Our team has an extremely difficult match tomorrow against the former first division Astra, as the League 2 match is played less than three days after the Cup quarter against FC Arges, a duel in which several players became unavailable. However, the boys coached by Nicolae Croitoru are determined to continue the positive developments of the late autumn and celebrate a special day for Politehnica.

The coach of the white-violet team expects tomorrow a more difficult duel with AFC Astra than Wednesday’s match, despite the relegated team’s position in the standings. “On the one hand, they pulled off the surprise of the stage and managed to win in Cluj. It’s a good team, a team of young players, eager to assert themselves. They’ve been playing together for a while, and in the juniors, then in League 3, and they’ve grown a lot. Not only in Cluj they made a surprise, they had positive results in other games too, at Steaua they made 1-1. They lost badly to Petrolul. On the other hand, we, who hope that by the time of the game we will manage to recover physically…“, said Nicolae Croitoru, Politehnica’s head coach.

“We have a very tough game ahead of us in Giurgiu. I predict that it will be the same, a match like Wednesday, a battle. We are a bit worn out after the match against Argeș, but we hope to be recovered by game time,” said midfielder Adrian Zaluschi.

The white-violet travels today to the south-east of the country by air for a match to be played on 4 December – the very day Politehnica Timișoara celebrates 100 years of football activity.

Our team will not be able to rely on several important players in Giurgiu. Octavian Ursu is suspended following the red card he received in the match against FC Argeș, while Cristian Scutaru and Cosmin Bîrnoi are injured after the same game in the quarter-finals of the Romanian Cup and will need three and four weeks of rest respectively. Under these circumstances, the white-violet squad was completed with Răzvan Prodan, as well as with the juniors Cosmin Huminic (fullback) and Ervin Bakoș (midfielder), both members of the 2004 generation of Politehnica, participating in the U19 Elite League.

The match AFC Astra – Politehnica Timisoara will be played tomorrow, December 4, at 12.00, in the 16th round of League 2, the last of 2021. Our team is ranked 15th with 17 points, while the hosts are 18th and have only five points, although they have recorded five wins and four draws, that’s because they were sanctioned with a 14-point penalty!

Photo: Leczki Jozsi