Politehnica Timisoara will play on Saturday in the 18th round of the Second League.

The opponent will be CSM Politehnica Iasi, and the match will be played at the Știința stadium, from 14:30. It is the first official home game for the white-violets this spring season. The match will be televised by Digi Sport, Orange Sport, Prima Sport.

The whole squad is valid (except Huminic). Coach Tavi Benga was Leo Grozavu’s assistant at ACS Poli.

In the standings, Poli is in 19th place, penultimate, with 12 points, while the team from Iasi is in second position, with 34 points, and is mathematically qualified for the play-off.

Statements from today’s press conference:

Octavian Benga, Politehnica coach: “We have a very difficult match ahead of us, against a very good team, probably the best team in League 2 at the moment. They are tied on points with Steaua in first place and with a very good coach, Leo Grozavu. Both him and his staff I know very well, I have worked with them together. With a very good manager, Mr Șfaițer, one of the best managers in Romanian football. A team that wants promotion. They also made some very good transfers this winter. In the first round they played a very good game against Șelimbăr and I hope we will have a good reaction after the last game, after which we were very disappointed. And I think we also disappointed our supporters, especially those who endured that bad weather, rain and wind in Dumbravita. I hope we win the match and play a good game to erase the last image of the last match. We don’t have any injured players and we hope that the players who enter the first 11 and the others who will enter along the way will have a good performance and that we will also have inspiration and that we won’t make any more uncalled for gifts like in the last match. The pitch is good, we protected it this week, we didn’t train on it at all. There was a lot of rain, last weekend and the first part of the week. We protected it totally, I mean we didn’t go on it at all, so that it’s a good turf, so that it doesn’t affect the quality of the game or the safety of the players. What can I say, I don’t know if we can get the maximum, that means six points. We’ll see in the next games. It’s interpretable the communication, at one point it says that there is confidence in the staff, I don’t know who gave it, it’s clear that the result in Dumbrăvița was disappointing for everyone, including me. And the way we lost, because we beat ourselves, is more frustrating. Without taking any of the credit from the opponents. And we still played in some pretty bad conditions, the pitch put us at a disadvantage. All the situations were, so, negative for us and I’d like to stop talking about this match. We have to admit that Iasiul is the clear favourite, because they have a numerical and value group, if we look at the players’ odds, above us. From all points of view Iasi is above us, both the budget, all levels. Because they also have help from the city hall and it’s easier than us, who are struggling or people who are raising funds from private money. I’ll point out three things: the budget of the club was very low, because it was clear and I understood the people in charge that it was not possible because there was no money with such a budget and 21 players had to leave from what I remember from the first part, and it dropped to less than half the players’ salary fund. I repeated and I’ll repeat, I tried to bring in players, because we had to fill in, we had to come up with a number of players at a time when, transfers were stuck, so one on hand, two on hand wages were unpaid because they were struggling and there was a current that there were financial problems and it was difficult to bring in players and three on hand, to bring in players to come on trial as well. And it was very very hard to find. We stopped at what we found and these are the players, not only Tavi Benga chose them, because we have a staff, I’m not all-knowing. We had a staff who gave their opinion. We had a president, a vice-president, a sporting director and we all gave our opinion on the level of players we could bring in. The other thing I want to point out, I don’t think Tavi Benga is the problem right now and to be honest I’m not afraid if I would or wouldn’t leave this team. I accepted to come in a very difficult moment, I still remain in a very difficult moment and it’s not easy and I didn’t step aside, because it’s very easy to step aside. But if at some point the club asks me or sees fit to find someone else I won’t fight it, because I’m not a leader, I’m just a coach. I don’t think there should be a discussion, that there would be no upset. Obviously you can’t be a coach for life and I came at a very difficult time and the expectations are very high. I don’t know the reality of whether we have to have very high expectations of what we offer to complain. We try to make do with what we have. It’s clearly an advantage for me that I know him, I know how he thinks about football, he thinks about football very professionally and a certain style, a modern style. It can be an advantage, I’ve also passed on to the players how we should play, it depends on how the players interpret on the pitch and if they put it into practice. You can’t predict if they will play the way I think Iasi will play. But we also have to have a very good reaction to the weaknesses of the Iasi team, because they also have certain weaknesses and they are a newly formed group. I mean they came with a lot of additions and it’s clear that they don’t have such a good correlation between the players. Just like us, who we have to admit, since January we are a new group, for the most part, there are new players and it’s clear that we also suffer from certain relationships in the game or, I know, certain moments of coordination and communication. As long as the math tells us we still have a chance, of course I still believe. After all, life is made of mathematics and it tells us that there are still mathematical chances. We have to believe. At least I still believe in that.”

Cosmin Bîrnoi, Politehnica player: “Tomorrow we meet a very tough opponent. A very good team with a very good squad. And experienced players, most of them have played in League I. But tomorrow we have to go in, play very well and face the team that is currently in first place. They entered the play-off 100%, the matches there I’m convinced are which on which, because there are going to be six very good teams. But I see them as favourites for direct promotion. First of all the financial support, that’s what matters the most, then I think we are totally lacking a stadium. They also change the turf every five or six months. I was there just when a lot of good things were happening and now I understand that it’s getting better and better from all points of view. Grozavu is a good and tough coach and he wants to play intense football… he was an OK coach and he had a good staff next to him and he was always trying to show us the way to a very good game and an aggressive game… There were no results at that time. As long as there are still mathematical and real chances, all of us in the locker room believe and hope that we will get it. It will be very nice if we can get the relegation save. I’m ready physically and mentally to play and hopefully we’ll do it well, me and the team, and be very united on the pitch tomorrow and win. It was a decision we accepted, it was also a tough pitch there at Dumbrăvița and that’s the way it had to be there. Somehow the pressure is more on Iasi, they are fighting for promotion and somehow we have to play clearly and take the chances we have and we can win tomorrow. There was this match in Dumbrăvița, where we lost and everyone was disappointed and our confidence drops with defeat, but the guys are OK now, we are all OK and tomorrow we are ready to give everything on the pitch.”