“He should have given him the second yellow”

A penalty converted by Andrei Cordea in the 70th minute made the difference in the Cluj derby.

Ovidiu Bic feels that his team was dragged down both by the absence of top scorer Jovo Lukic and by the physical effort made 4 days ago, in the semi-finals of the Cup, where the University played 120 minutes against FC Argeș.

Ovidiu Bic's conclusions after CFR Cluj – U Cluj 1-0

“We knew that a very important match was waiting for us, a match, a derby, very difficult.

I started the match less well, I think the fatigue was seen after the Cup match, in which I played 120 minutes. In the second half, we recovered a little, we came into control of the game a little. It was a balanced game, that's how derbies are, a lot of fighting.

Unfortunately, that penalty came and we lost 1-0 even though we forced the end and tried to score as well. That's it, we have nothing to do. We still have very important matches to play and many points at stake.

Lukic is our goalscorer, he scored a lot of goals. It's clear that he's very important for us and we're sorry he didn't play today, but I hope he'll be fit for the next match,” Bic told DigiSport.

Asked if this result means we have a 3-way battle for the title, with CFR a new candidate for the trophy, Bic replied that “there has been a lot of talk about the title lately. Our objective was to win a European cup. We will fight until the end for it, we will give everything in every match and we will see where we rank”.

As for the phase in which it seemed that the “central” Szabolcs Kovacs wanted to show the second “yellow” to Karlo Muharbut changed his mind along the way, Bic opined that “he clearly wanted to give the second yellow and, probably after he saw that he had one more, he changed his mind and didn't give it. It was a good counter-attack for us, it was clear that he should have given the second yellow. I didn't hear what he said, but for sure, from his gesture, that was it.”