2007–08 Liga I

The 2007–08 Liga I was the ninety season of Liga I, the top-level football league of Romania. Season began on 27 July 2007 and ended on 7 May 2008. CFR Cluj became champions, winning their first trophy and ending a 17-year-long reign of Bucharest based teams.

Liga I

Season	2007–08
Champions	CFR Cluj[1]
Relegated	Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț Dacia Mioveni UTA Arad Universitatea Cluj
Champions League	CFR Cluj Steaua București
UEFA Cup	Rapid București Dinamo București Urziceni Urziceni Politehnica Știința Timișoara
Intertoto Cup	Vaslui
Matches played	306
Goals scored	725 (2.37 per match)
Top goalscorer	Ionel Dănciulescu (21)
Biggest home win	Dinamo 6–1 Oțelul Steaua 5–0 Buzău
Biggest away win	Buzău 0–4 Oțelul
Highest scoring	Dinamo 4–4 Craiova
Longest winning run	Steaua (10)
Longest unbeaten run	CFR (18)
Longest winless run	Pandurii (17)
Longest losing run	Craiova, Pandurii (7)
← 2006–07 2008–09 →

CFR Cluj will play in the Champions League group stage, while Steaua București qualified for the Champions League third qualifying round. Rapid București, Dinamo București, Unirea Urziceni and Politehnica Știința Timișoara qualified for the UEFA Cup first round. The highest placed team that has not qualified for the UEFA Cup is allowed the opportunity to compete in the third round of the UEFA Intertoto Cup, provided they have applied to enter the Intertoto Cup in the next season. Vaslui, Oțelul Galați and Gloria Bistrița are the only teams that have applied,^[2] with Vaslui securing their participation.

Teams

Promoted from Liga II Gloria Buzău (after 20 years of absence) Universitatea Cluj (after 8 years of absence) Dacia Mioveni (debut)

Relegated from Liga I Progresul București (ended 15-year stay) Argeș Pitești (ended 13-year stay) Jiul Petroșani (ended 2-year stay)

Venues

Politehnica Timișoara	Steaua București	FC U Craiova	Gloria Buzău
Dan Păltinișanu	Steaua	Ion Oblemenco	Municipal
Capacity: 32,972	Capacity: 28,365	Capacity: 25,252	Capacity: 18,000
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	Farul Constanța	Dinamo București	Oțelul Galați
Ceahlăul	Farul	Dinamo	Oțelul
Capacity: 17,500	Capacity: 15,520	Capacity: 15,032	Capacity: 13,500
CFR Cluj	Bucharest Buzău CFR Ceahlăul Craiova Dacia Farul Gloria Oțelul Pandurii Poli Iași Poli Timișoara Universitatea Urziceni UTA Vaslui Bucharest teams Dinamo Rapid Steaua 2007–08 Liga I (Romania) Dinamo Rapid Steaua Location of Bucharest teams.		Rapid București
Dr. Constantin Rădulescu			Giulești-Valentin Stănescu
Capacity: 12,813			Capacity: 11,704[i]
Politehnica Iași			FC Vaslui
Emil Alexandrescu			Municipal
Capacity: 11,390			Capacity: 9,240
Pandurii Târgu Jiu			Gloria Bistrița[ii]
Tudor Vladimirescu			Gloria
Capacity: 9,200			Capacity: 7,800
Universitatea Cluj	UTA Arad	Dacia Mioveni	Unirea Urziceni
Ion Moina	Francisc von Neuman	Orășenesc	Tineretului
Capacity: 7,600[iii]	Capacity: 7,287	Capacity: 7,000	Capacity: 7,000

1. Capacity of Giulești-Valentin Stănescu Stadium has been reduced from 19,100 to 11,704 due to advanced degradation of the resistance structure of the South End.
2. Gloria Bistrița was relocated to Municipal Stadium from Reghin for the second part of this season because Gloria Stadium was under renovations.
3. Capacity of Ion Moina Stadium has been reduced from 28,000 to 7,600 due to advanced degradation of the resistance structure.

Personnel and kits

Team	Head coach	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Shirt Sponsor
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	Viorel Hizo	Alexandru Forminte	Lotto	Altex
CFR Cluj	Ioan Andone	Cadú	Nike	Polus Center
Dacia Mioveni	Sorin Cârțu	Mariko Daouda	Umbro	Consiliul Local Mioveni
Dinamo București	Cornel Țălnar	Bogdan Lobonț	Nike	Orange
Farul Constanța	Marin Ion	Cristian Șchiopu	Umbro	SNC
FC U Craiova	Nicolò Napoli	Dorel Stoica	Adidas	editie.ro
Gloria Bistrița	Ioan Sabău	Sandu Negrean	Puma	Darimex
Gloria Buzău	Ștefan Stoica	Alexandru Tudose	Hummel	Avicola Buzău
Oțelul Galați	Petre Grigoraș	Gabriel Paraschiv	Nike	ArcelorMittal
Pandurii Târgu Jiu	Eugen Neagoe	Florin Stângă	Uhlsport	USMO
Politehnica Iași	Ionuț Popa	Bogdan Onuț	Umbro	Iulius Mall
Politehnica Timișoara	Dušan Uhrin Jr.	Ionel Ganea	Lotto	Balkan Petroleum
Rapid București	Marian Rada	Vasile Maftei	Lotto	Holsten
Steaua București	Marius Lăcătuș	Mirel Rădoi	Nike	CitiFinancial
Unirea Urziceni	Dan Petrescu	George Galamaz	Joma	Primăria Voluntari
Universitatea Cluj	Alpár Mészáros	Dorin Goga	Diadora	Banca Transilvania, Oncos
UTA Arad	Ionuț Chirilă	Cristian Todea	Uhlsport	Intesa Sanpaolo
Vaslui	Emil Săndoi	Sorin Frunză	Umbro	Deutz-Fahr

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	CFR Cluj (C)	34	23	7	4	52	22	+30	76	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Steaua București	34	23	6	5	51	19	+32	75	Qualification to Champions League third qualifying round
3	Rapid București	34	18	7	9	52	31	+21	61[a]	Qualification to UEFA Cup first round
4	Dinamo București	34	17	10	7	55	36	+19	61[a]
5	Unirea Urziceni	34	16	13	5	42	24	+18	61[a]
6	Politehnica Timișoara	34	16	9	9	57	44	+13	57
7	Vaslui	34	12	11	11	44	34	+10	47	Qualification to Intertoto Cup third round
8	Oțelul Galați	34	14	4	16	47	50	−3	46
9	FC U Craiova	34	12	7	15	42	48	−6	43
10	Gloria Bistrița	34	11	9	14	34	40	−6	42
11	Politehnica Iași	34	11	8	15	37	41	−4	41
12	Pandurii Târgu Jiu	34	11	7	16	36	43	−7	40[b]
13	Farul Constanța	34	10	10	14	25	38	−13	40[b]
14	Gloria Buzău	34	10	7	17	30	56	−26	37
15	Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț (R)	34	10	6	18	33	46	−13	36	Relegation to Liga II
16	Dacia Mioveni (R)	34	7	10	17	26	43	−17	31
17	UTA Arad (R)	34	6	8	20	30	52	−22	26
18	Universitatea Cluj (R)	34	4	11	19	32	58	−26	23

Source: LT (in Romanian)
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

1. RAP: 7 pts; DIN: 5 pts; UNI: 3 pts
2. PAN 0-1 FAR; FAR 1-2 PAN

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	29	30	31	32	33	34
CFR Cluj	6	6	3	4	3	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	1	2	1	1
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	13	9	12	13	11	11	10	12	13	9	9	10	9	9	10	10	11	10	13	12	14	15	15	16	16	17	17	16	16	16	15	15	15	15
FC U Craiova	1	10	11	12	14	16	18	18	17	14	12	16	12	12	14	11	13	14	11	13	11	11	11	10	10	9	9	9	8	8	8	9	11	9
Dacia Mioveni	14	15	17	18	18	14	14	15	16	17	16	11	11	10	12	12	10	11	12	14	15	14	14	12	12	12	13	13	15	15	16	16	16	16
Dinamo București	3	12	5	6	6	9	6	4	6	5	4	5	4	5	6	7	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	3	4	4	5	5	5	4	4	4	4
Farul Constanța	18	18	18	15	15	15	15	14	15	16	14	14	13	15	16	17	17	15	16	16	13	13	12	13	15	15	15	14	13	13	12	10	12	13
Gloria Bistrița	7	13	7	11	9	8	8	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	9	13	11	13	10
Gloria Buzău	15	17	15	16	16	17	16	16	14	15	17	17	16	13	11	13	12	13	10	11	12	12	13	14	13	14	14	15	14	14	14	14	14	14
Oțelul Galați	16	16	13	14	12	12	11	11	9	10	10	9	10	11	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	9	8	8	8
Pandurii Târgu Jiu	11	8	10	8	8	5	9	9	10	11	11	12	14	14	15	15	15	16	17	17	18	18	17	15	14	13	11	11	11	12	10	12	10	12
Politehnica Iași	17	11	14	9	10	10	13	13	11	12	13	13	15	17	13	14	14	12	14	10	10	10	10	11	11	11	12	12	12	11	11	13	9	11
Rapid București	4	5	4	1	2	2	2	5	3	3	2	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Steaua București	5	1	1	2	4	7	7	8	7	7	6	7	7	7	5	5	5	4	4	5	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	2	1	2	2
Politehnica Știința Timișoara	2	2	2	7	7	6	5	6	4	4	3	4	6	3	4	4	3	6	5	4	5	4	4	4	6	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6
Universitatea Cluj	12	14	16	17	17	18	17	17	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	18	17	17	18	18	18	18	18	17	18	17	18	18	18	18
UTA Arad	8	7	9	10	13	13	12	10	12	13	15	15	17	16	17	16	16	17	15	15	16	16	16	17	17	16	16	18	17	18	17	17	17	17
Unirea Urziceni	9	4	8	5	5	4	4	3	2	2	5	2	3	4	3	3	4	3	3	3	4	5	5	5	5	5	6	4	4	4	5	5	5	5
Vaslui	10	3	6	3	1	1	3	2	5	6	7	6	5	6	7	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7

Source: LT (in Romanian)

Results

Home \ Away	CFR	CEA	UCR	MIO	DIN	FAR	GBI	GBU	OȚE	PAN	PIA	RAP	STE	TIM	UCL	UTA	URZ	VAS
CFR Cluj	—	2–1	4–1	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–0	2–0	3–1	1–2	2–1	1–0	0–0	2–2	2–0	2–0	2–0	1–0
Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț	0–0	—	1–0	1–1	0–3	0–1	2–0	4–0	0–1	2–1	1–0	0–1	0–1	2–1	3–0	1–1	0–0	1–1
FC U Craiova	1–3	3–2	—	1–0	1–1	4–0	1–1	3–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–1	1–2	2–1	1–1	0–1	0–1	2–1
Dacia Mioveni	0–0	2–1	1–2	—	1–2	2–3	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–2	1–2	2–2	1–0	0–1	0–3	2–2
Dinamo București	1–2	2–1	4–4	1–1	—	0–0	0–1	2–0	6–1	1–2	2–1	0–2	2–1	1–1	2–1	3–1	1–1	0–2
Farul Constanța	0–2	2–0	3–1	1–1	0–1	—	1–0	0–0	0–2	1–2	1–1	0–0	0–1	1–1	0–0	1–0	0–1	2–1
Gloria Bistrița	2–2	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	—	3–2	2–1	3–1	2–0	1–2	1–3	0–0	2–0	2–1	2–2	0–0
Gloria Buzău	1–2	4–1	1–0	0–1	1–2	1–0	1–0	—	0–4	1–3	1–1	1–0	1–1	2–1	3–2	1–0	0–0	1–1
Oțelul Galați	0–1	4–1	2–1	3–1	0–1	2–0	2–0	2–3	—	3–1	0–0	0–1	0–1	3–1	2–1	2–1	3–2	0–3
Pandurii Târgu Jiu	0–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	0–1	0–1	1–3	3–0	1–0	—	1–0	1–3	0–1	1–3	2–2	2–1	1–1	1–1
Politehnica Iași	1–0	1–0	2–1	1–0	2–5	1–1	2–0	3–0	2–2	1–0	—	0–2	2–1	2–1	3–0	4–1	2–3	0–1
Rapid București	1–2	5–1	2–0	3–0	1–2	2–0	2–2	0–0	4–2	1–0	3–0	—	0–3	0–1	1–2	2–3	1–1	2–1
Steaua București	3–1	2–1	1–0	2–0	1–0	3–0	1–0	5–0	3–1	0–0	1–0	0–0	—	1–1	4–0	2–1	1–0	1–0
Politehnica Știința Timișoara	1–0	3–2	1–3	1–2	1–1	4–1	3–1	1–0	4–1	3–1	3–1	1–1	2–0	—	3–0	2–0	0–0	2–1
Universitatea Cluj	0–1	1–1	2–0	0–0	1–2	1–2	2–2	1–2	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–2	2–1	1–2	—	2–2	0–2	2–3
UTA Arad	0–3	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–3	0–1	0–1	2–1	0–1	3–3	0–0	1–0	1–1	2–3	1–1	—	1–2	1–1
Unirea Urziceni	1–1	2–0	2–2	0–2	0–0	0–0	2–0	2–0	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–1	1–0	4–1	3–2	1–0	—	2–0
Vaslui	0–2	0–1	2–0	3–0	2–1	1–1	2–0	4–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	2–4	0–1	3–0	0–0	2–2	1–1	—

Source: LT (in Romanian)
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Rank[3][4]	Player	Club	Goals
1	Ionel Dănciulescu	Dinamo București	21
2	Emil Jula	Oțelul Galați	17
3	Gigel Bucur	Politehnica Timișoara	16
	Marko Ljubinković	Vaslui
5	Florin Costea	FC U Craiova	15
6	Florin Bratu	Dinamo București	14
7	Eugen Trică	CFR Cluj	13
8	Cristian Coroian	Gloria Bistrița	11
	Cristian Fabbiani	CFR Cluj
10	Ionuț Mazilu	Rapid București	9
	Nicolae Dică	Steaua București
	Cristian Dănălache	Unirea Urziceni

Champion squad

CFR Cluj[5]

Goalkeepers: Nuno Claro (15 / 0); Lars Hirschfeld (5 / 0); Eduard Stăncioiu (15 / 0). Defenders: Eurípedes Amoreirinha (2 / 0); Ricardo Cadú (29 / 4); Mikael Dorsin (8 / 1); Fredy (1 / 0); Gabriel Mureșan (22 / 0); Cristian Panin (28 / 1); Niklas Sandberg (10 / 1); André Galiassi (28 / 0); Tony (32 / 1). Midfielders: Emmanuel Culio (32 / 1); Dani (29 / 1); Ciprian Deac (10 / 0); Sebastián Dubarbier (15 / 3); Manuel José Vieira (20 / 0); André Leão (15 / 0); Alin Minteuan (18 / 0); Pedro Oliveira (1 / 0); Sixto Peralta (8 / 0); Eugen Trică (30 / 13). Forwards: Adrian Anca (5 / 0); Nicolás Canales (1 / 0); Didi (18 / 7); Cristian Fabbiani (28 / 11); Ibezito Ogbonna (2 / 0); Diego Ruíz (13 / 2); António Semedo (33 / 6). (league appearances and goals listed in brackets) Manager: Ioan Andone.

Notes

⁽¹⁾ Delta Tulcea won the first serie of Liga II, but did not apply for the license necessary for playing in Liga I in the 2007–08 season. The highest ranked relegated team in the previous season, namely Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț (15th place in 2006–07 season), will continue in Liga I.^[6][7]
(2) Timișoara change of name following name conflict with FC Politehnica Timișoara.^[8]