Politehnica Timisoara will be visited by Dunara Calarasi on Saturday in the first round of the League 2 play-out. The white-violet start this phase of the championship from 5th place in Group A, a play-off position, two points away from 4th place CSC Șelimbăr.

“It is the first stage of the play-out, the first game of six very difficult matches, where every point is very important. We have a deficit of two points against Șelimbăr, the team ahead of us, so our mission is a very difficult one, but at the same time we are confident that we can make up this difference and finish the season without worries. It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be very tough, every game is going to be very difficult, but we are preparing to have this very good end of the season and hopefully at the end things will be as we all want them to be. Indeed, Danarea Calarasi had modest results throughout the championship, not only in the beginning of the year, now maybe also because there were changes in the squad. They are very young players. There are very few experienced players at the moment, and I’m referring to Stoica and Tenea, older players. But I don’t think it can be a question of relaxation, everyone is focused, everyone is responsible and aware that each game is very important and must be treated with the utmost seriousness”, said Nicolae Croitoru, Politehnica’s head coach.

“We are trying to take some of this pressure off, I think we will have to focus on what we have to do on the pitch. I think that we will have to focus on improving our game and maybe less on the position in the standings… We have shown on other occasions that we can have good performances, even if the stakes are high, especially in the last period, maybe less the game with FC Hermannstadt, and we will have to do the same from now on”, said the coach of the white-violet team referring to the position in the standings.

After the game against FC Hermannstadt, captain Ioan Mera became uncertain, due to the injury in the face area, while Claudiu Pamfile returned to the team’s program yesterday and will be present in the squad, as well as Cosmin Bîrnoi, already present on the bench in the duel against Sibenians.

“We think about winning every match. We have to score as many points as possible and Saturday will be the first game, which we start with. We hope to win and not to be relaxed. In a way we expected it, I can say, we have seen the other results and I hope it won’t be crushing. We come every day to training and give 100%, we do what the coach says and we hope to apply everything he says in the match, to see the positive things”, said Cristian Scutaru, Politehnica’s vice-captain, about the pressure of the play-off position.

The fullback also talked about the readjustment with the “Știința” stadium after more than a year when the “official home” was the “Big Oval”: “Then there was a period when we trained only on it, day by day, we knew the “Știința” pitch better. Then, it changed, we did more training on “Dan Paltinisanu” and maybe from that point of view we adapted to the playing surface there, being a bigger pitch, much bigger stands, much more supporters and we got attached. Now, we are back at “Știința”, we hope to adapt as soon as possible and to see this through our results and games”.

The match Politehnica Timisoara – Danarea Calarasi will be played on Saturday, March 19, from 14:00, at the “Science” stadium, in the first round of the play-out of League 2. The white-violet are in 5th place with 21 points, while the guests are 6th with 7 points in Group A.

Ticket information in the link.