FC Astra Giurgiu

FC Astra Giurgiu

Full name	Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu
Nickname(s)	Dracii Negrii (Black Devils)
Short name	Astra Giurgiu
Founded	1921 (1921) as Astra-Română Sports Club [1]
Ground	Marin Anastasovici
Ground Capacity	8,500[2]
Owner	Ioan Niculae
Chairman	Dănuţ Coman
Manager	Marius Șumudică
League	Liga I
2014–15	Liga I, 4th
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu is a Romanian professional football club from Giurgiu, Romania. They were founded in 1921, in Ploiești and spent the vast majority of their history in the lower leagues. Only after 1990, when the club was taken under the ownership of Ioan Niculae, did it begin to achieve lasting success, starting with the first season of Liga I in 1998–99. They are currently playing in the country's top league, Liga I.

Dracii Negrii qualified for the very first time in its history to the UEFA Europa League at the end of the 2012–13 Liga I season, after it finished 4th in the table.

Astra Giurgiu was known as Astra Ploiești until September 2012, when it was moved from Ploiești to Giurgiu, by its owner, Ioan Niculae.

The traditional colours of the team are white and black.

History

Early years

Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română (Astra-Română Sports Club) was founded on 18 September 1921 by the "Astra-Română" Society, an oil-company owned by Henri Deterding and based in Prahova. Initially, the club consisted of several football sides based in towns from the entire county. The players of these teams were workers of the company.^[3]

In the summer of 1934, the inaugural edition of the "Astra" Societies Cup” was organised by the rafinery, a trophy open for all the Astra teams. The matches were played in the town of Moreni. At the time, the refinery had only one team, Astra Română Câmpina, that was playing in the district championship. In order to make the cup more attractive, the society created three new football sides for the event: Astra Română Moreni, Astra Română Boldești and Astra Română Unirea Hârsa.

After the 1937 edition of the Cup, the society decided to merge all of its Prahova teams and thus created Astra Română Ploiești on 29 May 1937. The team was registered in the district championship. Just a few months after the team's foundation, the society changed its name to Columbia and moved it to a ground located near the society's headquarters, in Câmpina.

In May 1945, Astra Română Ploiești was reformed and played its home matches on the old Columbia Stadium, a stadium that still exists today in Ploiești.

Recent history

In the summer of 1992, Astra were promoted for the first time to the Divizia C. The following seasons it finished 6, 12, 3 and 14 in the championship.

In the summer of 1996, it merged with Danubiana București, it changed its name to Danubiana Ploiești, and played for the first time in the Divizia B. After one season the club changed its name back to Astra.

In the summer of 1998, Astra were promoted to the Divizia A for the first time. They played at this level for five consecutive seasons, until 2003, when it merged with Petrolul Ploiești.^[4]

Two years of pause passes for Astra, until 2005, when Ioan Niculae founded once again the club directly in the Liga II. It was relegated to the Liga III after only one season. In the summer of 2007, the club was renamed FC Ploiești promoted back to the Liga II at the end of the season.

In the summer of 2009, after six years, it played once again in the Liga I, with promotion achieved at the end of the 2008–09 season. It changed its name back to the traditional Astra Ploiești and the black and white colours were brought back, hence the team's old nickname, "The Black Devils".^[5]

After 91 years in Ploiești, in September 2012, the club moved to Giurgiu.^[6] The last match played in the Astra Stadium was on 2 September 2012, against Bucharest giants Dinamo București, won by Astra 1–0. The first game played on the Marin Anastasovici Stadium was on 23 September 2012, against Gaz Metan Mediaș. Astra won 4–0.

It qualified for the first time to the UEFA Europa League at the end of the 2012–13 Liga I season, after finishing 4th in the table.

The 2013–14 season was the most successful season in the club's history, reaching 2nd place in Liga I, losing the title by only five points to Steaua București and winning the Romanian Cup on penalties against the same team, Steaua. One month later they defeated Steaua București on penalties again, and won the Romanian Supercup.

European participations

2013–14 Europa League campaign

Astra Giurgiu played its first European match ever in first qualification round of UEFA Europa League against Domžale, winning 1–0 in the first leg. In the second leg in Bucharest, Astra won 2–0 and qualified. In the second qualification round, Astra draw 1–1 with Omonia in the first leg in Bucharest and beat 2–1 in the second leg in Nicosia to advance. Seeded team after eliminating Omonia, Astra was drawn in third qualification round with Trenčín and qualified after winning 3–1 the first leg in Dubnica nad Váhom and drawing 2–2 in the second leg in Bucharest. In play-off, Astra faced the very first European defeat in a 0–2 against Maccabi Haifa in the first leg in Haifa, thus being eliminated after drawing 1–1 in the second leg in Bucharest.

Europa League 2014–15 group stages

Astra qualified directly in the third qualifying round after winning the Romanian Cup and met Slovan Liberec, winning both legs 3–0 in Giurgiu and 3–2 in Liberec, this time being the first European match to take place in Giurgiu. In the play-off round, Astra met French squad Olympique Lyon. They defeated them in Lyon in a 2–1 win, with Kehinde Fatai and Constantin Budescu scoring the goals of victory. In Giurgiu, Olympique Lyonnais won 1–0 but Astra Giurgiu went on to the group stage phase due to the away goal rule. They were subsequently drawn in Group D alongside Red Bull Salzburg, Glasgow Celtic and Dinamo Zagreb. Astra began their group stage adventure with a harmful 1–5 defeat at Stadion Maksimir in Zagreb against Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb, ending with Aurelian Chițu scoring their first goal in the group stages of a European cup. On 2 October 2014, Astra played against Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg one of the most important matches held on Marin Anastasovici Stadium in Giurgiu. Astra took the 1–0 lead with Takayuki Seto's goal, but were stunned by Soriano's winner, losing 1–2. In matchday three, Astra faced Celtic at Glasgow, and hold them to a goalless draw until Stefan Šćepović's opener, a match that ended 1–2. In matchday four, Astra hold Celtic in a 1–1 draw at Giurgiu, with William Amorim scoring the equaliser that brought their first group stage point. In matchday five, Astra won 1–0 against Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb with Sadat Bukari's winner, and secured its first ever victory in the UEFA Europa League group stages. Astra's Europa League was concluded at Red Bull Arena in Salzburg with another harmful 1–5 defeat to FC Salzburg. Astra ended in fourth place with four points, behind Red Bull Salzburg with 16 points, Celtic with eight and Dinamo Zagreb with six points.

Rankings

Club world ranking These are the IFFHS club's points as of January 2016:[7] Pos. Team Points 87 Braga 137,5 88 Salzburg 136,0 89 Astra 135,5 90 USM Alger 135,0 91 LDU Quito 135,0

UEFA club coefficient rankings As of 12 November 2015.[8] Pos. Team Points 151 Vorskla 11.376 152 Bursaspor 11.180 153 Astra 11.076 154 HJK 10.980 155 Hajduk 10.775

Crest and colors

Astra's primary colors are white and black, although the kit design also included red on many occasions, especially on the away outfits..

The present Astra crest was adopted in July 2009, following the team's promotion from Liga II. The design is based on a classical template, and is characterized by the same black and white stripes which can be found on the team's shirts. The numerous stars which adorn the crest have their origin in the club's name, with Astra (like Steaua) being a Romanian word that translates as "star".

Rivalries

After Astra's premiere promotion to the Divizia A in the summer of 1998, its few fans engaged in a grudge with their cross-town rivals Petrolul Ploiești. Often, the matches between Astra and Petrolul ended with violent clashes between the supporters of both teams. Most Astra fans consider Petrolul as their main rivals, but the Yellow Wolves regard Rapid București as their main arch-enemies. Even after the moving of the team to Giurgiu, the rivalry is kept, because between Giurgiu and Petrolul, there's an old rivalry kept from the time when Petrolul was playing in the Romanian 2nd league.

Honours

Cups

Cupa României

Winners (1): 2013–14

• Supercupa României

Winners (1): 2014

Leagues

• Liga I

Runners-up (1): 2013–14

• Liga II

Winners (1): 1997–98

Runners-up (1): 2008–09

• Liga III

Winners (1): 2007–08

Players

First team squad

As of 29 January 2016 ^[9]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Silviu Lung Jr. 2 DF Geraldo Alves 7 FW Denis Alibec 8 MF Takayuki Seto (on loan from Osmanlıspor) 9 MF Gabriel Enache 11 FW Daniel Florea 12 GK George Gavrilaș 13 DF Júnior Morais 14 FW Romario Moise 15 DF Cristian Oroș 19 MF Boubacar Mansaly 20 MF Florin Lovin 21 FW Daniel Niculae 23 MF Fernando Boldrin

No. Position Player 24 MF Iulian Roșu 25 DF Valerică Găman (captain) 30 MF Damien Boudjemaa 31 MF Alexandru Ioniță 33 GK Ionuț Boșneag 34 DF Ricardo Alves 77 MF Alexandru Stan 80 MF Filipe Teixeira 84 DF Pedro Queirós 88 DF Alexandru Dandea 91 MF William De Amorim 97 DF Mihnea Nicorescu — DF Adrian Scarlatache

Club Officials

Board of directors Role Name Owner Ioan Niculae President Petre Buduru Executive President Dănuţ Coman General Manager Gabriel Cazan Economic Director Georgeta Apostol Sporting Director Costel Lazăr Team Manager Mihai Matei CCJ Director Gheorghe Rohat Responsible for Order and Safety Mihai Iordache

Current technical staff As of 12 August 2015.[10] Role Name Manager Marius Șumudică Assistant Manager Bogdan Andone Assistant Manager Cristian Petre Goalkeeping Coach Valentin Covaciu Fitness Coach Carmel Bărburescu Club Doctor Mircea Miu Masseur Viorel Roman Masseur Dragoş Paraschiv Storeman Dumitru Radu

Shirt sponsor and supplier Kit supplier Shirt sponsor Puma InterAgro

Records

League history

Romanian Cup history

Romanian League Cup history

European Cups history

Season	Competition	Round	Club	Home	Away	Aggregate
2013–14	UEFA Europa League	1Q	Domžale	2–0	1–0	3–0
		2Q	Omonia	1–1	2–1	3–2
		3Q	AS Trenčín	2–2	3–1	5–3
		PO	Maccabi Haifa	1–1	0–2	1–3
2014–15	UEFA Europa League	3Q	Slovan Liberec	3–0	3–2	6–2
		PO	Lyon	0–1	2–1	2–2 (a)
		Group D	Red Bull Salzburg	1–2	1–5	4th
			Celtic	1–1	1–2
			Dinamo Zagreb	1–0	1–5
2015–16	UEFA Europa League	2Q	Inverness Caledonian Thistle	0–0	1–0	1–0
		3Q	West Ham United	2–1	2–2	4–3
		PO	AZ Alkmaar	3–2	0–2	3–4

Notes

• 1Q: First qualifying round
• 2Q: Second qualifying round
• 3Q: Third qualifying round
• PO: Play-off round

Former managers

References

External links

• Official site
• Official Facebook page
• Club profile on LPF's official website
• Club profile on UEFA's official website
• Club profile on RomanianSoccer website
• Club profile on Liga1 website