# 2018–19 Liga Națională (men's handball)

The 2018–19 Liga Națională is the 61st season of Romanian Handball League, the top-level men's professional handball league. The league comprises 14 teams. Dinamo București are the defending champions, for the third season in a row.

## Team changes

Notes:
* ‡ HC Buzău promoted via an extra play-off match, after the winner of Divizia A, Seria B, CSM Oradea declined its participation.
* ‡ HC Vaslui withdrew from the championship and Universitatea Cluj was invited to fill the vacancy.

## Teams

| Club | Ground(s) | Capacity |
| CSM Bacău | Sala Sporturilor | 2,000 |
| CSM București | Sala Sporturilor "Rapid" | 1,500 |
| CSM Făgăraș | Sala Colegiul Național "Radu Negru" | 150 |
| CSM Focșani | Sala Sporturilor "Vrancea" | 1,400 |
| CSU Suceava | Sala Sporturilor | 500 |
| Dinamo București | Sala Dinamo | 2,538 |
| Dobrogea Constanța | Sala Sporturilor | 2,100 |
| Dunărea Călăraşi | Sala Polivalentă | 1,500 |
| HC Buzău | Sala Sporturilor "Romeo Iamandi" | 1,868 |
| Minaur Baia Mare | Sala Sporturilor "Lascăr Pană" | 2,048 |
| Politehnica Timișoara | Sala Constantin Jude | 1,540 |
| Potaissa Turda | Sala de sport "Gheorghe Bariţiu" | 600 |
| Steaua București | Sala Sporturilor "Concordia" | 600 |
| Universitatea Cluj | Sala Sporturilor "Horia Demian" | 2,525 |

## League table

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Dobrogea Constanța | 26 | 21 | 1 | 4 | 773 | 639 | +134 | 64 | Qualification to Play-off |
| 2 | Dinamo București | 26 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 798 | 687 | +111 | 57 | Qualification to Play-off |
| 3 | CSM București | 26 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 701 | 614 | +87 | 57 | Qualification to Play-off |
| 4 | Potaissa Turda | 26 | 16 | 4 | 6 | 744 | 675 | +69 | 52 | Qualification to Play-off |
| 5 | Dunărea Călărași | 26 | 16 | 3 | 7 | 727 | 670 | +57 | 51 | Qualification to Play-off |
| 6 | Steaua București | 26 | 16 | 3 | 7 | 730 | 678 | +52 | 51 | Qualification to Play-off |
| 7 | Politehnica Timișoara | 26 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 707 | 647 | +60 | 50 | Qualification to Play-off |
| 8 | Focșani | 26 | 12 | 2 | 12 | 688 | 667 | +21 | 38 | Qualification to Play-off |
| 9 | Minaur Baia Mare | 26 | 9 | 3 | 14 | 745 | 766 | −21 | 30 | Qualification to Play-out |
| 10 | Suceava | 26 | 7 | 2 | 17 | 632 | 705 | −73 | 23 | Qualification to Play-out |
| 11 | Făgăraș | 26 | 7 | 2 | 17 | 642 | 697 | −55 | 23 | Qualification to Play-out |
| 12 | Buzău | 26 | 6 | 1 | 19 | 637 | 722 | −85 | 19 | Qualification to Play-out |
| 13 | Bacău | 26 | 5 | 0 | 21 | 677 | 783 | −106 | 15 | Qualification to Play-out |
| 14 | Universitatea Cluj | 26 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 669 | 920 | −251 | 0 | Qualification to Play-out |

## Play-off
### First round

The top eight teams from regular season will be distributed in two main groups consisting of four teams each. In the group the teams will meet twice (6 matches per team) and at the end, they will qualify for the knockout phase. Teams start the group phase with a certain number of points (6, 4 or 2), depending on the place occupied in the regular season.

#### Seria A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Dobrogea Constanța | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 162 | 147 | +15 | 18 | Qualification to Final |
| 2 | CSM București | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 153 | 159 | −6 | 11 | Qualification to Third place |
| 3 | Dunărea Călărași | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 165 | 171 | −6 | 9 | Qualification to Fifth place |
| 4 | Politehnica Timișoara | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 162 | 165 | −3 | 7 | Qualification to Seventh place |

#### Seria B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Dinamo București | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 180 | 164 | +16 | 19 | Qualification to Final |
| 2 | Potaissa Turda | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 189 | 184 | +5 | 14 | Qualification to Third place |
| 3 | Steaua București | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 165 | 175 | −10 | 9 | Qualification to Fifth place |
| 4 | Focșani | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 155 | 166 | −11 | 4 | Qualification to Seventh place |

### Second round

The teams that played in the first round of the play-offs will also play in the second round, but for different objectives, depending on the rankings obtained in the previous round. The winners of the Seria A and Seria B groups will play in the league final, the second places will compete for the "bronze medal" and a place in the 2019–20 EHF Cup, the third places will fight for the 5th place and the last ranked teams will play against each other for the 7th place. All the finals were played in a best-of-three games format.
| Seventh place | Seventh place | Seventh place | Seventh place |
| 4Poli Timișoara | 33 | 31 | 36 |
| 4Focșani | 28 | 36 | 26 |
| Fifth place | Fifth place | Fifth place | Fifth place |
| 3Dunărea Călărași | 3Dunărea Călărași | 31 | 32 |
| 3Steaua București | 3Steaua București | 25 | 30 |
| Third place | Third place | Third place | Third place |
| 2CSM București | 2CSM București | 24 | 23 |
| 2Potaissa Turda | 2Potaissa Turda | 29 | 32 |
| Final | Final | Final | Final |
| 1Dobrogea Constanța | 1Dobrogea Constanța | 26 | 19 |
| 1Dinamo București | 1Dinamo București | 33 | 33 |

### League table – positions 1–4

| | Team | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Dinamo București | 2019–20 EHF Champions League |
| 2 | Dobrogea Constanța | 2019–20 EHF Cup |
| 3 | Potaissa Turda | 2019–20 EHF Cup |
| 4 | CSM București | 2019–20 EHF Challenge Cup |

### League table – positions 5–8

| | Team |
| 5 | Dunărea Călărași |
| 6 | Steaua București |
| 7 | Politehnica Timișoara |
| 8 | Focșani |

## Play-out

The bottom six teams from regular season will meet twice (10 matches per team) to contest against relegation. Teams start the play-out round with a number of points ranging from 1 to 5, depending on the place occupied in the regular season. The winner of the Relegation round finishes 9th in the overall season standings, the second placed team - 10th, and so on, with the last placed team in the Relegation round being 14th.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 9 | Minaur Baia Mare | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 283 | 257 | +26 | 24 | |
| 10 | Bacău | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 271 | 244 | +27 | 22 | |
| 11 | Făgăraș (O) | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 247 | 236 | +11 | 21 | Qualification to Relegation play-offs |
| 12 | Buzău (O) | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 269 | 243 | +26 | 20 | Qualification to Relegation play-offs |
| 13 | Suceava (R) | 10 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 248 | 265 | −17 | 17 | Relegation to Divizia A |
| 14 | Universitatea Cluj (R) | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 232 | 305 | −73 | 0 | Relegation to Divizia A |

## Promotion/relegation play-offs

The 11th and 12th-placed teams of the Liga Națională faced the 3rd and 4th-placed teams of the Divizia A promotion tournament. The first two places promoted to Liga Națională and the last two relegated to Divizia A. The play-offs were played on neutral ground, in Drobeta-Turnu Severin.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Făgăraș (C, P) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 99 | 79 | +20 | 9 | Promoted to Liga Națională |
| 2 | Buzău (P) | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 94 | 80 | +14 | 6 | Promoted to Liga Națională |
| 3 | Alexandria (R) | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 92 | 105 | −13 | 3 | Relegated to Divizia A |
| 4 | Sighișoara (R) | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 76 | 97 | −21 | 0 | Relegated to Divizia A |

## Season statistics
### Number of teams by counties

| Pos. | County (județ) | No. of teams | Team(s) |
| 1 | Bucharest (capital) | 3 | CSM București, Dinamo and Steaua |
| 2 | Cluj | 2 | Potaissa Turda and Universitatea Cluj |
| 3 | Bacău | 1 | Bacău |
| 3 | Brașov | 1 | Făgăraș |
| 3 | Buzău | 1 | Buzău |
| 3 | Călărași | 1 | Dunărea Călăraşi |
| 3 | Constanța | 1 | Dobrogea Constanța |
| 3 | Maramureș | 1 | Minaur Baia Mare |
| 3 | Suceava | 1 | Suceava |
| 3 | Timiș | 1 | Politehnica Timișoara |
| 3 | Vrancea | 1 | Focșani |