It’s Good Friday for Orthodox Romania and some newspapers call for piousness after a night of celebration for Steaua’s Bucharest victory against Middlesbrough in the first leg of the UEFA Cup semifinals. Enthusiastic media welcome this victory but remain somehow cautious before the next match on English soil.

No enthusiasm, however, in new reports about the Danube floods that affect thousands of people on the eve of Easter. And only wonder about a major explosion in Moldova yesterday morning, which nobody knows where it comes from – and one newspaper mocks the situation: maybe an UFO?

It’s Good Friday in Orthodox Romania and Evenimentul Zilei, recalling the day of Jesus’ crucifixion in its academic and popular culture detail, tells how Orthodox people should mark the event: the hardest day of the Lent, when people shouldn’t eat at all and should show their piousness in church.

This is not, however, the atmosphere in urban Romania where it is more like a day of celebration following the 1-0 victory of Steaua Bucharest against Middlesbrough in the first leg of the UEFA Cup semifinals on Thursday evening. The same Evenimentul Zilei describes the "magic night" of Steaua, with a "fabulous goal" in min. 30 by Nicolae Dica sealing the game for good.

The newspaper warns however that on the second leg of the match, due in England on April 27, Steaua will lack two of its main players, Nicolita and Paraschiv, who were shown yellow last night.

"The Apostles of the UEFA Finals", Cotidianul calls Steaua after its victory against Middlesbrough. It notes, however, that the English team was pleased with this simple result as their Bucharest rivals missed "monumental" occasions to score, with one goal for five such occasions.

The same newspaper reports that the English fans "cleared the beer stocks of Bucharest" before the match and many of them queued at toilets on the Lia Manoliu stadium for much of the game. And they were allowed to enter the stadium drunk, while Romanian fans had to go through severe checks.

Gandul notes that the victory last night brings Steaua "one goal closer to the UEFA finals": coach Cosmin Olaroiu wanted not to receive a goal and he didn’t, while his team managed for the first time to score in an international match on Lia Manoliu stadium, since they’ve been playing there.

And tabloid Libertatea is unmerciful, saying Steaua could have smashed Middlesbrough with a three-goal advance, but failed to. "Why did you spare them?, the newspaper asks.

The victory was less celebrated in the villages along the Romanian banks of Danube, where the flood risk remains high and the situation is critical.

According to Evenimentul Zilei, many of the thousands of evacuated people return to their villages in the county of Dolj, despite authorities keep warning them that the danger of extensive floods is far from over no matter that the water has failed to breach local dams as it has been feared.

And Gandul quotes World Wide Fund according to which a deal dating since years ago between Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and the Moldovan Republic, on the widening of the Danube river bed, would have prevented the current floods – if applied.

It was not applied, but on the contrary, people continued to drain the Danube meadows for agricultural purposes, according to WWF.

And Cotidianul reports an explosion the county of Bacau yesterday morning that could be heard as far as surrounding counties, but which nobody knows where it came from. "An UFO exploded in Comanesti", the newspaper headline mocks the situation.

While many people believed it was a plane that crashed in the area, authorities said no such plane was planned to fly above the region and considered the possibility of a meteorite. Searches for the source of the explosion continue.