FC Zimbru Chișinău in European football

FC Zimbru is a Moldovan football club based in Botanica, Chișinău. They were the first Moldovan club to enter European competition, entering the UEFA Champions League in 1993. Since then, the club has competed in every UEFA-organised competition, with the exception of the now-defunct Intertoto Cup.
Zimbru played their first European match on 18 August 1993 against Beitar from Jerusalem. The match took place at Republican Stadium in Chișinău, ended in a 1–1 draw, with Radu Rebeja scoring the equalizer in front of 13,000 spectators.
Midfielder Boris Cebotari holds the record for playing in the most European matches for Zimbru with 31 appearances while Victor Berco, Vadim Boreț and Sergiu Epureanu are the club's top scorers with five goals each. In total, Zimbru have appeared in 22 European competitions.^[1]

Season	Competition	Round	Opponent	Home	Away	Agg.
1993–94	Champions League	Preliminary round	Beitar Jerusalem	1–1	0–2	1–3
1994–95	UEFA Cup	Preliminary round	Kispest Honvéd	0–1	1–4	1–5
1995–96	UEFA Cup	Preliminary round	Hapoel Tel Aviv	2–0	0–0	2–0
		First round	RAF Jelgava	1–0	2–1	3–1
		Second round	Sparta Prague	0–2	3–4	3–6
1996–97	UEFA Cup	Preliminary round	Hajduk Split	0–4	1–2	1–6
1997–98	Cup Winners' Cup	Qualifying round	Shakhtar Donetsk	1–1	0–3	1–4
1998–99	Champions League	First qualifying round	Újpest	1–0	1–3	2–3
1999–00	Champions League	First qualifying round	St Patrick's Athletic	5–0	5–0	10–0
		Second qualifying round	Dinamo Tbilisi	2–0	1–2	3–2
		Third qualifying round	PSV Eindhoven	0–0	0–2	0–2
	UEFA Cup	First round	Tottenham Hotspur	0–0	0–3	0–3
2000–01	Champions League	First qualifying round	Tirana	3–2	3–2	6–4
		Second qualifying round	Maribor	2–0	0–1	2–1
		Third qualifying round	Sparta Prague	0–1	0–1	0–2
	UEFA Cup	First round	Hertha Berlin	1–2	0–2	1–4
2001–02	UEFA Cup	Qualifying round	Gaziantepspor	0–0	1–4	1–4
2002–03	UEFA Cup	Qualifying round	Göteborg	3–1	2–2	5–3
		First round	Real Betis	0–2	1–2	1–4
2003–04	UEFA Cup	Qualifying round	Litex Lovech	2–0	0–0	2–0
		First round	Aris	1–1	1–2	2–3
2006–07	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round	Qarabağ	1–1	2–1 (a.e.t)	3–2
		Second qualifying round	Metalurh Zaporizhya	0–0	0–3	0–3
2007–08	UEFA Cup	First qualifying round	Artmedia Petržalka	2–2	1–1	3–3 (a)
2009–10	Europa League	First qualifying round	Okzhetpes	1–2	2–0	3–2
		Second qualifying round	Paços de Ferreira	0–0	0–1	0–1
2012–13	Europa League	First qualifying round	Bangor City	2–1	0–0	2–1
		Second qualifying round	Young Boys	1–0 (a.e.t)	0–1	1–1 (1–4 p)
2014–15	Europa League	First qualifying round	Shkëndija	2–0	1–2	3–2
		Second qualifying round	CSKA Sofia	0–0	1–1	1–1 (a)
		Third qualifying round	Grödig	0–1	2–1	2–2 (a)
		Play-off round	PAOK	1–0	0–4	1–4
2016–17	Europa League	First qualifying round	Chikhura Sachkhere	0–1	3–2	3–3 (a)
		Second qualifying round	Osmanlıspor	2–2	0–5	2–7
2023–24	Europa Conference League	First qualifying round	La Fiorita	1–0	1–1	2–1
		Second qualifying round	Fenerbahçe	0–4	0–5	0–9
2024–25	Conference League	Second qualifying round	Ararat-Armenia	0–3	1–3	1–6
2025–26	Conference League	Second qualifying round	Astana	0–2	1–1	1–3

Opponents	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win%
Albania	2	2	0	0	6	4	+2	100.00
Armenia	2	0	0	2	1	6	−5	000.00
Austria	2	1	0	1	2	2	+0	050.00
Azerbaijan	2	1	1	0	3	2	+1	050.00
Bulgaria	4	1	3	0	3	1	+2	025.00
Croatia	2	0	0	2	1	6	−5	000.00
Czechia	4	0	0	4	3	8	−5	000.00
England	2	0	1	1	0	3	−3	000.00
Georgia	4	2	0	2	6	5	+1	050.00
Germany	2	0	0	2	1	4	−3	000.00
Greece	4	1	1	2	3	7	−4	025.00
Hungary	4	1	0	3	3	8	−5	025.00
Ireland	2	2	0	0	10	0	+10	100.00
Israel	4	1	2	1	3	3	+0	025.00
Kazakhstan	4	1	1	2	4	5	−1	025.00
Latvia	2	2	0	0	3	1	+2	100.00
Macedonia	2	1	0	1	3	2	+1	050.00
Netherlands	2	0	1	1	0	2	−2	000.00
Portugal	2	0	1	1	0	1	−1	000.00
San Marino	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	050.00
Slovakia	2	0	2	0	3	3	+0	000.00
Slovenia	2	1	0	1	2	1	+1	050.00
Spain	2	0	0	2	1	4	−3	000.00
Sweden	2	1	1	0	5	3	+2	050.00
Switzerland	2	1	0	1	1	1	+0	050.00
Turkey	6	0	2	4	3	20	−17	000.00
Ukraine	4	0	2	2	1	7	−6	000.00
Wales	2	1	1	0	2	1	+1	050.00

Players in bold are still active at the club. Correct as of 31 July 2025.^[1]

5 goals

4 goals

3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Rank Player Period Apps 1 Boris Cebotari 1993–2006 31 2 Iurie Miterev 1993–2001 29 3 Vadim Boreț 1994–2000 27 4 Denis Romanenco 1994–2001 24 5 Igor Oprea 1996–2003 23 6 Valeriu Catînsus 1998–2001 20 Sergiu Epureanu 1998–2001 8 Kostyantyn Kulyk 1998–2001 19 9 Victor Berco 1998–2001 18 10 Ion Testemițanu 1993–1998 16 Radu Rebeja 1993–1998 Andriy Telesnenko 1998–2000 Ruslan Hilazyev 1999–2000 Ștefan Burghiu 2014–2025

Clean sheets Rank Player Clean sheets 1 Denis Romanenco 7 2 Vasile Coșelev 4 3 Nicolae Calancea 3 Denis Rusu 5 Cătălin Mulțescu 2 Anatol Chirinciuc 7 Sebastian Agachi 1

• Biggest home win: Zimbru – St Patrick's Athletic 5–0 (21 July 1999)^[1]
• Biggest home defeat: Zimbru – Hajduk Split 0–4 (17 July 1996), Zimbru – Fenerbahçe 0–4 (1 August 2023)
• Biggest away win: St Patrick's Athletic – Zimbru 0–5 (14 July 1999)
• Biggest away defeat: Osmanlıspor – Zimbru 5–0 (21 July 2016), Fenerbahçe – Zimbru 5–0 (26 July 2023)

At the end of 2025–26 season.^[2]

• italic ranking position is not finale and club can still drop down

• Moldovan football clubs in European competitions

• Zimbru Chișinău at UEFA.com
• Zimbru Chișinău at worldfootball.net
• Zimbru Chișinău at soccerway.com