FC Zimbru Chişinău

Zimbru Chişinău

Full name	Fotbal Club Zimbru Chişinău
Founded	1947
Ground	Zimbru (Capacity: 10,500)
Chairman	Igor Oprea
Manager	Serghei Stroenco
League	Divizia Naţională
2010–11	4th
Home colours Away colours
Current season

FC Zimbru Chişinău is a Moldovan football club based in Chişinău, Moldova. They play in the Divizia Naţională, the top division in Moldovan football.

History

Zimbru Chişinău was formed after World War II in the Moldovan Soviet Republic (present day Republic of Moldova). 'Zimbru' is a Romanian word for a form of European bison, but the club also previously functioned under names such as Dynamo, Burevestnik, Moldova, Avântul, and Nistru. The Soviet Era was spent mostly in Class B of the regional league until eventual promotion to Class A. The club then flitted between Class A and Class B as well as spending time in the Soviet Top League and First League. Zimbru had their biggest success in 1963 when they reached the quarter-finals of the Soviet Cup.

The fortunes of FC Zimbru changed after the fall of the USSR and the establishment of the Republic of Moldova. The club has won the Divizia Naţională eight times in total with five consecutive victories from 1992-1996. They also won the Moldovan Cup five times. FC Zimbru have participated in the UEFA Cup (losing to Sparta Prague) and the Champions League (losing to PSV Eindhoven in 1999 and Sparta Prague in 2000). FC Zimbru's biggest rivalry is with FC Sheriff of Tiraspol. Unfortunately for FC Zimbru, FC Sheriff have taken the trophy back to Tiraspol each year since 2001. Regardless, FC Zimbru Chişinău is a club with pride in its history, as manifested by a Museum and a Hotel in their honour.

European record

UEFA Champions League

Season	Round	Opponents	Home leg	Away leg	Aggregate
1993–94	Preliminary	Beitar Jerusalem	1–1	0–2	1–3
1998–99	1	Újpest FC	1–0	1–3	2–3
1999–00	1	St Patrick's Athletic	5–0	5–0	10–0
	2	Dinamo Tbilisi	2–0	1–2	3–2
	3	PSV Eindhoven	0–0	0–2	0–2
2000–01	1	KF Tirana	3–2	3–2	6–4
	2	Maribor	2–0	0–1	2–1
	3	Sparta Prague	0–1	0–1	0–2

UEFA Cup

Season	Round	Opponents	Home leg	Away leg	Aggregate
1994–95	Preliminary	Budapest Honvéd FC	0–1	1–4	1–5
1995–96	Preliminary	Hapoel Tel Aviv FC	2–0	0–0	2–0
	1	RAF Jelgava	2–0	0–0	2–0
	2	Sparta Prague	0–2	3–4	3–6
1996–97	Preliminary	Hajduk Split	0–4	1–2	1–6
1999–00	1	Tottenham Hotspur FC	0–0	0–3	0–3
2000–01	1	Hertha BSC Berlin	1–2	0–2	1–4
2001–02	Preliminary	Gaziantepspor	0–0	1–4	1–4
2002–03	Preliminary	IFK Goteborg	3–1	2–2	5–3
	1	Real Betis	0–2	1–2	1–4
2003–04	Preliminary	Litex Lovech	2–0	0–0	2–0
	1	Aris	1–1	1–2	2–3
2006–07	1	Karabakh	1–1	2–1 (a.e.t.)	3–2
	2	Metalurh Zaporizhya	0–0	0–3	0–3
2007–08	1	Artmedia Bratislava	2–2	1–1	3–3 (a)

UEFA Europa League

Season	Round	Opponents	Home leg	Away leg	Aggregate
2009–10	1	Okzhetpes	1–2	2–0	3–2
	2	Paços de Ferreira	0–0	0–1	0–1

Current squad

As of 20th of February

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

No. Position Player 1 GK Mihail Paiuş 2 DF Serghei Cuzneţov 3 DF Maxim Boghiu 4 DF Alexandru Cheltuială 5 MF Eugen Slivca 6 MF Khaled Melliti 7 MF Ion Demerji 8 MF Oleg Şişchin (captain) 9 FW Oleg Andronic 10 MF Anton Kovalevskyi 11 MF Daniel Indoitu 12 GK Anatol Chirinciuc 15 DF Bogdan Hauși 16 MF Eugen Gorceac 17 DF Aleš Šuster 18 MF Daniel Bălaşa

No. Position Player 20 FW Eugen Sidorenco 21 MF Vitalie Plămădeală 22 GK Nicolae Calancea 30 MF Radu Catan GK Stanislav Samson GK Ghenadie Moşneaga DF Iulian Erhan DF Vladimir Zastavnâi MF Sergiu Namaşco MF Akhmet Barakhoyev MF Eric Sackey MF Andriy Derkach FW Oleg Molla FW Levan Korgalidze MF Sergiu Dafina MF Sandro Shugladze

Reserves

For the reserve squad, see FC Zimbru-2 Chişinău.

Achievements

• Divizia Naţională (8): 1992, 1992–93, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98, 1998–99, 1999–00
• Moldovan Cup (5): 1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2007

External links

• Official website (Romanian) (Russian) (English)
• Profile at DiviziaNationala.com (Romanian)