The Club
Astra Giurgiu were founded in 1921 as Astra Romana Sports Club in Ploiesti, a city north of the Romanian capital Bucharest. The club was taken over by Ioan Niculae in 1990 and embarked on its first season in Romania’s top flight in 1998/99. Niculae moved the club from Ploiesti to Giurgiu in 2012 and the club finished 4th in the 2012/13 season, qualifying for the Europa League and ensuring an introduction to continental competition. Astra won the Romanian league title for the first time in their history last season but were knocked out of the Champions League at the third qualifying round stage having been defeated 4-1 on aggregate by FC Copenhagen – their hopes of group stage European football this season now transfer to the Europa League with this play-off against West Ham United.
Astra negotiated their way through two of the Europa League’s qualification rounds last season including, of course, knocking out the Hammers to reach the play-off for the group stage, where they were defeated by AZ Alkmaar of the Netherlands. The Black Devils did qualify for the group stage in 2014/15 however, by defeating French giants Lyon on away goals in the play-off. They subsequently finished bottom of a group containing Red Bull Salzburg, Celtic and Dinamo Zagreb, although they picked up points at home with a draw against the Glasgow side and a win over the Croatians. They did lose 5-1 twice in the group stage, in the away matches in Salzburg and Zagreb.
While Niculae remains the club’s owner, the chairman is former Romanian international goalkeeper Danut Coman, a 37-year-old best known for his two spells with Rapid Bucharest. Head coach Marius Sumudica (pictured below celebrating at the final whistle after the second leg with West Ham last season) is a 45-year-old in his third spell in charge of the club. Sumudica, a former striker standing at 5’10, won the Romanian League with Rapid Bucharest in 1999 and the Romanian Cup with the same club in 1998 and 2002. He has previously managed an array of clubs in Romania, as well as enjoying brief spells coaching in Greece and the United Arab Emirates. Sumudica will not be on the touchline for either leg of this tie though as he is banned from all football activities for two months due to betting breaches
The Players
One of Astra’s most notable players is 27-year-old goalkeeper Silviu Lung Junior (pictured below), who will wear number 1 and stands at 6’2. He is the son of Silviu Lung, who was also a goalkeeper who won 77 caps for his country between 1979 and 1993. Lung Senior represented his country at Euro ’84 and the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where he was captain in all four matches but couldn’t keep out any of Ireland’s penalties as Pat Bonner’s save from Daniel Timofte and David O’Leary’s famous final spot-kick knocked the Romanians out in the second phase. Lung Junior started his career with 57 appearances for Universitatea Craiova between 2007 and 2011, during which time he was the regular goalkeeper for the Romanian Under-21 side. He signed for Astra in 2011 and has since made over 100 appearances for the club. Lung Junior has won six full caps for Romania and was part of the squad for Euro 2016.
Captain Junior Morais (pictured below), who will wear number 13, is a Brazilian left-back who first played for Sao Caetano in the Sao Paulo region in the 2008/09 season before moving to Freamunde, a second tier Portuguese club. The 30-year-old signed for Astra in 2011 where he has since scored 6 goals in 170 matches, winning both the Romanian Cup and the Romanian Supercup in 2014 before lifting the Romanian league title last season. Alongside Junior Morais in defence will be Cristian Sapunaru, a 32-year-old right-back with 16 caps for Romania who comes into the game on the back of scoring two goals at the weekend in a 3-1 victory over Poli Timisoara, the Romanian club beaten 4-1 by West Ham on aggregate in a European Cup Winners’ Cup tie back in 1980. The centre-halves are likely to be Portuguese 35-year-old Geraldo Alves who stands at 6’ tall and 26-year-old Fabricio Silva Dornellas who has been capped by Brazil at Under-20 level and stands at 6’1.
Takayuki Seto (pictured below) is a 30-year-old Japanese holding midfield player who will wear number 8. Standing at just under 6’, Seto started his professional career with Astra Giurgiu in 2007, scoring 30 goals in 254 appearances. He signed for Turkish side Osmanlispor midway through last season but has since returned to Astra on loan. Florin Lovin is a 34-year-old defensive midfielder who spent five years with Steaua Bucharest from 2004 to 2009. Damien Boudjemaa is a 31-year-old French right winger who joined in January after nearly two years with Slavia Prague. Felipe Teixeira is a 35-year-old Portuguese attacking midfielder who lists Paris Saint-Germain, West Brom and Barnsley amongst his previous clubs while 27-year-old Alexandru Stan could play on the left wing. Fernando Boldrin, who scored a belter at Upton Park in the first leg last year, has recently signed for Steaua Bucharest.
Star striker Denis Alibec is sidelined with a long-term knee ligament injury suffered in Romania’s Euro 2016 clash with Albania. 33-year-old Daniel Niculae, formerly of Auxerre and Monaco and winner of 39 Romanian caps, is likely to start up front. Constantin Budescu, whose two goals in the second leg knocked the Hammers out of Europe in the tie last year, signed for Chinese side Dalian Yifang in January but is expected to rejoin Astra on loan until December. Despite hopes that the move would go through in time to register him for the play-off clash with the Hammers, interest from fellow Romanian club Steaua Bucharest has delayed the move.
The Stadium
The first leg of West Ham United’s Europa League play-off against Astra will take place at the Stadionul Marin Anastasovici. The stadium can hold 8,500 spectators and was the home of Dunarea Giurgiu from 1963 until Astra arrived in Giurgiu from Ploiesti in 2012.
The Claret and Blue Army have been allocated 600 tickets in the Blue Stand, which is within the north-west corner of the stadium – the views from the stands are restricted by a large wire fence which will form a cage around the visiting Hammers. Facilities are also basic with toilets provided via temporary installations. The stadium also has no North Stand, so there are no supporters behind one of the goals.
The Country
Romania is in southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea between Ukraine and Bulgaria. It also borders Moldova, Hungary and Serbia. Romania has 19.9 million inhabitants and its capital, Bucharest, is the sixth largest city in the European Union. The official language is Romanian and Europe’s second largest river which flows through ten countries, the Danube, empties in Romania’s Danube Delta.
The match is available to watch on BT Sport 2 in the UK (Sky channel 417 or HD 457, Virgin channel 532 or HD 528, Plusnet channel 410 or HD 432, TalkTalk channel 410) with the programme starting at 7pm for a 7.15pm kick-off.
Blast from the past
Little Mix were number one with ‘Black Magic’ as the Black Devils dumped West Ham United out of the Europa League with a 2-1 third qualifying round second leg victory just over a year ago, on the 6th August 2015 in front of 6,300 at the Stadionul Marin Anastasovici.
Manuel Lanzini gave the severely understrength Hammers a 3rd-minute lead, collecting a pass from Josh Cullen before cutting inside and firing a low right-footed strike beyond Astra custodian Silviu Lung Junior to register a goal on his debut and put the Irons 3-2 up on aggregate with an early away goal.
That was as good as it got for the Hammers as two goals in four minutes from Constantin Budescu gave Astra a 4-3 aggregate victory to ensure they progressed to meet AZ Alkmaar in the play-off round. Budescu’s first on 32 minutes saw Doneil Henry back off before the Astra captain fired under the dive of Darren Randolph. His second saw him left in space in the penalty area and he tucked the ball simply into the corner vacated by Randolph’s early dive.
West Ham United would end the 2015/16 season in 7th position in the Premier League, while Astra Giurgiu would win the Romanian title.
Astra Giurgiu: Silviu Lung Junior, Valerica Gaman, Pedro Queiros, Geraldo Alves (Cristian Oros), Junior Morais, Takayuki Seto, Gabriel Enache, Rick, Felipe Teixeira (Denis Alibec), William, Constantin Budescu (Florin Lovin).
West Ham United: Darren Randolph, Kyle Knoyle, Carl Jenkinson, Doneil Henry, Lewis Page (Alex Pike), Diego Poyet, Josh Cullen, Manuel Lanzini, Kevin Nolan, Modibo Maiga, Elliot Lee (Jordan Brown).
Romanian Connections
Bucharest-born Florin Raducioiu arrived at Upton Park from Espanyol for a club record fee of £2.4m in the summer of 1996, having scored his country’s only goal at Euro ‘96. By the middle of winter, however, he was back in Spain, having played just 12 games and scored 3 times.
Raducioiu registered his first West Ham goal in the 1-1 League Cup home draw with Stockport on 27th November 1996. He notched his first Premier League goal against reigning champions Manchester United on 8th December 1996, the Romanian’s strike halving a 2-0 deficit in the 78th minute to kickstart a cracking comeback completed by Julian Dicks’ thunderous penalty.
Raducioiu denies the claim that he went shopping at Harvey Nichols rather than travel north for the League Cup fourth-round replay defeat at Stockport, saying: “It is not true that before a cup game I went shopping and left the team without a striker”. His third and final goal for the Hammers came on 28th December 1996 in a 2-0 win over Sunderland; current Hammers manager Slaven Bilic scored the first goal that day. Raducioiu formed strong friendships with Bilic and club legend Ludek Miklosko before returning to Espanyol for £1.7m in January 1997.
Speaking to the official website in 2009, Raducioiu stated: “I am very sorry about what happened. I was an important signing for West Ham at that time and I remember Harry Redknapp wanted me a lot and Ilie Dumitrescu was a good friend of mine and playing there. I made a mistake, I wasn’t ready for English football. The way of training was completely different and it led to problems. I’d like to say a big ‘sorry’ to the great fans at Upton Park. My character was a bit aggressive. It was something between two people but I don’t want to offend anybody at West Ham. I had my faults, I should have worked much harder to adapt to the English system”.
West Ham United were one of a number of clubs the striker represented in a career that began at Dinamo Bucharest and included spells in Italy (with Bari, Verona, Brescia and AC Milan), Spain (Espanyol), Germany (Stuttgart) and France (Monaco). In doing so, Raducioiu is one of only two professional footballers, alongside Christian Poulsen, to have plied his trade in the top five European leagues (Germany, Spain, Italy, France and England). He is best known internationally for his four World Cup goals for Romania at USA ’94 – in total he won 40 caps for his country, scoring 21 goals.
Raducioiu, now 46, retired in 2004 after a short stint with modest French side US Créteil-Lusitanos. He had brief spells as a sports agent and as sporting director at Dinamo Bucharest. He has since taken his coaching badges at the Italian FA’s training centre in Coverciano with a view to returning to football and moving back to Brescia, his wife’s home city, permanently.
Referee
Thursday’s officials are from Portugal, with the referee being 37-year-old Artur Dias; he was the man in the middle for Monaco’s 3-1 Champions League qualifying third round second leg win over Fenerbahce earlier this month, a match which saw former West Ham United striker Emmanuel Emenike score for the Turkish club as they bowed out 4-3 on aggregate. Dias showed four yellow cards in that game and awarded one penalty, which was converted by former Manchester United and Chelsea striker Radamel Falcao. Dias has also refereed an Under-21 European Championship Play-Off as well as matches at the Under-20 World Cup in 2015 and the 2011 Under-17 European Championships.
Possible line-ups
Astra Giurgiu are expected to name their strongest available line up as they bid to knock the Hammers out of European football for a second successive season, with star men Silviu Lung Jr, Junior Morais and Takayuki Seto all set to start.
Slaven Bilic is likely to name as strong a side as possible despite a Premier League match at home against Bournemouth on Sunday. Havard Nordtveit, Andre Ayew and Dimitri Payet have not travelled. Arthur Masuaku played 30 minutes in his former club Olympiakos’ Champions League third qualifying round second leg defeat to Hapoel Be’er Sheva and is consequently ineligible to play in either of West Ham United’s Europa League play-off legs with Astra Giurgiu – Sam Byram is set to start at left-back. With Michail Antonio finally set to return to his rightful position on the wing after injuries to Ayew and Sofiane Feghouli, Reece Burke could come in at right-back. Pedro Obiang could replace Nordtveit with skipper Mark Noble playing in a more advanced role, while Darren Randolph will start in goal. New striker Jonathan Calleri was registered in time and has travelled.
Possible Astra Giurgiu XI: Lung; Sapunaru, Fabricio, Alves, Junior Morais; Seto, Lovin; Boudjemaa, Teixeira, Stan; Niculae.
Possible West Ham United XI: Randolph; Burke, Collins, Reid, Byram; Obiang, Kouyate; Antonio, Noble, Valencia; Carroll.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!
You have until 6.10pm tonight to enter the Predictor League as it’s a 7.15pm kick off.