Last week RB Leipzig placed themselves in a great position to reach the Europa League play-off where either Zorya Luhansk or Braga await. This week they make a 1,400 kilometre trip to east Romania as they hope to book their ticket into the next round.
To those who missed the game, the first leg scoreline may seem a good representation of how the game panned out, and it somewhat is, however, the deficit should have been greater as Leipzig could have scored four, five, maybe even six goals, but Craiova’s Pigliacelli had another idea, making a collection of excellent saves to keep his side in the game. Despite being on the wrong end of a dominant performance, Craiova were able to take advantage of a lapse in concentration to secure an away goal in the 93rd minute to make the second leg somewhat interesting.
Returning from their seventh defeat in eleven matches against German opposition, Craiova were able to put an end to what had been extended to a five-match winless streak at the weekend with a 3-1 win away to Dunărea Călărași to lift them into 8th in the table.
Dayot Upamecano and Konrad Laimer returned to training this week but will be rested for this weekend’s DFB-Cup encounter with Viktoria Cologne. Péter Gulácsi will also be rested and Timo Werner will miss the game due to injury.
In addition, there will be no broadcast for this game.
Match Information
Date: Thursday, August 16, 2018
Kick-off: 18:30 (CEST)
Venue: Stadionul Ion Oblemeco (capacity: 30,983)
Referee: Miroslav Zelinka (Czech Republic)
Broadcasting: N/A
Previous Meetings
03.08.18: RB Leipzig 3-1 Universitatea Craiova
Current Form
Universitatea Craiova
Politehnica Iași 0-0 (H) | Sepsi 1-0 (A) | Botoșani 2-2 (H) | RB Leipzig 3-1 (A) | Dunărea Călărași 1-3 (A)
RB Leipzig
Meuselwitz 2-2 (A) | Häcken 4-0 (H) | Häcken 1-1 (A) | Huddersfield Town 0-3 (H) | Universitatea Craiova 3-1 (H)
Team News
Universitatea Craiova
Injured: Fausto Rossi (unknown) | César Meza Colli (muscle) | Radoslav Dimitrov (unknown)
RB Leipzig
Injured: Timo Werner (thigh)
Absent: Marcel Halstenberg (rested) | Dayot Upamecano (rested) | Konrad Laimer (rested) | Péter Gulácsi (rested)
Predicted Line-ups
Universitatea Craiova
Pigliacelli
Donkor – Kelić – Briceag
Martić – Mateiu – Fedele – Bancu
Burlacu – Cicâldău – Mitriță
RB Leipzig
Mvogo
Mukiele – Konaté – Orban – Saracchi
Kampl – Demme
Sabitzer – Forsberg
Augustin – Cunha
Score Prediction
Universitatea Craiova 0-2 RB Leipzig
