Marked for Sergiu Mitrita
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Aug 2027
No end in sight to Petrolul's wait for a win
21 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Petrolul has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Cristian Marin: 2 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Match18 Aug 2027
Voluntari ended it 0‑0. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad23 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Petrolul may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad23 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match21 Aug 2027
A bad afternoon for Petrolul against Astra
0‑2 to Astra, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match14 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Petrolul
19 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A fracture rules Sergiu Mitrita out for 22 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Petrolul will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad16 Aug 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Umut Dilek for 17 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Petrolul will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Petrolul training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Valentin Creţu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad16 Aug 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Octavian Popescu, and the manager let it.
Loan watch16 Aug 2027
“I did not go to FCSB to sit and watch. I want to come back to Petrolul and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Match14 Aug 2027
A 1‑1 draw with FCSB leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
5.63. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match7 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Petrolul
18 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match7 Aug 2027
0‑3 to Pandurii, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Petrolul may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The terraces9 Aug 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 5 of the 24 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad9 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Petrolul this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market9 Aug 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Claudiu Hagi has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Petrolul.
Squad9 Aug 2027
The manager makes an example of Antônio Machado
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom9 Aug 2027
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.