The Universitatea Cluj Courier
Squad28 Dec 2026
6 saves: Ştefan Lefter was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Age has not caught Dan Nistor yet — 8.17
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.17 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Jug Stanojev falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Universitatea Cluj
Dan Nistor and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match26 Dec 2026
Dan Nistor sends Universitatea Cluj past FCSB
It finished 2‑1, and it was Dan Nistor’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Universitatea Cluj.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Razvan Ratiu kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
No hiding place for Jonathan Cissé
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jonathan Cissé, and the manager let it.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
Jovo Lukić knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jovo Lukić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Looking ahead28 Dec 2026
Andrei Artean goes back to face Farul Constanța
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Andrei Artean’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Universitatea Cluj needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
- The dugout Matei Moraru gets picked when it counts
- Player ratings Issouf Macalou beats them one at a time
- Market Issouf Macalou linked with a move away