Superbet International Cup round-up: Fiorentina came home with bragging rights, Romanian legend Adrian Mutu got honored
FC Rapid București, ACF Fiorentina, and Borussia Dortmund arrived in Bucharest, Romania, over the weekend for a unique winter friendly competition. Sponsored by Superbet, the three footballing giants in their respective leagues played each other in a 30x30 match at Arena Națională in Bucharest, on December 10, to which I Viola came out victorious with 2 solid wins.
During the winter footballing festivity, fans could also pick up some games available in the VIP booth, including 3 PS5s with FIFA 23 and interactive shooting games in between. Children who enroll at football academies accredited by the Romanian Football Federation were exempted from entrance fees.
The day started at 13:00 with a game between Borussia Dortmund and Rapid București. Edin Terzić fielded mostly academy players, but some of the squad’s experienced starlets like Emre Can, Gio Reyna, and Youssoufa Moukoko were present in the starting line-up. Ole Pohlmann opened the score for the German club with a nice footwork in the 12th minute before Rapid’s number-10 Alexandru Ioniță made it even with a powerful diving header. The game ended with Borussia’s victory after Gio Reyna scored a wondergoal 10 minutes before the game finished.
Can and co. marched onto the next game against Fiorentina with a completely new line-up, bringing on first-teamers Nico Schlotterbeck, Nico Schulz, Karim Adeyemi, and Julian Brandt. 2-0 was the score-line for the Italian outfit thanks to Rolando Mandragora’s screamer from 25 yards and Giacomo Bonaventura’s execution of a clean counterattack, both in the second half.
Adrian Mutu, Romania’s former top football player and Rapid’s manager, received a personalized jersey under his name from Fiorentina before the last match between FC Rapid București and I Viola. The nomadic striker played for the club between 2006 and 2011, bagging 143 appearances in all competitions and scoring 69 goals.
The match itself ended with a 3-goal lead for Fiorentina where Christian Kouamé scored in the first half Marco Benassi put his name on the scoresheet with a perfect brace in the second half.
(Photo: FC Rapid Bucuresti/Facebook)
