Politehnica Timișoara is the first team from Series 9 to secure its presence in the semifinals of the promotion play-off for promotion to League 2, after Saturday’s 1-0 (0-0) home victory over Progresul Pecica in the sixth round of the League 3 play-off. The only goal of the match was a kinogram goal and belonged to junior Sebastian Avramescu, who scored all three goals in this season’s senior season against the team from Arad.

As in other arenas across the country, a moment of silence was held before the referee’s first whistle in memory of Pope Francis.

Poli had the first big chance through Istratie in the 19th minute, but the striker could not beat Zamfir from the edge of the box. Six minutes later Iosif L. Rotariu wasted an even bigger chance, launched alone with the goalkeeper, he tried a lob, but it was deflected by the keeper for a corner. However, the most important phase of the first half came in the 41st minute. After Vlaicu was pulled down in the box by Nicolescu, a penalty kick was awarded, but Istratie’s shot from the penalty spot was guessed by Zamfir, who saved to his right.

Another important moment came at the start of the second half, when the starting goalkeeper was injured and could not continue the game. Immediately Istratie (min. 58) failed to capitalize on a good chance. There were also chances at Mosoarcă’s goal, but our goalkeeper, who turned 24 yesterday, made a nice present to himself, opposing each time. First, L. Bodri (60) tried it from the short corner, without success. Then Șimăndan (75) had a huge chance, but Tavi stood out despite the short distance to his opponent. The same as with Halos’ breakthrough (79). Just when the draw seemed to be settling, the introduction of Sebi Avramescu brought the long-awaited table turn. Popa’s pass found our “septet” 40 meters from the opponent’s goal, the striker who came off the bench saw the goalkeeper coming out and did not hesitate to send a perfect volley almost into Rus’ right-hand corner!

At 1-0, in the second minute of the six minutes dictated, midfielder Călin Fazekas (b. 2007) made his senior debut, the third debut from his own nursery this spring alone (after Denis Krista and Ionuț Moș).

A euro-goal that also settled the points – Poli reached 47 points and is still in first place, three points more than the next place Minerul Lupeni, but also 11 points more than the third place (Ghiroda), so our team has qualified for the play-off. In the next round, on Saturday, May 3, at 6 pm, the white-violets play again CSC Ghiroda at home.

Politehnica Timișoara: Mosoarcă – Miclăuș, D. Roșu, Vlaicu, R. Ciurel – Pureca, I. L. Rotariu (65, Militaru) – Prună, Popa (90+2, Fazekas), Marincu (captain, 65, Boariu) – Istratie (80, Avramescu). On the bench: Enășescu – Amariei, Nagy, Huminic and Tătaru. Coach: Cristian Gălan.

Progresul Pecica: Zamfir (55, M. Rus) – Nicolescu, Iurasciuc (46, N. Călin), Wild (captain, 87, Arsene), Halos – Ristin (67, Morariu), L. Bodri – Olăroiu, Șimăndan (87, Borcea), Aldan – Kyrychenko. On the bench: – Bozian and Ekmekci. Coach: Dan Stupar.

“I think it’s more than a goal, I think it’s a Euro-goal. Sebi surprises us with all kinds of executions like this, even in training. He also had a scissor kick against Pecica, a very beautiful and phenomenal goal. I congratulate him for his decision in the end. It was a very difficult match. A match that could have been easy if we had capitalized on our chances in the first half and our opponents, in the first half, didn’t create any goal scoring chances. Instead, in the second half they had more goal-scoring chances, from both sides this time. Tavi even had a couple of unbelievable balls saved. Tavi is a goalkeeper who is growing from match to match and, probably, if he keeps going like this, he will have a great career, I hope!” said Cristian Gălan, Politehnicii’s head coach.

“Sebi has known me for many years, he knows what I’m like, because we worked together in the juniors. The execution, there’s nothing to comment, it’s spectacular. We try to use our players as much as possible, the ones we have, to get the maximum out of each player. Sebi has a very good competitor in the position and then we always have to be 100% prepared for the moment when we take the field,” added the White-White-Violets coach.

“We didn’t have that objective. We didn’t know we were going to meet it. Obviously our next thought is to win every game we have left to play. That’s seven, right? Three and four – seven!” concluded Cristian Gălan.