LIVE. Metaloglobus – UTA Arad, in the 30th stage of the Superliga

For the band from Pantelimon, which seems doomed to relegation in the current season, it will be the first game with Florin Bratu at the helm, after Mihai Teja resigned from the post, following the failure with Craiova University last season.

On the other hand, the “textilists” suffered the disappointment of missing the play-off, losing including in the previous stage, 2-4 with FCSB. However, Adi Mihalcea's students are looking to increase their dowry of points, before the play-out and the assault for a Conference League play-off spot.

LIVE » Metaloglobus – UTA Arad 1-0

Metaloglobus – UTA Arad, the starting teams

Metaloglobus (4-2-3-1): Gavrilaș (capt.) – Șîrlea, Camara, R. Bădescu, An. Sava – Carvalho, Sabater – D. Irimia, Purece, Zakir – Huiban
reserves: Nedelcovici, Al. Soare, G. Dumitru, Cestor, R. Neacșu, Al. Gheorghe, Ghimfus, Abbey, Visic, Toutou, D. Popa
Absent: Al. Irimia (suspended), G. Caramalău, Junior Morais (injured)
Coach: Florin Bratu

• For his debut on Metaloglobus' bench, Florin Bratu changed the last system used by Mihai Teha, 5-3-2, to a slightly more offensive formation, 4-2-3-1. Also, Camara, Sava and Carvalho made their place in the starting line-up, replacing Dumitru, Pasagic and Visic.

UTA Arad (4-4-2): Gorcea – Țuțu, Poulolo, Pospelov, Alomerovic – F. Iacob, Hrezdac (capt.), L. Mihai, Tzioni – M. Coman, Abdallah
reserves: Tordai, Benga, Stolnik, Padula, Ov. Popescu, Van Durmen, Taroi, Ciubăncan, Ndon, Tolcea
Absent: S. Mino, R. Odada, A. Roman (suspended)
Coach: Adi Mihalcea

Stadium: Click
Referee: Vlad Baban / ASSISTANT: Florian Vișan and Cosmin Vatamanu
VAR referee: Adrian Cojocaru / Assistant VAR: Sebastian Gheorghe

How the Superliga standings look like in real time:

Florin Bratu: “A difficult but challenging situation”

I was very happy, because when I started the project at CS Dinamo, two and a half years ago – that's why I went there – a lot of people told me: “Braton, you're going to League 3 level, you have a very good, very nice business card behind you”, but that was the situation.

And I said: “Well, if I have passion for this job and I love football, I have to prove here, at Dinamo, that I can do something and follow my dream of returning to League 1”.

This return belongs to Metaloglobus and the people who wanted me here and I thank them in this way, because they gave me the opportunity to return after 8 years in League 1, and I don't want to disappoint them. It is a difficult situation, but at the same time challenging.

With my team, with the staff, with the guys, the management, who are very passionate and give us everything, we will try to do beautiful things in every match. If we take it game by game and fight for points, I'm sure we can have good results.

– Florin Bratu, Metaloglobus coach

Adi Mihalcea: “Any result that is not victory is a negative result for us”

It's the last game of the regular season. We meet the team in last place, but it is a team that practiced a rather pleasant game. It is very important for us how we finish this championship, we know what awaits us in the play-out.

We meet a team that has changed their coach, so there will be some extra motivation from them. I warned the boys that, any result other than victory would be a negative result for us.

– Adrian Mihalcea, UTA Arad coach

The most important details about the match, provided by GSP statistician Liviu Manolache:

• December 7, 2025, Metaloglobus-Farul 2-1 it was the only victory achieved by the people of Bucharest in the last 16 stagesduring which they recorded two more draws and 13 defeats.

• The Arad team lost only one game in the previous seven played in the championship on the opponent's field (February 7, 2026, FK Csikszereda-UTA 2-0), in the rest four successes and two draw results.

• The teams with the most goals conceded from fixed phases meet, Metaloglobus – 20, UTA – 17.

• 10 of the 37 goals scored by the Arada players were headed, 1st place in this chapter, tied with Dinamo.

• Metaloglobus has 12 matches without a goal scored (five in 2026) and only one without a goal conceded.

• UTA occupies the third position in the hierarchy regarding successful dribbles – 239 (Metaloglobus – 199).

• 35 players played for Bucharest in the first 29 stages, 18 of which debuted on the first stage this very season. On the other hand, Adrian Mihalcea relied on only 29 footballers (16 local).

• Also worth noting is the return of Florin Bratu as head coach in the Super League, a competition in which he also coached Dinamo in 2018 (14 matches in 2017/18, 9 matches in 2018/19: 14 wins – 2 draws – 7 defeats).

• The two teams have only met in the main domestic competition in the round of the current regular season, on November 2, 2025, when the Aradians prevailed at home with 2-0, goals scored by Marius Coman and Dmytro Pospielov.