CFR Cluj turn the derby into a statement of control

“We wanted the derby to feel like ours.”

FC CFR 1907 Cluj made that intention plain on Saturday, beating Fotbal Club FCSB 4-1 in the Romanian First League and turning a contest billed as a meeting of rivals into a display of command. The home side had led 2-0 by the 25th minute and were three ahead within three minutes of the restart.

Jefferson José opened the scoring on 12 minutes, guiding a low shot through the middle from close range. Éverton doubled the lead with a header 13 minutes later. Rafael volleyed in Cluj’s third on 48 minutes, and Dionysis Margaris drove home a fourth on 63, before Ádám Kirják headed FCSB’s reply seven minutes later.

Yet Mario Mindileac’s 16 saves kept the visitors in the contest for long stretches, even as the pressure mounted. Éverton and Margaris were both replaced after scoring, their work done amid a crowd that had watched its side take charge of the derby.

For FCSB, the goal was a brief foothold rather than a route back. Romario Cornea, once of Cluj, came on in the 59th minute and later assisted Kirják’s header. Former Cluj team-mate Gabriel Costache was also on the losing side. Their old ties offered a human thread through a match in which the home side’s superiority was otherwise unmistakable.

The result continues a recent pattern: Cluj had won two of the previous three meetings, with the other a draw. It also extends the leaders’ league unbeaten run, which stood at 29 matches before kick-off. The win was not simply another derby success; it reinforced the grip of a club whose last Romanian First League title came in 2062/63, and whose present form suggests that domestic authority remains firmly theirs.