West Ham United’s Europa League opponents Astra Giurgiu haven’t had the best preparations for the crunch decider on Thursday night.
FC Astra coach Marius Sumudica during training
Romanian champions Astra, who held the Hammers to a 1-1 draw in the first leg in their homeland, warmed up for their second leg clash with a 5-1 defeat to Cluj on Sunday.
Meanwhile Slaven Bilic’s side were busy seeing off Bournemouth 1-0 in the Premier League despite feilding a hugely understrength side due to a wave of injuries.
It is a case of winner takes all for the second leg with the victors qualifying for the Europa League group stages.
FC Astra Giurgiu’s Denis Alibec (hidden) scores their first goal
Astra are finding things tough going domestically after their manager, Marius Sumudica, was banned for six months by Romania’s football federation for betting offences.
Sumudica placed bets between 500 euros and 900 euros on several matches in the Romanian championship, the Champions League, Europa League as well as Romania’s junior teams’ matches, according to the federation.
Astra somehow managed to keep 11 men on the pitch in their embarrassing defeat to Cluj despite having eight players booked.
FC Astra Giurgiu’s Florin Lovin in action with West Ham United’s Jonathan Calleri
Most fans would assume Samudica, who is allowed on the bench for the Europa League matches, had made a host of changes in order to rest players for the trip to East London.
But in fact it was the same side which drew with West Ham three days before.
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic with Dimitri Payet
Bilic will be hoping his side can expose Astra’s deficiencies as Cluj did and he may well have Dimitri Payet or Manuel Lanzini back on the bench having pledged to bring one of them back in as they come back from injury.
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