2011–12 Moldovan National Division

Moldovan National Division
Season	2011–12
Champions	Sheriff Tiraspol
Relegated	Sfîntul Gheorghe
Champions League	Sheriff Tiraspol
Europa League	Dacia Chișinău; Zimbru Chișinău; Milsami Orhei
Matches played	198
Goals scored	453 (2.29 per match)
Top goalscorer	Benjamin Balima (18 goals)
Biggest home win	Sheriff 6–0 Olimpia
Biggest away win	Sfîntul Gheorghe 0–6 Dacia
Highest scoring	Academia 2–5 Milsami
	← 2010–11 2012–13 →

The 2011–12 Moldovan National Division (Romanian: Divizia Națională) was the 21st season of top-tier football in Moldova. The competition began on 23 July 2011 and ended on 23 May 2012.^[1]

The league was competed by 12 teams and won by Sheriff Tiraspol. Dacia Chișinău, Zimbru Chișinău and, as winners of the 2011–12 Moldovan Cup, Milsami Orhei gained places in the qualification rounds of 2012–13 UEFA Europa League. CSCA–Rapid Chișinău and FC Costuleni were originally relegated on competitive grounds, but were both spared later after Sfintul Gheorghe Suruceni did not obtain a National Division licence for 2012–13 and only one team could be promoted from the 2011–12 A Division on the same grounds.^{[citation needed]}

Teams

The number of teams in the league was decreased from 14 to 12.^[2] Placed last in the previous season, Găgăuzia Comrat and Dinamo Bender had not completed their licensing to compete in the Moldovan National Division and were relegated.^[3] Neither could the first four placed teams in the 2010–11 Moldovan "A" Division: Locomotiv Bălți,^[3] Ursidos Chișinău, Dinamo-Auto and Intersport-Aroma,^[4] therefore no teams were promoted.^[5]

Stadia and locations

Chișinău

Chișinău teams:
Academia
Dacia
Zimbru

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Location of teams in National Division 2011–12

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Academia UTM Chișinău	Chișinău	CST UTM	2,888
Costuleni	Costuleni	CSR Orhei	2,539
CSCA–Rapid Chișinău	Ghidighici	Ghidighici Stadium	1,500
Dacia Chișinău	Chișinău	Zimbru Stadium	10,600
Iskra-Stal Rîbnița	Rîbnița	Orășenesc Stadium	4,500
Milsami Orhei	Orhei	CSR Orhei	2,539
Nistru Otaci	Otaci	Călărășeuca Stadium	2,000
Olimpia Bălț	Bălți	Olimpia Bălți Stadium	5,953
Sfîntul Gheorghe Suruceni	Suruceni	Suruceni Stadium	2,000
Sheriff Tiraspol	Tiraspol	Sheriff Stadium	13,460
FC Tiraspol	Tiraspol	Sheriff Stadium	13,460
Zimbru Chișinău	Chișinău	Zimbru Stadium	10,600

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sheriff Tiraspol (C)	33	25	6	2	75	18	+57	81	Qualification for the Champions League second qualifying round
2	Dacia Chișinău	33	24	5	4	63	17	+46	77	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
3	Zimbru Chișinău	33	17	10	6	47	24	+23	61	Qualification for the Europa League first qualifying round
4	Milsami Orhei	33	14	5	14	41	37	+4	47	Qualification for the Europa League second qualifying round^[a]
5	Olimpia Bălți	33	10	15	8	26	27	−1	45
6	Tiraspol	33	10	12	11	36	32	+4	42
7	Iskra - Stal Rîbniţa	33	11	7	15	41	48	−7	40
8	Nistru Otaci	33	10	9	14	30	41	−11	39
9	Academia Chișinău	33	6	13	14	32	48	−16	31
10	Sfîntul Gheorghe (R)	33	7	9	17	23	55	−32	30	Relegation to Division "A"^[b]
11	CSCA – Rapid Chişinău	33	6	8	19	20	52	−32	26
12	Costuleni	33	3	11	19	19	54	−35	20

Source: Moldovan Football Federation
Rules for classification: 1st points; 2nd head-to-head points; 3rd head-to-head goal difference; 4th head-to-head goals scored; 5th goal difference; 6th number of goals scored; 7th Fair Play competition^[6]
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated
Notes:

^ Milsami Orhei won the 2011–12 Moldovan Cup and therefore qualified for the second qualifying round of UEFA Europa League.
^ CSCA–Rapid Chișinău and FC Costuleni were originally relegated on competitive grounds, but were both spared later after Sfintul Gheorghe Suruceni did not obtain a National Division licence for 2012–13 and only one team could be promoted from the 2011–12 A Division on the same grounds.^{[citation needed]}

Round 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
Team ╲ Round
Sheriff Tiraspol	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1
Dacia Chișinău	5	3	3	5	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2
Zimbru Chișinău	1	1	4	2	2	3	3	5	4	3	3	3	3	3	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3
Milsami Orhei	3	7	5	4	4	4	5	4	5	6	5	4	5	5	3	4	5	4	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	4	4	4	4	4
Olimpia Bălți	5	6	8	8	8	9	10	11	11	11	11	10	10	10	8	8	8	9	8	8	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	5	5	5	5	5
Tiraspol	9	11	10	11	7	5	4	3	3	4	6	6	6	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	7	8	8	8	8	8	8	7	7	6
Iskra - Stal Rîbniţa	12	10	6	6	9	10	8	8	6	5	4	5	4	4	5	5	4	5	5	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	6	6	6	6	7
Nistru Otaci	9	5	7	7	5	6	6	6	8	8	8	8	7	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	8	8	7	8	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	8	8
Academia Chișinău	7	8	9	10	12	11	11	10	10	10	10	11	9	9	9	9	10	8	9	9	11	11	11	11	10	10	10	11	10	9	9	9	9
Sfîntul Gheorghe	4	4	2	3	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	8	10	10	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	11	11	11	9	11	11	10	10	10
CSCA – Rapid Chişinău	11	12	12	9	11	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	10	9	10	11	11	11
Costuleni	8	9	11	12	10	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	12

Source: kicker (in German)
= Leader; = 2nd place; = 3rd place; = Relegation

Results

The schedule consists of three rounds. During the first two rounds, each team plays each other once home and away for a total of 22 matches. The pairings of the third round will then be set according to the standings after the first two rounds, giving every team a third game against each opponent for a total of 33 games per team.

First and second round

Home \ Away	ACA	CRC	COS	DAC	ISK	MIL	NIS	OLI	SFÎ	SHE	TIR	ZIM
Academia Chișinău		1–1	1–0	0–3	1–3	2–5	0–0	1–1	2–2	1–2	0–2	0–2
CSCA – Rapid Chişinău	3–2		0–0	1–2	2–1	1–1	0–0	0–0	0–0	1–2	0–1	1–2
Costuleni	1–1	1–2		0–1	3–3	1–3	0–0	0–0	2–1	0–2	0–4	0–0
Dacia Chișinău	3–1	3–0	1–0		1–2	2–0	1–0	3–1	2–0	0–0	1–1	2–0
Iskra - Stal Rîbniţa	1–1	4–0	3–0	1–4		0–1	0–0	1–1	3–0	1–2	3–1	0–3
Milsami Orhei	3–2	3–1	5–1	0–1	0–1		1–2	0–0	0–1	0–2	1–0	1–1
Nistru Otaci	0–1	2–0	0–0	1–3	1–2	2–1		0–1	2–0	0–3	1–1	2–2
Olimpia Bălți	1–0	4–0	0–0	0–1	2–1	0–1	0–3		1–2	1–2	1–0	0–0
Sfîntul Gheorghe	0–2	0–0	2–1	0–6	2–2	0–1	2–2	0–1		2–2	1–0	0–3
Sheriff Tiraspol	1–1	2–0	4–0	0–0	5–1	2–1	4–0	0–0	5–0		3–1	2–1
Tiraspol	0–0	0–1	3–1	0–2	0–1	0–0	2–0	0–0	1–1	2–3		0–0
Zimbru Chișinău	1–1	0–0	0–0	3–1	4–1	2–0	3–0	2–0	2–0	0–1	2–2

Source: Moldovan Football Federation
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Third round

Key numbers for pairing determination (number marks position after 22 games):

23rd round	24th round	25th round	26th round	27th round	28th round
1 – 12	12 – 7	2 – 12	12 – 8	3 – 12	12 – 9
2 – 11	8 – 6	3 – 1	9 – 7	4 – 2	10 – 8
3 – 10	9 – 5	4 – 11	10 – 6	5 – 1	11 – 7
4 – 9	10 – 4	5 – 10	11 – 5	6 – 11	1 – 6
5 – 8	11 – 3	6 – 9	1 – 4	7 – 10	2 – 5
6 – 7	1 – 2	7 – 8	2 – 3	8 – 9	3 – 4

29th round	30th round	31st round	32nd round	33rd round
4 – 12	12 – 10	5 – 12	12 – 11	6 – 12
5 – 3	11 – 9	6 – 4	1 – 10	7 – 5
6 – 2	1 – 8	7 – 3	2 – 9	8 – 4
7 – 1	2 – 7	8 – 2	3 – 8	9 – 3
8 – 11	3 – 6	9 – 1	4 – 7	10 – 2
9 – 10	4 – 5	10 – 11	5 – 6	11 – 1

Home \ Away	ACA	CRC	COS	DAC	ISK	MIL	NIS	OLI	SFÎ	SHE	TIR	ZIM
Academia Chișinău		3–1				1–0				2–0	1–1	1–2
CSCA – Rapid Chişinău						0–1			1–0	0–2	0–2	2–3
Costuleni	2–2	1–0					0–1		1–0		1–2
Dacia Chișinău	3–0	2–0	3–0			2–1					0–0	4–0
Iskra - Stal Rîbniţa	1–1	1–2	1–1	0–2		0–2					0–2
Milsami Orhei			2–1				0–2	2–2	3–0	0–1		1–0
Nistru Otaci	0–0	3–0		1–3	1–0			1–1
Olimpia Bălți	1–0	3–0	2–0	1–0	0–0						0–0
Sfîntul Gheorghe	2–0			3–1	0–1		1–0	0–0
Sheriff Tiraspol			4–1	0–0	2–1		3–0	6–0	5–0
Tiraspol						4–1	2–3		1–1	0–3		1–0
Zimbru Chișinău			1–0		1–0		3–0	1–1	2–0	1–0

Source: Moldovan Football Federation
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Top goalscorers

Updated to matches played on 21 April 2013.^[7]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Benjamin Balima	Sheriff Tiraspol	18
2	Aleksandar Pešić	Sheriff Tiraspol	14
2	Oleg Molla	Zimbru Chișinău	14
4	Vasili Pavlov	FC Dacia Chișinău	12
5	Maxim Mihaliov	FC Dacia Chișinău	11
5	Ghenadie Orbu	FC Dacia Chișinău	11
7	Henrique Luvannor	Sheriff Tiraspol	9
	Konstantin Yavorskiy	FC Iskra-Stal	9
	Eric Sackey	Zimbru Chișinău	9
10	Miloš Krkotić	FC Dacia Chișinău	8
10	Radu Catan	Zimbru Chișinău	8

7 goals (5 players)

6 goals (2 players)

5 goals (4 players)

4 goals (9 players)

3 goals (25 players)

2 goals (40 players)

1 goals (62 players)

Hat-tricks

Key
⁴	Player scored four goals
⁵	Player scored five goals

Player	Home	Away	Result	Date
Wilfried Benjamin Balima	FC Sheriff Tiraspol	FC Costuleni	4–0	10 September 2014
Aleksandar Pešić	FC Sheriff Tiraspol	FC Olimpia	6–0	7 April 2012

Clean sheets

As of 5 May 2013

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Serghei Pașcenco	FC Olimpia	17
2	Georgi Georgiev	FC Tiraspol	12
2	Eugen Matiughin	FC Dacia Chișinău	12
4	Artiom Gaiduchevici	FC Dacia Chișinău	11
5	Alexandru Zveaghințev	FC Sheriff Tiraspol	10
5	Nicolae Calancea	FC Zimbru Chișinău	10
7	Vladislav Stoyanov	FC Sheriff Tiraspol	8
8	Maxim Copeliciuc	FC Academia Chișinău	7
	Mihail Păiuș	FC Zimbru Chișinău	7
	Ghenadie Moșneaga	FC Sfîntul Gheorghe	7
	Andrian Negai	FC Milsami Orhei	7