Politehnica Timisoara faces Petrolul Ploiesti in the first League 2 duel of the year. Our team wants to continue its positive run at the end of 2021 even though Thursday’s visitors occupy the very first position in the championship.

“We start the year in full gear, because a very difficult match awaits us. On the one hand, difficult in that we are playing the league leaders, on the other hand the first leg has a special specificity. We hope to get through this game, because we need both points and a positive result to give us confidence for the next games, which are just as difficult as the game against Petrolul. We had a good end of the year, we must not forget this and we want to continue on the same line”, said Nicolae Croitoru, Politehnica’s head coach.

“It is clear that the game with Petrolul is a difficult game, I would classify their team, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating, in the category of first league teams, like FC Argeș, maybe even Rapid, because I saw them in the championship and they showed a very good level of play. They have a strong team, a balanced squad, they have a very good coach, Nicolae Constantin, a coach and a man that I appreciate and respect very much. He did a great job there. It’s clear that it will be a game where the balance between the two moments of the game – attack and defence – will be very important. I think it’s very important that we capitalize on the situations that I hope we create for ourselves. Of course there are many unknowns, it is again very important how the game will evolve, how the result will evolve during the game and, depending on that, the weight on one or another of the phases of the game will be more or less important”, said the coach of the white-violet.

“We have a difficult match ahead of us, we meet the championship leader, but I believe that with good organization and the strength of the group we can achieve a positive result. I think it’s a match between two traditional teams, I at least expect there to be quite a lot of people at the stadium”, said Octavian Ursu, scorer in our team’s 3-0 win over Petrolul in 2019.

Tavi Ursu also talked about the players’ superior motivation in such historic matches: “Probably the motivation is different. When you play against Petrolul, against Universitatea Cluj, teams of tradition, you want to prove more. Being also the televised match, at 8 o’clock, for everyone (there is motivation), especially for our young players, who have to prove themselves and grow. I like this kind of matches, with Braila I had four chances and I didn’t manage to score, but I scored against Rapid and Steaua”.

Our team cannot count on the services of Stefan Vujoke, whose documents have not been finalized, nor on Cosmin Bîrnoi, who will only start training next week with his teammates, also Alex Iamandache is uncertain, as he only started training with his teammates yesterday.

The match between Politehnica Timișoara and Petrolul Ploiești, in the 17th round of League 2, will be played on Thursday, February 24, at 20:00 (televised), at the “Dan Paltinisanu” stadium. Ticket information. Prahoven are in 1st place with 42 points, while the white-violet are in 14th place with 20 points accumulated in the first part of the season. The symbolic kick-off of this match will be given by Petre Mehedințu, a key member of the strong student team of the 70s.