Bau and Cetatia Satu Mare played out a 2:2 draw in the Romanian Liga II on Saturday, a result that keeps the hosts third while the visitors remain tenth after eight matchdays. The match unfolded at the regular season stage with both sides taking turns to lead, ending with the kind of late drama that makes you remember where you were standing.
A. Pavel opened the scoring in the thirty-second minute, and things came to a head when T. Lacerda turned the game on its head with an own goal just after the half-hour mark. By then Bau had settled into their rhythm, but Cetatia refused to lie down. A yellow card on the twenty-second minute hinted at the tension building before the first goal arrived.
The second half brought substitutions that changed the texture of the game. P. Petre and R. Moise came on together in the fifty-sixth minute, followed by P. Mitrica in the sixty-fourth. L. Fulop scored in the eighty-fourth minute to level matters, and just minutes later C. Oasenegre struck in stoppage time to snatch a point for the visitors. It was a fourth straight game without defeat for Cetatia, though this one felt different.
Four yellow cards came in quick succession — seventy-seventh, eightieth, and eighty-fifth minutes — showing the match grew edgier as the clock ran down. The visitors pulled a substitution at eighty-nine minutes, bringing on T. Lacerda, who had earlier made a mistake that nearly cost his side the lead. You could see the relief on his face when the referee blew for full-time.
Bau remain on eight points from their last five matches, with only one defeat in that run. Cetatia sit three points behind their hosts, still searching for consistency after a 4:0 victory over CSM Ramnicu Valcea earlier this month. Neither side can afford another slip if they want to push for promotion from this division.
The result means the hosts keep their distance from the relegation zone, while the visitors close slightly on the teams above them. Eight points now separate third from tenth, and in a league like this, gaps can shift in a single weekend. By then, everyone involved will be thinking about the next fixture.