Politehnica Timisoara faces Dacia Unirea Braila on Saturday in the 9th round of League 2 from an undesirable position of a second half of the standings.

“A game like all the others awaits us, a tough game, a game that we must treat with all seriousness. Let’s not look at the standings. It’s a game we are obliged to win,” said Antonio Foale, interim head coach of Politehnica.

Toni Foale (57), the longest-serving member of the white-violet staff, was the team’s “principal” at the start of the new project in 2012 and is now in his third interim period. Among his most notable results in this position are wins over Metaloglobus (5-0 away!), Gloria Buzău (1-0 away) and Petrolul Ploiești (1-0 home), all in the second division.

“Any interim is hard, because you come in unexpectedly, but it’s a bit more difficult now because we’re coming after some negative results and it’s harder to manage this match… We’re only going for the win in Saturday’s game and that’s what the boys will show. I’m sure they think the same way as me“, said the coach.

“I’m glad, they are hard tried“, Toni Foale added about the fact that the anti-Covid-19 vaccinated supporters will still be able to attend Saturday’s match. “What message can I give them: let them be the same and be as they have been so far – close to the team. And let the 12th player stay, because we need them like oxygen!“, concluded the white-violet coach.

“It’s going to be a pretty tough match because lately we haven’t had the results we expected. And in the last few rounds, you’ve seen, the finishes have been disastrous for us. In the history of football we haven’t seen something like that, we hope it won’t happen again and we’ll start tying wins. I think it’s a psychological problem, not a physical one. If it was physical you could see it from match to match… or the guys had problems with their muscles or something, it’s all psychological. I hope it will be an easy match for us because we have seen that they are not going through a very good period either, but we have to show more for this match and we have to win it“, said Cristian Scutaru, Politehnica’s vice-captain.

On the subject of fan access to the stadium, “Scuti” believes that “it’s very good news for sport in general, full stadium matches are something else. Now I don’t know if a lot of fans will come to us, because we had the results we had, but I say that if we tie a few victories more and more spectators will come to us“.

The match between Politehnica Timișoara and Dacia Unirea Brăila will be played on Saturday at 15.00 in the 9th round of League 2. The white-violet are in 14th place with seven points, while the guests are in penultimate position, 19th, with two points. The match is not televised, but will be streamed on our club’s YouTube page. Attendance is only permitted for people who are vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 and for whom 10 days have passed since completion of the full vaccination scheme. More information about stadium access and tickets, in the link.