2020–21 Moldovan National Division

Divizia Națională
Season	2020–21
Dates	3 July 2020 – 26 May 2021
Champions	Sheriff; 19th title
Relegated	Buiucani
Champions League	Sheriff
Conference League	Sf. Gheorghe; Petrocub; Milsami
Matches played	180
Goals scored	562 (3.12 per match)
Top goalscorer	Frank Castañeda; (28 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Cristian Avram; (15 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Petrocub 7–0 Codru; (17 July 2020); Dinamo-Auto 7–0 Codru; (11 September 2020); Sheriff 7–0 Dinamo-Auto; (6 March 2021)
Biggest away win	Speranța 0–10 Sheriff; (16 April 2021)
Highest scoring	Codru 1–9 Petrocub; (23 February 2021); Speranța 0–10 Sheriff; (16 April 2021)
Longest winning run	15 matches; Sheriff
Longest unbeaten run	24 matches; Petrocub
Longest winless run	19 matches; Codru
Longest losing run	14 matches; Codru
	← 2019 2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Moldovan National Division (Romanian: Divizia Națională) was the 30th season of top-tier football in Moldova. The season started on 3 July 2020 and ended on 26 May 2021. Sheriff Tiraspol were the defending champions. The winners of the league this season earned a spot in the first qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, and the second, third and fourth placed clubs earned a place in the first qualifying round of the 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League.^[1]

Teams

A total of 10 teams competing in the league. These include 8 teams from the 2019 season and two promoted teams from the "A" Division: Florești and Dacia Buiucani, both making their debut in the top flight.

Tiraspol

Tiraspol teams:
Dinamo-Auto
Sheriff

Chișinău

Chișinău teams:
Dacia Buiucani
Zimbru

Team	Place	Ground	Capacity	Coach
Codru	Lozova	Nicolae Simatoc Stadium	1,100	Alexei Savinov
Dacia Buiucani	Chișinău	Zimbru-2 Stadium	2,000	Andrei Martin
Dinamo-Auto	Tiraspol	Dinamo-Auto Stadium	1,300	Igor Dobrovolski
Florești	Florești	Bender Stadium	5,000	Iurie Groșev
Milsami	Orhei	CSR Orhei	3,000	Serghei Dubrovin
Petrocub	Hîncești	Hîncești Stadium	1,200	Lilian Popescu
Sfîntul Gheorghe	Suruceni	Suruceni Stadium	1,500	Serghei Cebotari
Sheriff	Tiraspol	Sheriff Stadium	12,726	Yuriy Vernydub
Speranța	Nisporeni	CSR Orhei	3,000	Volodymyr Prokopynenko
Zimbru	Chișinău	Zimbru Stadium	10,400	Vlad Goian

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Replaced by	Date of appointment
Zimbru	Veaceslav Sofroni	End of caretaker spell	11 December 2019	Pre-season	Sandro Pochesci	11 December 2019^[2]
Codru	Valeriu Andronic	Signed by Moldova U15/U16	24 December 2019^[3]		Simeon Bulgaru	23 January 2020^[4]
Milsami	Veaceslav Rusnac	Signed by Kyzylzhar	9 January 2020^[5]		Serghei Dubrovin	11 March 2020^[6]
Speranța	Cristian Efros	Resigned	1 February 2020^[7]		Iurie Osipenco	4 February 2020^[8]
Florești	Oleg Șișchin	Demoted to assistant coach	6 February 2020		Iurie Groșev	6 February 2020^[9]
Zimbru	Sandro Pochesci	Resigned	7 February 2020		Giovanni Scanu	7 February 2020^[10]
Zimbru	Giovanni Scanu	Released	4 March 2020^[11]		Vlad Goian	10 June 2020^[12]
Codru	Simeon Bulgaru	Resigned	2 June 2020^[13]		Sergiu Chirilov	4 July 2020^[14]
Zimbru	Vlad Goian	Promoted to academy technical director	16 October 2020	9th	Simeon Bulgaru (interim)	16 October 2020^[15]
Sheriff	Zoran Zekić	Resigned	21 October 2020	1st	Victor Mihailov (interim)	21 October 2020^[16]
Sheriff	Victor Mihailov	End of caretaker spell	14 January 2021	1st	Yuriy Vernydub	14 January 2021^[17]
Zimbru	Simeon Bulgaru	Resigned	17 January 2021^[18]	9th	Vlad Goian	18 January 2021^[19]
Codru	Sergiu Chirilov	Released	18 January 2021	10th	Alexei Savinov	18 January 2021^[20]
Speranța	Iurie Osipenco	Released	24 February 2021	7th	Volodymyr Prokopynenko	24 February 2021^[21]

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sheriff Tiraspol (C)	36	32	3	1	116	7	+109	99	Qualification for the Champions League first qualifying round
2	Petrocub Hîncești	36	25	8	3	82	18	+64	83	Qualification for the Europa Conference League first qualifying round^[a]
3	Milsami Orhei	36	22	7	7	71	37	+34	73
4	Sfîntul Gheorghe	36	21	4	11	65	43	+22	67
5	Dacia Buiucani (R)	36	13	9	14	44	45	−1	48^[b]	Relegation to Division "A"^[c]
6	Dinamo-Auto	36	12	12	12	53	58	−5	48^[b]
7	Florești	36	9	5	22	37	85	−48	32
8	Zimbru Chișinău	36	6	7	23	39	63	−24	25
9	Speranța Nisporeni	36	5	8	23	29	87	−58	23	Expelled^[d]
10	Codru Lozova	36	2	3	31	26	119	−93	9	Withdrew^[e]

Source: FMF, UEFA, Soccerway
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Play-off (only if deciding champion when two teams tied); 3) Head-to-head points; 4) Head-to-head goal difference; 5) Head-to-head away goals scored; 6) Head-to-head goals scored; 7) Matches won; 8) Goal difference; 9) Goals scored; 10) Least red cards; 11) Least yellow cards.^[25]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ Sfîntul Gheorghe qualified for the Europa Conference League by winning the 2020–21 Moldovan Cup
^ ^a ^b Dacia Buiucani ahead of Dinamo-Auto on head-to-head points:Dacia Buiucani : 7p, Dinamo-Auto : 4p.
^ Dacia Buiucani have been relegated voluntarily due to financial reasons and will be taking part in the second tier league next season.^[22]
^ Speranța Nisporeni failed to arrive for their 33rd and 34th Round games and subsequently were expelled from the competition. All remaining fixtures are awarded 0–3 against them.^[23]
^ As per regulations, the tenth placed team Codru Lozova was to be relegated to Divizia A, but the club withdrew before the start of the next season.^[24]

Results

Teams will play each other four times (twice at home, twice away).

Rounds 1−18

Matches 1−18
Home \ Away	COD	DAC	DIN	FLO	MIL	PET	SFÎ	SHE	SPE	ZIM
Codru Lozova	—	0–1	1–4	1–1	1–4	1–4	0–0	1–2	0–1	0–2
Dacia Buiucani	4–0	—	4–0	2–0	0–0	0–0	0–4	0–3	0–3	2–1
Dinamo-Auto	7–0	1–0	—	3–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	1–2	3–3	1–1
Florești	1–0	1–0	0–5	—	0–4	0–4	1–4	0–1	1–1	1–0
Milsami Orhei	3–1	2–0	1–0	3–0	—	0–0	1–1	0–1	3–0	2–0
Petrocub Hîncești	7–0	2–0	3–1	4–0	1–2	—	1–0	1–0	2–0	2–0
Sfîntul Gheorghe	5–1	2–1	1–1	2–0	3–1	0–4	—	0–1	1–0	2–0
Sheriff Tiraspol	6–0	0–0	6–0	5–0	1–0	4–1	4–1	—	2–0	2–0
Speranța Nisporeni	3–0	0–0	1–2	0–0	0–1	1–4	0–2	1–2	—	2–2
Zimbru Chișinău	3–1	0–1	0–0	0–2	0–1	0–1	1–3	0–4	0–2	—

Source: FMF, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Rounds 19−36

Matches 19−36
Home \ Away	COD	DAC	DIN	FLO	MIL	PET	SFÎ	SHE	SPE	ZIM
Codru Lozova	—	0–4	0–2	2–1	2–4	1–9	1–2	0–6	1–2	1–5
Dacia Buiucani	5–1	—	2–1	2–2	0–0	1–2	1–0	0–4	4–1	1–1
Dinamo-Auto	1–0	1–1	—	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–2	0–7	0–0	3–0
Florești	2–1	2–0	4–1	—	2–5	0–1	0–4	0–3	4–4	3–1
Milsami Orhei	7–2	3–0	2–2	3–2	—	1–3	2–1	0–1	3–0	2–1
Petrocub Hîncești	1–0	4–1	1–1	4–0	1–1	—	2–0	0–1	3–0^[a]	3–0
Sfîntul Gheorghe	2–2	2–0	3–1	3–2	1–3	0–3	—	0–2	3–0^[a]	4–3
Sheriff Tiraspol	6–0	1–1	7–0	6–0	6–0	0–0	2–0	—	3–0	4–0
Speranța Nisporeni	0–3^[a]	0–3^[a]	0–4	1–3	0–4	1–3	0–3	0–10	—	2–2
Zimbru Chișinău	2–1	1–3	1–1	3–0	1–2	0–0	2–3	0–1	6–0	—

Source: FMF, Soccerway
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
Notes:

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Technical wins/losses

Positions by round

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Team ╲ Round
Codru Lozova	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10
Dacia Buiucani	4	3	6	5	5	4	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5
Dinamo-Auto	2	4	4	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	6	6	6	6
Florești	8	6	7	7	8	8	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7
Milsami Orhei	5	7	5	6	6	6	4	4	4	4	2	2	3	4	4	3	3	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Petrocub Hîncești	6	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Sfîntul Gheorghe	1	5	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	3	3	4	4	4	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Sheriff Tiraspol	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Speranța Nisporeni	9	9	9	9	9	9	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	8	8	8	9	9	9	9	9
Zimbru Chișinău	7	8	8	8	7	7	7	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	8

Source: fmf.md

Results by round

The following table represents the teams game results in each round.^[26]

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Codru Lozova	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	D	D	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	D	W	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	L	W^[a]	L
Dacia Buiucani	W	D	L	W	L	W	L	L	L	W	L	W	L	D	W	D	L	D	W	D	D	D	L	W	W	L	L	D	L	W	L	L	W	W^[a]	W	D
Dinamo-Auto	W	L	W	W	L	L	D	L	W	W	D	L	D	D	L	D	D	W	W	D	D	W	L	L	W	D	W	L	D	L	D	L	L	D	W	W
Florești	L	W	L	L	D	L	L	W	L	L	D	L	W	D	L	L	W	L	L	L	L	D	D	L	L	L	W	W	L	L	W	W	L	L	W	L
Milsami Orhei	D	D	W	L	L	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	D	L	W	W	D	W	L	D	W	W	L	W	W	D	W	D	W	W	W	L	W	W	L	W
Petrocub Hîncești	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	L	W	L	D	W	W	D	W	W	W	W	W	D	W	W	W	W	W	D	W	D	D	W	W	W	W^[a]	W	L	D
Sfîntul Gheorghe	W	L	W	W	W	W	L	W	W	D	W	D	D	W	L	W	W	D	L	W	L	L	W	W	L	W	W	W	L	W	L	W	W	L	L	W^[a]
Sheriff Tiraspol	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	L	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	D	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	D
Speranța Nisporeni	L	D	L	L	D	L	W	W	L	L	W	L	D	D	L	D	W	L	L	D	L	L	D	L	L	L	L	L	W	L	D	L	L^[b]	L^[b]	L^[b]	L^[b]
Zimbru Chișinău	L	D	L	L	W	L	D	L	L	L	L	L	L	W	L	D	L	L	L	D	L	L	W	L	L	L	D	W	W	L	L	W	L	D	L	D

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[27]
1	Frank Castañeda	Sheriff	28
2	Vladimir Ambros	Petrocub	16
3	Alexandru Antoniuc	Milsami	15
4	Roman Volkov	Sf. Gheorghe	12
4	Maxim Mihaliov	Dinamo-Auto	12
6	Andrei Cobeț	Florești	11
6	Sergiu Plătică	Petrocub	11
8	Artiom Puntus	Milsami	10
	Dimitris Kolovos	Sheriff
	Vadim Crîcimari	Buiucani
	Artur Pătraș	Zimbru

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets^[28]
1	Cristian Avram	Petrocub	15
2	Emil Tîmbur	Milsami	14
3	Dumitru Coval	Buiucani	12
4	Dušan Marković	Sheriff	10
4	Zvonimir Mikulić	Sheriff	10
6	Dumitru Celeadnic	Sheriff	9
7	Victor Străistari	Dinamo-Auto	6
7	Nicolai Calancea	Sf. Gheorghe	6
9	Vladislav Liharev	Florești	5
10	Mickaël Meira	Petrocub	4
10	Anatol Chirinciuc	Speranța	4

Hat-tricks

Player	Home	Away	Result	Date
Vladimir Ambros	Petrocub	Codru	7–0	17 July 2020
Anatole Abang	Sheriff	Dinamo-Auto	6–0	26 July 2020
Maxim Mihaliov	Florești	Dinamo-Auto	0–5	18 September 2020
Andriy Bliznichenko	Sheriff	Florești	5–0	24 October 2020
Vladimir Ambros	Codru	Petrocub	1–9	23 February 2021
Alexandru Dedov	Milsami	Codru	7–2	12 March 2021
Shahrom Samiev	Dinamo-Auto	Zimbru	3–0	12 March 2021
Lovro Bizjak	Speranța	Sheriff	0–10	16 April 2021
Peter Banda	Codru	Sheriff	0–6	29 April 2021
Frank Castañeda	Dinamo-Auto	Sheriff	0–7	15 May 2021
Roman Volkov	Florești	Sf. Gheorghe	0–4	16 May 2021

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Technical win
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Technical loss

References

^ "Country ranking". Bert Kassies.
^ "Schimbări la Zimbru" (in Romanian).publika.md
^ "Andronic U15/U16" (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 2020-01-15. Retrieved 2020-01-15.fmf.md
^ "Булгару-новый главный тренер Кодру" (in Russian).^{[permanent dead link]}sports.md
^ "Главным тренером Кызыл-Жар назначен Руснак" (in Russian).petropavltv.kz
^ "Dubrovin este noul antrenor al clubului Milsami" (in Romanian).moldfootball.com
^ "Efros s-a retras" (in Romanian).publika.md
^ "Osipenco este noul antrenor al Speranței" (in Romanian).publika.md
^ "Groșev este noul antrenor al echipei Florești" (in Romanian).ipn.md
^ "Zimbru are un nou antrenor" (in Romanian).protv.md
^ "Retragerea echipei de seniori" (in Romanian).zimbru.md
^ "Relansarea clubului" (in Romanian).zimbru.md
^ "Bulgaru a plecat de la Codru" (in Romanian).publika.md
^ "Raport de meci" (PDF) (in Romanian).fmf.md
^ "Bulgaru, antrenor principal" (in Romanian).zimbru.md
^ "Officially".fc-sheriff.com
^ "New head coach".fc-sheriff.com
^ "Bulgaru nu mai face parte din staff".moldfootball.com
^ "Zimbru a ieșit din vacanță" (in Romanian).zimbru.md
^ "Codru a efectuat primul antrenament" (in Romanian).moldfootball.com
^ "Speranța-Dinamo Auto" (in Romanian).fmf.md
^ "Deciziile comitetului executiv" (in Romanian).
^ "Deciziile comitetului de competiții" (in Romanian).
^ "Programul primelor etape" (in Romanian). Moldovan Football Federation. 9 July 2021.
^ "Regulamentul campionatului R. Moldova la fotbal ediția 2020-21" [Rules Football Championship Edition 2020-21 Moldova] (PDF). fmf.md (in Romanian). Moldovan Football Federation.
^ "Results by round". Soccerway.
^ "Players - Divizia Națională - Moldova". Soccerway.
^ "Clean sheets". soccerway.com.

External links

[table_note_res_ECL1Q0.96832334295303-22] Sfîntul Gheorghe qualified for the Europa Conference League by winning the 2020–21 Moldovan Cup

[table_hth_DAC0.96832334295303-23] Dacia Buiucani ahead of Dinamo-Auto on head-to-head points:Dacia Buiucani : 7p, Dinamo-Auto : 4p.

[table_note_res_REL0.96832334295303-25] Dacia Buiucani have been relegated voluntarily due to financial reasons and will be taking part in the second tier league next season.^[22]

[table_note_res_E0.96832334295303-27] Speranța Nisporeni failed to arrive for their 33rd and 34th Round games and subsequently were expelled from the competition. All remaining fixtures are awarded 0–3 against them.^[23]

[table_note_res_W0.96832334295303-29] As per regulations, the tenth placed team Codru Lozova was to be relegated to Divizia A, but the club withdrew before the start of the next season.^[24]

[table_note_1_PET_SPE0.45384529673208-31] Technical wins/losses

[Technical_win-33] Technical win

[Technical_loss-34] Technical loss

[Kassies-1] "Country ranking". Bert Kassies.

[2] "Schimbări la Zimbru" (in Romanian).publika.md

[3] "Andronic U15/U16" (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 2020-01-15. Retrieved 2020-01-15.fmf.md

[4] "Булгару-новый главный тренер Кодру" (in Russian).^{[permanent dead link]}sports.md

[5] "Главным тренером Кызыл-Жар назначен Руснак" (in Russian).petropavltv.kz

[6] "Dubrovin este noul antrenor al clubului Milsami" (in Romanian).moldfootball.com

[7] "Efros s-a retras" (in Romanian).publika.md

[8] "Osipenco este noul antrenor al Speranței" (in Romanian).publika.md

[9] "Groșev este noul antrenor al echipei Florești" (in Romanian).ipn.md

[10] "Zimbru are un nou antrenor" (in Romanian).protv.md

[11] "Retragerea echipei de seniori" (in Romanian).zimbru.md

[12] "Relansarea clubului" (in Romanian).zimbru.md

[13] "Bulgaru a plecat de la Codru" (in Romanian).publika.md

[14] "Raport de meci" (PDF) (in Romanian).fmf.md

[15] "Bulgaru, antrenor principal" (in Romanian).zimbru.md

[16] "Officially".fc-sheriff.com

[17] "New head coach".fc-sheriff.com

[18] "Bulgaru nu mai face parte din staff".moldfootball.com

[19] "Zimbru a ieșit din vacanță" (in Romanian).zimbru.md

[20] "Codru a efectuat primul antrenament" (in Romanian).moldfootball.com

[21] "Speranța-Dinamo Auto" (in Romanian).fmf.md

[24] "Deciziile comitetului executiv" (in Romanian).

[26] "Deciziile comitetului de competiții" (in Romanian).

[28] "Programul primelor etape" (in Romanian). Moldovan Football Federation. 9 July 2021.

[MoldovaRules-30] "Regulamentul campionatului R. Moldova la fotbal ediția 2020-21" [Rules Football Championship Edition 2020-21 Moldova] (PDF). fmf.md (in Romanian). Moldovan Football Federation.

[32] "Results by round". Soccerway.

[Goalscorers-35] "Players - Divizia Națională - Moldova". Soccerway.

[36] "Clean sheets". soccerway.com.

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