Botoșani put five past Sepsi OSC Sfântu-Gheorghe at Stadionul Municipal on Saturday, ending a run of two defeats in their last three matches with a statement performance in the Liga I regular season. The hosts moved off the bottom of their section with maximum points, while the visitors remain rooted in 12th place despite sharing identical records with their opponents.
And here's the thing — the opening exchanges told you everything about how this would unfold. Sebastian Mailat struck from the spot at the ninth minute before adding a second just sixty seconds later, and by then Sepsi looked shell-shocked. Andrei Dumiter made it three at twenty-four minutes, and Zoran Mitrov sealed the rout with a fourth at thirty-six before half-time.
The second half offered little respite for the visitors. A VAR-awarded penalty for Mamadou Diarra at forty-five-plus-one minutes was denied, and Dumiter could not convert his spot-kick at forty-five-plus-three minutes — a cruel twist after their first-half dominance. Jovan Marković finally found the net from the penalty spot at seventy-seven minutes, cancelling out a goal that had been ruled out for him at seventy-two minutes.
Statistics tell the story without embellishment. Botoșani enjoyed fifty-four per cent possession and created seven big chances compared to none for Sepsi. Their twelve shots produced six on target, while the visitors managed just one shot on target from seven attempts — a ten per cent accuracy rate that reflected their inability to penetrate.
Both sides sat on ten points after eight matches, but the gap in confidence was already widening. Botoșani had dropped four points from their last two games against Corvinul and Farul, while Sepsi's heavy defeat at CFR Cluj on Thursday had exposed vulnerabilities that this performance magnified.
