Today the white-violet suffered their second defeat of the season, the first on home soil, in the 4th round of League 2. It was Politehnica Timișoara – AFC Progresul 1944 Spartac 0-1, at “Știința”, after Stefan Visic scored in the 41st minute. For the third time this season our team ended the match with one player less on the pitch, this time after the elimination of Alin Ignea (min. 63).

Today’s game was from the start quite a messy affair with few chances in the first half. The first change was made early on in our camp due to Adrian Zaluschi’s injury. In the 41st minute, after a second consecutive corner by the guests, Serbian Visic took advantage of the wide marking and scored from the long corner with a header. In the extra time of the half the white-violet also benefited from two corner kicks, but with no result on the scoreboard, at the first one Bîrnoi had taken a more dangerous shot.

In the second half the cops came out more on the attack following the half-time changes. Germinio combined in the 53rd minute with Bîrnoi, the Italian defender cut back into the box, but easily from an angle, he only aimed for the side netting. Ten minutes later, in a phase that didn’t announce much, Visic remained in possession and was fouled on the back line, a phase that saw Alin Ignea receive his second yellow card from “central” Sorin Vădana. At the end, Bocșan came close to an equaliser twice, first with a rebound from 16 yards, then with a header (82 min.). Bîrnoi also finished with a header in the last minute, but still inaccurate. While Visic was blocked in extra time after escaping on a counter-attack.

Following this defeat Politehnica remains with four points after four rounds and is currently in 14th place. In the next round, on Saturday, September 3, at 11.30 (televised), the white-violet play in Galati, against another newly promoted team – Oțelul.

POLITEHNICA (coach Bogdan Andone): Isvoranu – D. Radu, Germinio (76, Bocșan), Tsvetkov, Pureca (46, Bakoș), Taub – Bîrnoi (captain), Ignea, Pană, Țangulea (46, Mudrazija) – Zaluschi (33, Benzar; 57, Milea). On the bench: Kucich – M. Andone, Plantak and Bryneus.

Progresul Spartac (coach Andrei Erimia): Mărgărit – Parfeon, Leafu, E. Radu (60, Alexandrescu) – Bardot (67, Florică), An. Grigore, Boiangiu (46, G. Petcu), Purice, Lixandru (captain, 46, M. Șandru) – Tudorache (46, Dițu), Visic. On the bench: Ciontoș – Tong, I. Costea and M. Dumitru.

“They scored on a header and, ironically, our most experienced and titled player, so to speak, missed the mark. It’s hard to find the words, the explanations, first of all for the attitude and determination that was in today’s game. We had a reaction when we were down to ten men, we tried and put some pressure on with a couple of balls, we had a couple of pretty good situations. Unfortunately we didn’t even get a chance to finish. It’s a shame, we’ve only got one goal in four games. It’s very very hard to find an explanation”, said Bogdan Andone, head coach of Politehnica.

“When you bring in 15 players, you certainly can’t bring in 15 to hit them all. Really some are not what we want, we have said this, some maybe can’t, some maybe need time to adapt. That’s right, they are not all what we want. Without being mean or malicious, last season’s guys were practically relegated, we’ll see if we’re relegated this season or not. In any case, statistically, last year we were relegated with the players who were here”, added the coach in reference to the large number of transfers this summer.

“Solutions? We’ll see from Monday onwards, we’ve woken up from the break, we’ll probably try to terminate with most of the players who don’t live up to what we want and there’s probably also the possibility of dealing with a few experienced players and mostly young players and we’ll see if we relegate or not relegate. At least we are preparing the young players for next season. Other arrivals no, it’s hard other arrivals, it’s also short time. If we didn’t find a striker for a whole summer, we certainly won’t find one now in a few days. But we’ll see, we’ll have a discussion on Monday evening or Tuesday with the management, we’ll see what we decide. But there is also the possibility that we go mostly on young kids, who can do as much as they can, and we will see what decisions we will take regarding seniors or players with high salaries, who do not match what we want or what is still wanted at Poli”, concluded Bogdan Andone.