Costel Pantilimon, Politehnica manager: “I’m very happy for these guys, I’m very happy for Paul. I know how much they wanted it, how much they prepared for this match. It’s not easy. I said it at the beginning. It’s a tough moment, but I’m glad that we have kids who are committed, players who are committed, a coach who is committed, and that gives me great peace of mind. It’s important for them and for everything that’s happening at the club at the moment. It’s important that things are in a positive framework. I don’t get my hopes up, but when I came here, I said that I don’t put things on the back burner, we’re trying a long road, a serious job, and I’m glad that I have people next to me who can really take the reins and be assertive. It’s a hard time and in hard times, maybe very often very few people have the strength and courage to continue on a hard road. I’m glad that the people who are with me and the club at the moment, the players and everyone who works in the club have a lot of respect from me and I want to thank them all, because that’s important. It’s important to know that you have people with you who want to help rebuild this club and the future of some kids who really deserve to take the easy step towards playing competitive football. Anything is possible, in a framework where we are trying to stabilise certain things, there will certainly be departures, there will be arrivals, but all in due course. At the moment we are almost at the end of this championship. Anything can happen. Everything comes together. There is a strategy, exactly what I have told you, we are trying somehow to create a healthy base. To create things as we see them – in a professional way. Let the kids know that they have clear benchmarks and the club’s strategy is to rely on them and raise them in a healthy and fair way. To strengthen a team, certainly performance is desired. And to attack immediately… but again, there are still games to play… The people we brought in we didn’t bring in to stay at a decent level, so to speak, we came to perform, and I hope things will move. But at the moment I’m very happy with the people I have next to me. It’s very important for us to know that I have their support, they want to put their shoulder, that it’s a tough time. Right now it’s all I can bring out.

I have not had discussions with the City Hall yet, I have had discussions with the CJT and especially with Mr Nica. I had some requests at the beginning of my arrival and things were put in place immediately. Which I’m happy about. I hope soon to have some discussions with the rector, so that we can also talk to the City Hall. To understand exactly how we clarify the strategy and how we put it in place with all the authorities in Timisoara… I said I would not use big words. There’s a lot of work to be done, I hope that we, together with the authorities and the rector, will find the best options to stabilize everything that is happening with the football team and everything that is happening with sports in Timisoara”.

Paul Codrea, Politehnica coach: “I was very confident before this match. The boys had a good week of training, their commitment was maximum. It’s only 100% their merit. They gave their all today, you saw, they came out today with cramps and pain. They pulled their weight, some of them stayed on the pitch even though they couldn’t, especially as the squad isn’t very thick and I really want to congratulate them, we really wanted to play, we really did at times. We also had a bit of luck. We could have scored more. I think it was quite an interesting match for the spectators. And what was positive is that I felt people liked the performance we saw. “The team was working very well, everything was under control. Unfortunately we made that mistake at 2-0, it made it 2-1 and that’s when the emotions started, but I think we were in control. Especially in the second half, we changed the system as well, we went from four to five defensively and I think we were much better defensively. In the first half we had some problems on their left, our right, they were catching Denis all the time 2 to 1 and then we changed the second half… I told you, this is our policy, we want to go with players from the Academy, we show that the academy has players with potential, probably others will follow and Eric Adam, even if he only played five minutes, a very serious kid, I’m glad he made his debut, he’s very gifted, talented, probably with time he will play more and more. We had at one point, I think, four under players, Denis, Vlaicu, Boariu and Marincu and, I told you, as long as we are in 11 and we are here, we will give everything. He (n.r. Sekulic) is training with us. We have an agreement, I told him that I won’t rely on him anymore, probably only when needed. In principle we want to go for the youngsters in the Academy, he is a very professional player and a boy of great character, he understood the situation. If you love this job you do it with passion wherever you are. In League 4, at junior level, at senior level, Champions League, everywhere you train the same way, with the same seriousness and passion. Now it’s just a coincidence that I’m here. That’s the situation. I’m here as long as I’m here, I’ll do my best to help the kids, after all it’s about them. Let’s manage to develop them and make this transition from juniors to seniors and eventually promote our talents. Because we are often surprised that they leave the city for other teams and we don’t understand why. That’s why they leave, because we don’t get them to play. Salvation is already a long way off. It’s just a win, but it’s a win, we said let’s finish the championship with dignity. Let’s fight in every game, whether we save ourselves, we don’t save ourselves, I don’t think it matters at this point. There are still four games left, we can’t do miracles, we depend on what our opponents do more than what we do. We try to play every game to the maximum and bring a junior to play in every game. And I really congratulate Aurel Vlaicu, who played the whole game, and I think he played impeccably, almost, he made a small mistake, but it wasn’t necessarily his fault… Honestly we don’t care, we are still far away (n.r. – if Metaloglobus loses the game against Minaur)… They used a player with four yellow cards. Never mind, that’s their problem. There’s a rift between the big team and the Academy and I think that’s my role now, to unite the Academy with the team, you see it can be done, it’s all about having a bit of courage and a bit of initiative. Nothing is impossible in this life. I think it has a very good potential. Important things have been done in recent years. We’ve brought important people into the Academy, we have licensed coaches at almost all junior levels. I think we are maybe above Csikszereda at the level with licenses in the academy. What they have in addition to us, the much better infrastructure and investments, which are much higher there. If only we were supported here like they are there, and maybe someone will hear us on this occasion… They are put in public office to make citizens happy, not to do for them. To do, to leave something behind, a sports base with ten fields, a swimming pool, a multi-purpose hall, all on paper we have a thousand plans. In reality nothing happens. Let’s move a little, with more talent, because time is passing and all the cities are beating us. We’re far behind. Playing around the country, pretty much all the teams have developed, all the Centres, we’ve been left a bit behind, and unfortunately everyone complains when they come here. Something abnormal: we feel sorry for you! So let’s change that a bit, it’s up to us, it’s up to us to change and up to the local authorities. We do what we can on the ground, with what we have. But let others do their part. Then we’ll judge the kids for coming in and not being good. Well, they train in much different conditions than Csikszereda, FCSB, Rapid, CFR Cluj and so on. And yet we are coping with it.”

Robert Ilyes, coach of FK Csikszereda: “This is football. Not every time you play you can win. It was a defeat that we have to learn from and move forward. It’s my first game on the bench of Ciuc. I was even in the dressing room and I congratulated the players for their attitude, for the chances we created, that there were some mistakes in defence, that’s something else entirely, but we had situations and in the second half, when we started, on that chance alone with the goalkeeper, we didn’t manage to equalise. Then came the 2-0 goal, where a junior made a mistake, which I can’t get upset about because it happens to older footballers to make mistakes in defence, I trust the players. I did the analysis, he surprised me with his style of play. I saw the Dinamo game, where they played much more organized defensively, in Baia Mare they were more apathetic, instead today they really played a game and I have to congratulate Paul, because you can see that he changed the face of the game. But he surprised me with possession play, which we actually tried. I thought it was a spectacular game for the League 2 level. I’m trying to get to know my players, I said I’m going to give everyone a chance, get to know them better and in the summer we’ll draw the line and we’ll make a decision with the club management and we’ll see what direction we go in: to bring up kids from the academy or if possible, no, try to get into the play-offs… I know the problem of the club, I know very well, who were champions in the last two seasons (juniors), unfortunately they couldn’t make the step up to League 2. It’s known, in League 2 they still play more contact football, physical, lots of duels, lots of balls on the ball and I don’t think they could make the step up to the first team. Instead, we gave the opportunity to play to all those who didn’t make the step to League 3. We’re watching, they’re on our radar and we’re hoping to promote a lot more kids from the Academy.”