In the summer of 2017, head coach Șumudică left Astra Giurgiu after his contract expired and was replaced by Edward Iordănescu, and also the first-team squad was almost entirely changed. This season was meant for the reconstruction of the team. The team budget was strictly decreased and Astra's new squad was the second youngest in the league. Manager Edward Iordanescu, commonly known as Edi Iordanescu brought some good experienced players such as Filip Mrzljak, Florin Bejan, Erico Constantino da Silva, Piotr Polczak, and Anatole Abang. In the first match of the season, Astra easily won 3–1 at Giurgiu against Azerbaijani minnows Zira FK with more than half of the team being debutants. After a 0–0 in Baku they qualified in the Europa League 3rd qualifying round. They were drawn against Ukrainian club FC Oleksandriya, and, after a uneventful 0–0 draw at Giurgiu, Astra were beaten 1–0 in Ukraine in the last match ever played in an international competition. Nobody had big expectations from the former champions that season, but they had a very good campaign qualifying for the Play-Offs with a match to spare and finishing 5th in the league, just two points off the European spots. The style of play changed too, from Sumudica's attack minded free-flowing style to a more defensive, counter-attack based playstyle. That season, Astra was a team hard to beat by the big teams, and rarely put a foot wrong against smaller clubs. Their best player that season was their goalkeeper Plamen Iliev who had many outstanding performances. Also, Alexandru Ionita had a spectacular breakout season