Poli had qualified for the UEFA Cup. The first round seemed to be the last. The opponents were the famous Atletico Madrid, the team of the volcanic president Jesus Gil y Gil, of the Croatian (then Yugoslav) coach Tomislav Ivic, with players such as the Brazilians Donato (later naturalized for the Spanish national team) and Baltazar, the Spaniards Solozabal and Manolo, the Austrian Rodax and, above all, the Portuguese Futre. But on September 19, 1990, Ad. Bungău (from the penalty spot) and Octavian Popescu (with a header) scored a fantastic 2-0! We should note a couple of Polish strikers, C. Rosenblum – Timofte II, with no top strikers…

In the second leg, however, hopes were low. At the legendary Vicente Calderon, the Spaniards pushed hard but only scored once in the end.

In 2004, Horia Ciugudean, former vice-president of Poli at the time, revealed to Gazeta Sporturilor that at half-time of that game, Jesus Gil y Gil, the owner and president of the hosts, offered the Timisoara side 250,000 dollars to give up qualification. The blue-and-white staff refused.

0-1 and the second great qualification after the Celtic episode. This time, without a single (former or current) senior international in the squad!!!

Atletico had finished 4th in the Spanish Primera Liga the previous season, and in 1991 they finished 2nd and won the Spanish Cup, a feat they repeated the following year! In the 1991/92 season, they reached the quarter-finals of the Cup Cup Winners’ Cup, a competition in which they had reached the final in 1986!

 

Technical box:
Politehnica Timișoara – Atletico Madrid 2-0 (1-0)
UEFA Cup 1990/91, 19.09.1990, 15:45, Timișoara, 1 Mai stadium, 34.000 spectators.
Goals scored: Ad. Bungău (43p), Octavian Popescu (62).
Referee: Y. Namoglu (Turkey).
Sent off: Donato (85).
Politehnica: Jipa – C. Varga (40, Ionuț), Crăciun, P. Andreaș, Stoicov – China, Ad. Bungău, S. Vlaicu, Octavian Popescu – C. Rosenblum (85, D. Mănăilă), Timofte II. Coach: Costică Rădulescu.
Atletico: Abel – Tomas, Donato, Solozabal, Juan Carlos – Manolo (62, Pizo Gomez), Julio Prieto, Alfredo, Futre – Baltazar, Rodax. Coach: Tomislav Ivic.

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