The elimination of Celtic, former winners of the European Champions Cup, was the most brilliant chapter in the entire history of the polytechnic football and one of the great achievements of Romanian football in the European cups.

So, Celtic, the legendary club of Scottish Catholics. The green and white presented, among others, Bonner, McGrain, Aitken, McGarvey, Nicholas! Coach, Billy McNeill. On October 1, 1980, Poli Timisoara was in the second leg. The big favourites, Celtic. Even though in the first leg in Glasgow, the Scots had only won narrowly, 2-1.

There were over 50,000 spectators (some estimate even 80,000!!) crammed into the big Timisoara “oval”, a stadium that will be called Dan Paltinisanu in years to come. The match was heading towards 0-0 and the qualification of the guests. In the 81st minute, the libero Păltinișanu stepped up and scored, just as he had done just a few months earlier in the Romanian Cup final against Steaua. A goal, a memorable 1-0 and Timisoara’s entry into the second round! There were three dismissals in this match. In the “double” against Celtic, Poli played for the first time in a “branded” kit. It is the Admiral brand, the oldest English sports equipment company.

Politehnica Timisoara – Celtic Glasgow 1-0 (0-0)
Cup Winners’ Cup 1980/81, 1.10.1980, 3 p.m., Timișoara, 1 Mai stadium, 50.000 spectators.
Scored: Paltinisanu (81).
Referees: N. Lagogiannis – D. Panzalis, L. Prindesis (all Greece).
Eliminated: Ad. Manea, MacDonald (17), McGarvey (83).
Polytechnic: Moise – Nadu, Șerbănoiu, Păltinișanu, Șunda (70, Cotec) – Ad. Manea, I. Dumitru, Dembroschi (65, Titi Nicolae), Vișan – St. Anghel, Nedelcu II. Coach: Ion V. Ionescu.
Celtic: Latchford – Sneddon, McAdam, MacDonald, McGrain – Sullivan, Aitken, MacLeod – McGarvey, Nicholas, Provan. Coach: Billy McNeill.

Years later, in 2002, Ion V. Ionescu will write in the magazine “Regele Fotbal”:

<Before the match with Celtic, we were called “up”! Up to the Party, to the First Secretary! To comrade Dincă! Or maybe Dinica! I never knew his name! He took the floor in front of the team and told us gravely, slowly and solemnly: “And now, comrades, we’re going to start!!!! Do you understand? Let’s fight, comrades, let’s beat the capitalists, what, they have three legs?! Train them, comrade coach, to eat, as they say, the ground! And you, Nedelcule, kick, comrade, kick, even Pele can’t defend them! Got it? “But allow me, Mr. First Secretary, Pele doesn’t play goalkeeper, he’s a striker”!!! “Listen, Aunt Nedelcu, the Party knows better what Pele plays, don’t teach us, sit down”!!!

And, as it happens, with very good players, skilful leaders and, what’s more, excellent training conditions, we beat and eliminated the Scots!

Then came phase II!

At the banquet after the game, at the “Continental”, next to our table, the team’s table, there was also a “table” of the Party leadership, headed by Mr. Dinică! Music and joy! Sprigs, steaks and joy! When, at one point, “one” comes and whispers in my ear that “Mr. Prim is calling you to his table”!!! Fear and excitement! What the hell did I do, what went wrong, what did I say…! “Listen, comrades, if you’ve listened to the Party’s instructions, you’re winning! You beat, but it could have been better, you should have scored five goals, mother of capitalists…”! “Cheers, Comrade Dinica, that’s right, next time we’ll score five goals!!!”. “That’s right, comrade, go and see to it that they are disciplined, that they don’t drink too much alcohol, it’s bad for the body…”!!!

And another one, and still with Comrade Dinica!

But that’s a coma! We’re playing here, at home, on “1 Mai”, against Târgu-Mureș! We were about 20-30 minutes before the warm-up, when our president, comrade K! “Comrade First-Secretary Dinică has given us the task of leading 3-0 by the 20th minute! He said it’s a Party task and not up for discussion…”!!! He came out more sweaty and flushed, in a hurry to get upstairs to report the task accomplished!

We were all stunned! Some scared, some afraid, some happy, some indifferent, and we went in for the game!!!

And you won’t believe it!

Wonder! Incredible and irrefutable! In the 19th minute we were leading 3 to 0!!! We couldn’t believe it, it seemed fantastic and impossible, but it really was 3-0! And, from then on, we started to see Mr. Dinica “differently”! We were praying that he would send us such “tasks” in other matches! But, “taken with Party and State problems”, he forgot us…

“The years flew by like long clouds on the plains…”

Or something like that… and in the eighties and something, the Party “sends” to us, as president, one Ciordăcescu! He came from Bucharest, he was a sort of journalist! And from the first day he turned the Club upside down! He changed everyone! He moved the furniture and changed the paintings! He made new laws and regulations! He introduced the bill! And so much more, all in the name and spirit of the Party!

And here comes the first trip “outside”!

To the West! Who goes, who doesn’t, who’s “in trouble”, who’s “not married”, who’s “caught him with a foreign currency” etc.! At last, the Team is leaving, at last, the Tour is starting, at last, the “day trips” are starting! And finally, the “questions” begin! That “where’s the money”! Why only this much? That “the hosts gave us more”? That “the man” took it himself and divided it as he wanted…! And so on…

The explanation and the surprise came when we arrived home at the airport! At customs! When comrade Ciordăcescu, the Party delegate, who had a plastic bag with his pyjamas and toothbrush on departure, had seven suitcases on arrival, as big as all the days, which he had “distributed” to the younger players, so that they could go through customs, because they had nothing else to go through…! And the next day, at 6:55 a.m. sharp, who was at the door of the first secretary, with one of those suitcases, fat and bloated, dressed in a suit, with polished shoes and a well-groomed moustache, ready to offer him a “little souvenir” from there, from the land of Cervantes?! Guess who?!

…

That’s how it was and a thousand more like it!!! And we believed, we hoped and we were glad it was over…!!! But when I saw the “dining-rooms” in Ghencea the other day, each with its own culinary “specific”, each with its own menu, where the people of the “state of law”, the “prosperous businessmen” of today, were eating at tables full of food, and when I heard the “prosperous” president of the LPF say that he preferred the “Macedonian specific”, which “is, sir, something unbelievable”, I concluded that Mr. Dinică was a pioneer in addition to today’s “those”…>

Excerpt from the book “Politehnica Timișoara – Football and Handball”, by Octavian Stăncioiu and Viorel Jurcuț, published by Politehnica Publishing House, on 4 December 2021, on the occasion of the Centenary of the Politehnica Timișoara Sports Society.