Vaslui ready for Baku baptism

Final entrants
The team from the east of Romania earned their first shot at European football after finishing seventh in Divizia A last year, and are one of eight teams entering the final edition of the traditional summer competition in the third round. The winners of the eleven ties progress to the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup. Club chairman Adrian Porumboiu has invested in making his side fit for Europe this summer, hiring experienced coach Viorel Hizo and nine new players at an estimated cost of €2.5m, with more to be spent on win bonuses. "I always pay big bonuses, among the highest in our league, so players do not feel inferior in financial terms," said Porumboiu.

New signings
Under-21 international defender Ştefan Mardare has left Vaslui for FC Rapid Bucureşti, but Hizo has been busy recruiting. Romanians Gabriel Canu, Marian Aliuţă, Danut Munteanu and Lucian Burdujan have all arrived, as well as Slovakian Dušan Kuciak, Frenchman Julien François, Stanislav Genchev from Bulgaria, Montenegrin Nemanja Jovanović and Peru's Ryan Salazar. All those new arrivals have created a minor headache for the 59-year-old coach who has been striving to find his "best possible starting XI ... even if it's not so easy to integrate nine new players". It will not be so easy to overcome Neftçi either, with the Azeri side, coached by FC Dynamo Kyiv legend Anatoli Demyanenko, boasting plenty of European experience.

Serious task
"Neftçi play every year in Europe, even if it is only in the preliminary rounds, and are very strong at home," said Hizo. "They are consistent and have a very good coach who worked at Dynamo Kyiv and knows how to prepare for European games. If we want to play in the UEFA Cup, we will have to take them seriously."