In 1992, two years later, the other famous Madrid side, Real, Atletico’s great local rival, came to Timisoara. Real Madrid, the most important club in the history of world football, an unofficial status kept permanently since the second half of the 1950s, when they won the first five editions of the European Champions Cup!

Gh. Hagi, the greatest Romanian footballer of all time, had just left the “albi”, to Brescia, in Serie A. Sanchis, Ricardo Rocha, Tendillo, L. Milla, Michel, Luis Enrique, Alfonso, Zamorano – these are the players the Timisoara public could see! “Jackie” Ionescu had formed an almost purely Timisoara team: M. Băban he had found at Jimbolia, Diaconescu at Lugoj, Cuc in the junior team… Goalkeeper P. Toma had been transferred in the summer from Dunărea Călărași, from D3, after a very good performance against Politehnica, in the quarter-finals of the Romanian Cup, in the spring of that year!

And yet, Poli did not lose to the great Real! The Timisoara stadium, paradoxically, was not full. People were starting to have many other things on their minds… Alfonso opened the scoring, but the young Cuc (19 years old), who came on at half-time, equalised and it ended 1-1. From this goal Cuc made the maximum profit, transferring that autumn to CP Merida, a Spanish second league team, and going on to play for clubs in Spain and Portugal until 2000!

Thus, Poli has never lost at home in the European Cups: only one draw (in this last match, against Real), the rest wins to nil!!!

Technical box:
Politehnica Timisoara – Real Madrid 1-1 (0-1)
UEFA Cup 1992/93, 16.09.1992, 17:30, Timișoara, Politehnica stadium, 25.000 spectators.
They scored: Alfonso (15), Cuc (61).
Referee: R. Wojcik (Poland).
Politehnica: P. Toma – C. Varga, Csik I, P. Andreaș, Crăciun, Stoicov – China, I. Roșu (60, Fl. Bătrânu), Octavian Popescu – Uleșan, C. Rosenblum (46, Cuc). Coach: Ion V. Ionescu.
Real: Jaro – Sanchis, Ricardo Rocha, Tendillo, Lasa (75, Aragon) – L. Milla, Michel (46, Villarroya), Toril, Luis Enrique – Alfonso, Zamorano. Coach: Benito Floro.

Excerpt from the book “Politehnica Timișoara – Football and Handball”, by Octavian Stăncioiu and Viorel Jurcuț, published by Politehnica Publishing House, on 4 December 2021, on the occasion of the Centenary of the Politehnica Timișoara Sports Society.