Article by Alexandru Stanciu – Published Tuesday, May 26, 2026, 6:10 p.m. / Updated Tuesday, May 26, 2026, 6:10 p.m.
Although he was not surprised that the University of Craiova won the event in the season that just ended, “Guriță” is of the opinion that the formation trained by Filipe Coelho cannot fight on an equal footing with the teams it will meet on the way to the most important European interclub competition.
The University of Craiova will be seeded in the first preliminary round of the Champions League qualifiers. The draw for Round 1 takes place on June 16 and the matches are played on July 7-8 and July 15-16 respectively.
Cosmin Contra does not believe in the chances of the University of Craiova qualifying for the Champions League group: “We do not compare ourselves to Hungary”
“We are not comparing ourselves to Hungary, where Ferencvaros has a budget as big as all our top teams. So we can't compare. We cannot reach the Champions League with budgets of 10 million euros.
We can meet in the last preliminary round with teams that have a budget of 150 million euros. There are always surprises in football, but in recent years we have not been able to produce surprises with any team.
After so many years in which Mihai Rotaru did things as well as possible, because he invested in the infrastructure, in the team, he was consistent in bringing coaches, I think it is not necessarily surprising that the University of Craiova became the champion”, said Cosmin Contra, according to digisport.ro.
Cosmin Contra is currently the coach of Al Arabi, with whom they finished the Qatar Championship in 6th place with 32 points, 13 behind champions Al-Sadd. Previously, “Guriță” coached FC Timișoara, Fuenlabrada, Petrolul Ploiesti, Getafe, Guangzhou City, Dinamo twice, the Romanian national team, Al-Ittihad, Damac and Al-Kholood.
