steaua pull the rug from under rio ave published: thursday 6 november 2014, 23.03cet rio ave fc 2-2 fc steaua bucureşti diego lopes struck twice, but lucian filip ruined rio ave's night, with his late leveller leaving the group j consigned to elimination.
• steaua strike back twice to deny rio ave first group j victory • diego lopes scores twice either side of claudiu keșerü's overhead kick • lucian filip finishes to make it 2-2 after prince's late dismissal • rio ave can no longer finish higher than third in the section • next games: dynamo kyiv v rio ave, aab v steaua (27 november)
rio ave fc's chances of reaching the uefa europa league round of 32 were extinguished after lucian filip's last-gasp finish denied them a group j victory against fc steaua bucureşti.
diego lopes's 77th-minute penalty had given rio ave hope, but, with wind and rain portending a dramatic finale, prince's dismissal was followed by a late equaliser. fc dynamo kyiv's 2-0 victory against aalborg bk in the section's other game means that rio ave can no longer finish in the top two places in the section.
diego lopes had put his side in front on 35 minutes, ukra bending a tempting free-kick in from the right which the brazilian midfielder nodded across giedrius arlauskis and into the bottom corner. steaua, however, were not beaten, and filip showed noteworthy persistence to chase a ball down to the touch line, hooking back into the area on 61 minutes for claudiu keșerü to level with a powerful bicycle kick.
rio ave might have feared the worst after ukra had failed to trouble arlauskis when a long ball left him with just the goalkeeper to beat, but salvation seemed to arrive when paul papp conceded a penalty for impeding ahmed hassan in the box. diego lopes stepped up to send arlauskis the wrong way from the spot.
however, prince was then sent off in added time after confronting the referee, and – moments later – Łukasz szukała's hopeful delivery pinballed its way across the box to filip, who smashed into the net, despite a touch from ederson.
