West Ham will be facing the Romanian Champions Astra Giurgiu for the second year running. Many Hammers fans will still have a nasty taste in their mouth after we got eliminated by them last season.
Astra originally qualified for the Champions League qualifying however due to them losing 4-1 on aggregate to København in qualifying they drop down to the Europa League qualifying and will play West Ham.
Astra was founded in 1921 in Ploiesti, Prahova County, as Clubul Sportiv Astra-Română, they spent the majority of their time in lower leagues until 1990, when they were taken under ownership of businessman Ioan Niculae.
Astra first entered the Europa League after finishing the 2012-2013 season in 4th place. Their first Europa League match they beat NK Domžale who West Ham also know after beating them 4-2 this season.
The club plays its home matches in Giurgiu at the Marin Anastasovici Stadium, which they only moved to in 2012. It has a current capacity of approximately 8,500 spectators.
Last season they finished top of Liga I by 3 points while also winning the Supercupa României 1-0 against CFR Cluj.
So far Astra Giurgiu have only played two matches in Europe this season and both have been against København in which they drew their home game 1-1 in which they scored first in the 7th minute with Filipe Teixeira before conceding in the 64th minute to Thomas Delaney. In the replay away they failed to score and conceded 3 in the first half.
Denis Alibec is a key player for Astra, he finished last season as their top goal scorer with 16 in all competitions while playing as striker. Another key player could be their goalkeeper Silviu Lung Jr. he was part of Romania’s 2016 European Championships team and kept 9 clean sheets last season, however, he has already conceded 8 goals in the past 4 games.
West Ham will be looking to get revenge for last years cruel knock-out against Astra, West Ham play away in Astra first on the 18th August before playing at the Olympic Stadium on the 25th August.
