, returning to the top tier after one year absence.

Stadiums and locations

Bălți	Dacia Buiucani [n 1]	Dinamo-Auto	Milsami
Bălți Stadium	Suruceni Stadium [n 2]	Dinamo-Auto Stadium	District Complex [n 3] UEFA
Capacity: 5,200	Capacity: 350	Capacity: 1,300	Capacity: 3,000
Petrocub	Bălți Dacia Dinamo-Auto Milsami Petrocub Sf.Gheorghe Sheriff Zimbru		Sfîntul Gheorghe [n 4]
Hîncești Stadium			Zimbru-2 Stadium [n 5]
Capacity: 1,100			Capacity: 2,000
Sheriff			Zimbru
Sheriff small Arena UEFA			Zimbru Stadium [n 6] UEFA
Capacity: 9,181			Capacity: 10,104

Personnel and kits

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players and managers may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Head coach	Captain	Kit maker	Shirt sponsor
Sheriff	Roberto Bordin [note 1]	Stjepan Radeljić [note 2]	Adidas	none
Petrocub	Ivan Tabanov	Vladimir Ambros [note 3]	Puma	none
Zimbru	Lilian Popescu [note 4]	Ștefan Burghiu [note 5]	Macron	Chateau Vartely, A.M.G, apă pură
Sfîntul Gheorghe	Nicolai Mandrîcenco [note 7]	Nicolai Calancea [note 8]	Macron	Yolo, Minatait-Studio, 57
Milsami	Serghei Dubrovin [note 10]	Vadim Bolohan [note 11]	Macron	DFM Duty Free
Bălți	Veaceslav Rusnac [note 12]	Andrei Rusnac [note 13]	Joma	Primăria Municipiului Bălți, Floris
Dacia Buiucani	Andrei Martin	Eugen Zasavițchi [note 14]	Joma	Primăria Chișinău, Art Sport, OM, BP
Dinamo-Auto	Novruz Azimov [note 16]	Nathanael Mbourou [note 17]	Pody	none

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Petrocub	Lilian Popescu	Resigned	16 May 2022[1]	Pre-season	Alexei Savinov	1 June 2022[2]
Sheriff	Yuriy Vernydub	Resigned	8 June 2022[3]		Stjepan Tomas	21 June 2022[4]
Zimbru	Michele Bon	Released	17 June 2022[5]		Vlad Goian	26 June 2022[6]
Petrocub	Alexei Savinov	No UEFA Pro Licence	1 July 2022		Ivan Tabanov	1 July 2022[7]
Dinamo-Auto	Oleg Bejenar	Released	1 July 2022		Anatol Teslev (caretaker)	6 August 2022[8]
Zimbru	Vlad Goian	Resigned	30 August 2022[9]	7th	Lilian Popescu	31 August 2022[10]
Dinamo-Auto	Anatol Teslev	End of caretaker period	9 September 2022	8th	Novruz Azimov	9 September 2022[11]
Bălți	Serghei Cebotari	Resigned	10 October 2022	6th	Veaceslav Rusnac	11 October 2022
Sheriff	Stjepan Tomas	Resigned	25 October 2022[12]	1st	Victor Mihailov (caretaker)	25 October 2022
	Victor Mihailov	End of caretaker period	9 January 2023	1st	Roberto Bordin	9 January 2023[13]

Phase I

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sheriff Tiraspol	14	10	3	1	24	6	+18	33	Qualification to Phase II
2	Petrocub Hîncești	14	8	3	3	20	11	+9	27
3	Zimbru Chișinău	14	4	7	3	17	17	0	19[a]
4	Sfîntul Gheorghe	14	6	1	7	18	22	−4	19[a]
5	Milsami Orhei	14	4	5	5	12	14	−2	17[b]
6	Bălți	14	5	2	7	13	13	0	17[b]
7	Dacia Buiucani	14	4	4	6	14	14	0	16	Relegation to Liga 1 Phase II
8	Dinamo-Auto	14	1	3	10	5	26	−21	0[c]

Source: FMF, UEFA, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head away goals scored; 5) Head-to-head goals scored; 6) Matches won; 7) Goal difference; 8) Goals scored; 9) Least red cards; 10) Least yellow cards.^[15]
Notes:

1. Head-to-head points: Zimbru : 4p, Sfîntul Gheorghe : 1p.
2. Head-to-head points: Milsami : 4p, Bălți : 1p.
3. Dinamo-Auto had 6 points deducted for match-fixing allegations.^[14]

Results

Matches 1−14

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

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

Phase II

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sheriff Tiraspol (C)	10	7	3	0	15	3	+12	24	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Petrocub Hîncești	10	6	3	1	16	6	+10	21	Qualification for the Europa Conference League second qualifying round
3	Zimbru Chișinău	10	3	3	4	10	9	+1	12	Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round
4	Milsami Orhei	10	3	2	5	10	16	−6	11
5	Sfîntul Gheorghe	10	1	4	5	4	13	−9	7	Dissolved after the season[a]
6	Bălți	10	0	5	5	5	13	−8	5

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.^[15]
(C) Champions
Notes:

1. Sfîntul Gheorghe withdrew before the start of the next season.^[16]

Results

Matches 1−10

Home \ Away	SHE	PET	ZIM	SFÎ	MIL	BĂL
Sheriff Tiraspol	—	1–0	0–0	1–0	2–1	1–0
Petrocub Hîncești	1–1	—	3–2	3–0	2–1	0–0
Zimbru Chișinău	0–2	1–2	—	0–0	0–1	1–0
Sfîntul Gheorghe	0–2	0–0	0–2	—	1–1	1–1
Milsami Orhei	0–4 [a]	0–2	0–3	3–0	—	1–0
Bălți	1–1 [a]	0–3 [b]	1–1	0–2	2–2	—

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

Season statistics

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[17]
1	Rasheed Akanbi	Sheriff	8
	Alexandru Dedov	Zimbru
3	Marius Iosipoi	Petrocub	7
4	Radu Gînsari	Milsami	6
5	Jibril Ibrahim	Sf. Gheorghe	5
	Vladimir Ambros	Petrocub
	Victor Bogaciuc	Petrocub
8	Steve Ambri	Sheriff	4
	Emmanuel Alaribe	Zimbru
	Eugen Sidorenco	Zimbru
	Mouhamed Diop	Sheriff

Hat-tricks

Player	Home	Away	Result	Date
Alexandru Dedov	Zimbru	Sf. Gheorghe	3–3	11 September 2022

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[18]
1	Nikos Giannakopoulos	Zimbru	10
2	Razak Abalora	Sheriff	7
	Cristian Avram	Petrocub
4	Sebastian Agachi	Zimbru (0) & Dacia (6)	6
	Victor Străistari	Sf. Gheorghe (3) & Bălți (3)
6	Dumitru Celeadnic	Sheriff	5
	Nicolai Calancea	Sf. Gheorghe
8	Emil Tîmbur	Milsami	4
9	Maksym Koval	Sheriff	3
	Igor Mostovei	Petrocub
	Victor Buga	Milsami
	Dallian Allogho	Dinamo-Auto
	Stanislav Namașco	Bălți

Notes

1. Dacia Buiucani are playing their home matches in Suruceni, instead of their stadium, the Joma Arena in Chișinău, which did not meet requirements.
2. Joma Arena used as home ground in round 14 (Phase I).
3. CPSM Stadium used as home ground in round 2 (Phase II).
4. Sfîntul Gheorghe are playing their home matches in Chișinău, instead of their stadium, the Suruceni Stadium in Suruceni.
5. CPTF Stadium used as home ground in round 2 (Phase II).
6. Zimbru-2 Stadium used as home ground in round 7 (Phase I) and in round 7 (Phase II).
   CPTF Stadium used as home ground in round 1 (Phase II).

1. Stjepan Tomas (matches 1–12), Victor Mihailov (matches 13–14), Roberto Bordin (matches 15–24).
2. Stjepan Radeljić started the match as captain nine times, Amine Talal eight times, Dumitru Celeadnic four times, Maksym Koval twice, and Stefanos Evangelou once.
3. Vladimir Ambros started the match as captain seventeen times, and Ion Jardan seven times.
4. Vlad Goian (matches 1–5), Lilian Popescu (matches 6–24).
5. Ștefan Burghiu started the match as captain nineteen times , Alexandru Dedov four times, and Nikos Giannakopoulos once.
6. Nicolai Mandrîcenco was absent and the assistant coach led the team.
7. Nicolai Mandrîcenco (matches 1–21), Stanislav Luca (match 22) ^{[note 6]}, Nicolai Mandrîcenco (matches 23–24).
8. Nicolai Calancea started the match as captain nine times, Alexandru Suvorov seven times, Mihail Ștefan four times, Serghei Svinarenco three times, and Cedric Ngah once.
9. Serghei Dubrovin was absent and the assistant coach led the team.
10. Serghei Dubrovin (matches 1–14), Ghenadie Pușca (matches 15–16) ^{[note 9]}, Serghei Dubrovin (matches 17–24).
11. Vadim Bolohan started the match as captain twelve times, Alexandru Antoniuc six times, Petru Racu three times, and Radu Gînsari three times.
12. Serghei Cebotari (matches 1–10), Veaceslav Rusnac (matches 11–24).
13. Andrei Rusnac started the match as captain twenty-one times, Álvaro Bely twice, and Ivan Voropai once.
14. Eugen Zasavițchi started the match as captain ten times, Vadim Cravcescu three times, and Maxim Focșa once.
15. The goalkeeping coach led the team.
16. Samet Aker (match 1) ^{[note 15]}, Anatol Teslev (matches 2–7), Novruz Azimov (matches 8–14).
17. Nathanael Mbourou started the match as captain seven times, Habib Fofana five times, Dallian Allogho once, and Federico Nsue once.

1. Sheriff hosted
2. Petrocub hosted