BUCHAREST, Nov 8: A referee was forced to halt a match on Saturday when in an unprecedented situation in Romanian soccer as one of the teams was reduced to six men.

Three FCM Bacau players were sent off in the first 36 minutes at Oradea and in the 62nd minute two more were injured and could not resume.

Under the league rules, a match has to be stopped if a team has fewer than seven players and the opposition is awarded the game 3-0. By chance, Oradea were leading 3-0 when referee Cristian Balaj called a halt.—Reuters