Asociația Fotbal Club Astra Giurgiu is a Romanian professional football club based in Giurgiu, Giurgiu County. The club have participated in 4 editions of the club competitions governed by UEFA, three in Europa League and one in Champions League. In 2013–14 season, they managed to qualify for the group stages of Europa League for the first time, after defeating French giants Olympique Lyon; they finished fourth in a group against Red Bull Salzburg, Celtic, and Dinamo Zagreb. In 2016–17, they knocked out English side West Ham United, after 2–2 at London and 2–1 at Giurgiu.
In 2015–16 Liga I the club managed to win the title for the first time in their history; that meant qualification to the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round. The club drew FC København, and couldn't manage to win the tie after drawing 1–1 in Giurgiu and losing 0–3 in Copenhagen against the Danish team.
In the Europa League play-off Astra was drawn against English side West Ham United and managed to eliminate them for the second successive season, by winning 1–0 at the Olympic Stadium after having drawn 1–1 at home.
After qualifying, the club was seeded in Group E against AS Roma, Viktoria Plzen, and Austria Wien. Astra managed to come second after a tight group and qualified for the round of 32 where they played against Belgian side KRC Genk.
All-time statistics
CompetitionUEFA Champions League1201114–3UEFA Europa League5381512114850–2 Total 6 40 15 13 12 49 54 –5
Opponents
CountryClub AustriaAustria Wien210144 0Red Bull Salzburg200227–5 Subtotal4103611–5 AzerbaijanZira211031+2 Subtotal211031+2 BelgiumGenk201123–1 Subtotal201123–1 CroatiaDinamo Zagreb210125–3 Subtotal210125–3 CyprusOmonia211032+1 Subtotal211032+1 Czech RepublicSlovan Liberec220062+4Viktoria Plzeň211032+1 Subtotal431094+5 DenmarkCopenhagen201114–3 Subtotal201114–3 EnglandWest Ham United422064+2 Subtotal422064+2 FranceLyon2101220 Subtotal2101220 [IsraelMaccabi Haifa201113–2 Subtotal201113–2 ItalyRoma201104–4 Subtotal201104–4 NetherlandsAZ Alkmaar210134–1 Subtotal210134–1 ScotlandCeltic201123–1Inverness211010+1 Subtotal4121330 SloveniaDomžale220030+3 Subtotal220030+3 SlovakiaTrenčín211053+2 Subtotal211053+2 UkraineOleksandriya201101–1 Subtotal201101–1 Total401513124954–5
History of matches
Notes for the abbreviations in the tables below:
1QR: First qualifying round 2QR: Second qualifying round 3QR: Third qualifying round PO: Play-off round R32: Round of 32
Season Competition Round Club Home Away Aggregate 2013–14 UEFA Europa League 1Q Domžale 2–0 1–0 3–0 2Q Omonia 1–1 2–1 3–2 3Q AS Trenčín 2–2 3–1 5–3 PO Maccabi Haifa 1–1 0–2 1–3 2014–15 UEFA Europa League 3Q Slovan Liberec 3–0 3–2 6–2 PO Lyon 0–1 2–1 2–2 (a) Group D Red Bull Salzburg 1–2 1–5 4th Celtic 1–1 1–2 Dinamo Zagreb 1–0 1–5 2015–16 UEFA Europa League 2Q Inverness CT 0–0 1–0 1–0 3Q West Ham United 2–1 2–2 4–3 PO AZ 3–2 0–2 3–4 2016–17 UEFA Champions League 3Q Copenhagen 1–1 0–3 1–4 UEFA Europa League PO West Ham United 1–1 1–0 2–1 Group E Viktoria Plzeň 1–1 2–1 2nd Roma 0–0 0–4 Austria Wien 2–3 2–1 R32 Genk 2–2 0–1 2–3 2017–18 UEFA Europa League 2Q Zira 3–1 0–0 3–1 3Q Oleksandriya 0–0 0–1 0–1
Top scorers PlayerCountryGoals1Constantin Budescu Romania92Kehinde Fatai Nigeria53Denis Alibec Romania44Fwayo Tembo Zambia35Sadat Bukari Ghana6Takayuki Seto Japan27Alexandru Dandea Romania8Gabriel Enache Romania9Filipe Teixeira Portugal10Fernando Boldrin Brazil11Mirko Ivanovski Macedonia112Valerică Găman Romania13Cristian Săpunaru Romania14William De Amorim Brazil15Laurențiu Rus Romania16Alexandru Stan Romania17Alexandru Ioniță Romania18George Florescu Romania19Aurelian Chițu Romania20Daniel Florea Romania21Anthony Le Tallec France
External links UEFA website