Our team has an extremely important duel in the League 2 play-out on Saturday. Politehnica Timișoara plays at home against CSC 1599 Șelimbăr, a contender to avoid the play-off position. The white-violet have only one option: victory!

“We are ahead of an extremely important game, perhaps the most important of the season, which we did not want, but unfortunately it has come to this. At the same time I think it’s a maturity test and I think we have to show that we understand what club we represent, what colours we represent. We have to understand that we owe it to all our supporters and we have to repay that debt in Saturday’s game with everything we do in the 90 minutes on the pitch. Of course it will be a difficult game, we meet a team that, although it started the year with a lot of difficulties, in the last few rounds it has recorded two positive results, it is a growing team with players with interesting CVs, with first league matches in France, Portugal, Moldova, Azerbaijan, with international matches. But I think this is less important and the most important thing is how we manage to train. The way we will understand that we have to approach this game with our hearts and, as I was saying, in the end we will be able to pay the debts that we owe this season, at least, to our supporters”, said Nicolae Croitoru, Politehnica’s head coach.

“We have a game coming up on Saturday, not tough, very tough. We have only the option of winning. Our chance to save ourselves is to beat in every game. I wouldn’t want us to make the play-offs. And we have to prove that what has happened so far has been an accident, the games that have gone by… and that we don’t deserve to be there in the standings. We have to be 100% focused and give everything on the field on Saturday. Surely if we don’t win the supporters won’t accept another defeat or a draw. There is always a pressure on us, but now there is a bigger one, there is also the pressure of the result and we are all aware that only if we concentrate and give 100% on the field we have a chance to win, if not, we will feel like in the past matches and we don’t want that anymore”, said captain Ioan Mera.

The experienced defender stressed that he and his teammates should take the positives from what Diego Simeone’s players showed in the Champions League match against Manchester City: ‘If we take anything good from last night’s game, we should take the bad from Atletico Madrid. I mean the intensity, the wickedness and the determination, if we had that attitude of theirs, we wouldn’t have any problems on Saturday. You’ve seen how they run, how they give their lives… if we do that we’ll definitely come out on top on Saturday and I think we will. Because every player is aware that this is our last chance to avoid the play-off and I’m convinced that if we win on Saturday we’ll avoid the play-off.”

Our team cannot rely on goalkeeper George Păduraru, Cristian Scutaru and Alexandru Iamandache for this game due to medical reasons.

The match Politehnica Timisoara – CSC 1599 Șelimbăr will be played on Saturday, April 16, at 12:30 pm, at the “Știința” stadium, in the fourth round of the play-out of League 2. Before this round, the white-violet team is in 5th place in Group A, with 24 points, six less than the Siberian team, one place higher, but with one game more. In the regular season the two sides drew 1-1 at the “Dan Paltinisanu” stadium. Ticket information HERE.

“If we like to sing along with the supporters when we win, I think we have to understand that we also owe them. And we have to return that debt to them and to the club. For that we have to show that we have attitude, we have to show that we are capable of giving everything, we have shown it on other occasions, that when we are 100% focused we can play with any opponent in this league…”, Nicolae Croitoru

“I want us to do our best to avoid the play-offs at the end of the season. That’s all I want. Because if we make the play-offs, it’s two games, round-robin, and you never know. I don’t even want to think that this team can get relegated. Because if that happened, I personally would be the most disappointed of all. Because I put my heart and soul into this team”, Ioan Mera