“We can win this group”, was Arpad Paszkany’s first statement after CFR Cluj was drawn in the same group with Manchester United, Braga and Galatasaray.
Nobody can suspect the owner of CFR Cluj of exuberance, even after his team get into the Champions League group stage after 4 victories: two against the Czech champions, Slovan Liberec, and then another double against Basel.
It is the third time CFR Cluj won the crusade to reach the elite of continental football.
In their previous adventures, the Romanian Champions managed surprising results against Roma, victory at the Olimpico, and a 0-0 at home against Chelsea in the 2008/09 group stage. That was their first campaign.
Expectations were high two years later after CFR beat Basel in the first match, but Bayern and again Roma were warned about the opposition. Now they face the colossus United, the clear favourites to win the group, whereas Braga and Galatasaray are not teams to be feared.
CFR Cluj is the most successful project in Romanian football, even though the club is not the most loved in the Transylvanian city. Built on a massive infusion of capital, the little team from Cluj promoted rapidly from the inferior leagues and in 5 years won the title.
The secret is simple and is similar to Manchester City’s strategy; instead of investing in the future, they simply bought whole teams from Portugal, Argentina, Brazil or African countries. They did it very shrewdly, but they didn’t always found the right man to assemble a team from various experienced players.
Ironically, the coach who got them in Champions League never got the chance to lead them in the competition. As a moral reparation, the actual manager, Ioan Andone, brought in the spring to boost a complacent team under Jorge Costa, was the first in a long line of sacked managers immediately after they won trophies.
Now he has to resist a few more days, but he is in great danger after the first 7 rounds in the league. Andone is not a great tactical coach, but rather a Harry Redknapp type, trying to get the best of the individual potential of his top players.
These are the Greek striker, Pantelis Kapetanos, with a lethal header, the Senegalese winger Moudou Sougou, speedy when he has space, the midfielder Gabi Muresan, who dictates the play, and the captain Cadu, a Portuguese central back, who is the only survivor of the first wave of supermarket buys.
Immediately after the qualifying for group stage, Paszkany bought four more players in an already lavish roster. One of these is Croatian striker Sasa Bjielanovic, a veteran of Serie A, the others South Americans with some sort of European pedigree, one from Braga.(the goalkeeper of Braga, Beto, played last season at CFR, and Braga’s coach, Peseiro, was at Rapid Bucharest a few years ago!).
The intentions are clear: CFR must reach spring in Europe. Can they do it? Only time will tell.
By Leo Macavei @simontwee
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