Politehnica drew today, 1-1 (0-0), at home against Metaloglobus Bucharest in the 6th round of the League 2 play-out. Cosmin Bîrnoi opened the scoring for the white-violets, while Alexandru Potecea equalized for the visitors. Both teams ended the match with one man down. Ioan Mera and Claudiu Herea, respectively, were eliminated in the second half.

On “Science” you could score today from the 4th minute. Alexandru Iamandache broke into the box, dribbled Caramalău, who fouled him and the first penalty of the game was awarded. But Tavi Ursu’s execution from the spot was sensed by Gavrilaș, who pushed it into the corner near the bar to his right. In the 28th minute Lazăr had a good shot, but the ball was pushed into the corner. And a minute later Ursu won another penalty. This time the penalty kick was taken by Alin Ignea, but the scorer from Braila, sent it into the goalkeeper’s right post and the ball bounced back out of the goal space. In the 43rd minute Iamandache took it a few yards out, contracted strongly, the ball bounced to Lazăr, but this shot was also deflected out of the Bucharest blocker.

On the restart, Metaloglobus could have scored in the 52nd minute when Murariu blocked, slightly to the side, Sava. 11 minutes later the visitors were a man down after Cl. Herea. Herea brutally fouled Sofran from behind in midfield and saw a straight red card. Poli opened the scoring in the 66th minute through Cosmin Bîrnoi, who scored with a long-range shot from D. Andrei’s pass into the box. Metaloglobus equalised in the 78th minute also through a player just introduced on the pitch. Alexandru Potecea scored from a free-kick in front of the box. Two minutes later Ignea came close to making it 2-1, but his rebound from in front of goal went wide. From the 85th minute the numerical balance on the pitch was restored, Ioan Mera seeing his second yellow card following a foul by the same Potecea. The result remained unchanged despite another dangerous phase in the 87th minute, when the ball went wide of Gavrilaș’s goal.

Following this result Politehnica (5th place, group A play-out) accumulates 28 points. In the last round of the play-out our team will play away to Politehnica Iasi.

POLITEHNICA: Murariu – Sofran, Mera (captain), Bocșan, Oanea – D. Andrei (75, Rogosic), R. Lazăr, Ignea, Ursu (75, Vukoje) – Gerbi (75, D. Radu), Iamandache (62, Bîrnoi). On the bench: Păduraru – Plumbuitu, Scutaru, Bakoș, Huminic. Coach: Nicolae Croitoru.

Metaloglobus Bucharest: Gavrilaș – Grosu, Lung, Caramalău (46, Cazan), An. Sava – Pandele (32, Negoescu; 90+1, Ad. Sîrbu), Răuță, Borțoneanu – Cl. Herea, Al. Enache (46, L. Mihai), Ov. Herea (captain, 74, Potecea). On the bench: Nedelcovici – I. Roșu, R. Sîrbu, Covalciuc. Coach: Nicolae Grigore.

“Unfortunately it wasn’t a win, that’s the important thing, and maybe we even deserved the win today, if we were to just look at the scoring chances. Unfortunately we didn’t score, we have a problem, we didn’t score from the penalty spot either. It’s the third penalty taker, the third missed penalty… Of course there is some pressure, the situation is not one that gives us peace of mind. We’ve had a pretty tough couple of weeks, we’re trying to get out. I think for the most part in the game we’ve shown that we’re making an effort to get out of this state we’re in. That’s exactly why we needed a positive result to give us confidence”, said Nicolae Croitoru, Politehnica’s head coach.

“The results were not what they should have been and then we have to agree with the reaction that the gallery has. The game hasn’t been very good lately either and these are normal things in football after all,” Croitoru said in reference to the fact that the gallery didn’t encourage the team today.

Asked about solutions for improvement before the play-off, the blue-and-white coach concluded, “We have to find… I think that if we had managed to score (more) today, the fact that we had so many chances means that we took a step forward. There were two penalties, there were in the first half again two or three situations and in the second half there were situations – and very clear situations… I think there’s a problem here and the consequences afterwards, so we have to find resources and find the most appropriate means…”.