Politehnica travels to Valcea on Saturday, on the city’s Municipal, for the game against CSC Șelimbăr. The match counts for the 2nd stage of the second football league, season 2022/2023. Our boys come after a narrow win in the first round, at home, against Unirii Constanța. The only goal of the match was scored by Cosmin Bîrnoi, after a personal action started from the right flank of our attack.

The second round game was previewed today at a press conference by head coach Bogdan Andone and our defensive midfielder Karlo Plantak.

“We have a tough game ahead of us against a strong team. They’re a fierce team that tries to put a lot of pressure on their opponents, with a lot of balls towards goal. We made efforts during the week to know our opponent, to prepare as well as possible and I hope that on Saturday we will look good both physically and tactically, we will manage to respect what we have prepared and manage to get a positive result”, Bogdan Andone pointed out.

Asked about the level the team is currently at, our head coach said that “the match in the first leg, in terms of pace, intensity, the game itself, was not what we wanted. Every day is important for us, to accumulate, from a physical point of view, from a technical-tactical point of view, I hope the weather will help us because last Saturday it was stiflingly hot, because some of the boys vomited before the game, even at half-time”. The coach of our team believes that the time spent together by the boys day after day helps to build up their playing relationships: “Every extra day of training helps us to get to know each other better, to know what we have to do on the pitch and that’s why I think we’ll look better for Saturday’s game”.

Politehnica is still facing the problem of injuries, which is giving the principal a headache in choosing the first 11 he will send on the pitch: “The absences are still many, quite many, it’s the first time since I’ve been coaching and there are so many problems at once. Unfortunately we’re not immune to this bad luck of injuries, the vast majority of them occurring without contact, practically the players have injured themselves. Unfortunately we need all the players, because we have a thin squad available for the match in Valcea, with a lot of young players in the squad. We have our strengths, experienced and quality players in attack and we have to take advantage of the quality and value of our players to make the difference in Saturday’s game and get the result we want”.

Karlo Plantak: “In every match we will only play to win!”

The defensive midfielder, who arrived this summer from NK Aluminj in the Slovenian second league, spoke about the purple and white club and the conditions he found in Timisoara: “Since I came here, I can only speak well about this club and this city. It’s a great club, it offers everything a professional player could want, the conditions are excellent, a very good pitch, great supporters, very good facilities overall. I’m happy to be here, I’m motivated to show what I’m capable of, to show our fans what football they can play.” Our midfielder also believes that the important trump cards this season will be unity and consistency: “I hope we continue in the next games the way we started, with a win, because we need points. In every match we will play to win, because it’s very important to keep a long winning streak, to play well. I think that in the first match we showed our strength of character, because we had a red card but we all stayed together, united, we played as a team and I think that’s important for the future, to be united, if someone is missing you have to replace him and do everything to win”.

Regarding the match in Valcea on Saturday, the midfielder believes that the game has been prepared in detail by our team: “In the next match we will meet a team with good, experienced players, but we also have our advantages. We know how we have to play, the coach and the rest of the staff have prepared us for all situations, so we are prepared in every way – physically, mentally – for this game and I hope we will come away with three points”.

Answering a question about the infrastructure that Politehnica uses for official matches and training, Karlo said that “the pitch is very good, of course there are not the facilities for spectators that the Paltinisanu stadium has, for example, but the pitch where we train and play matches is very good!”. This fact is also confirmed by the head coach Bogdan Andone: “It’s the best turf I’ve seen on Știința since I’ve been in Timișoara, as a playing surface it’s excellent at the moment, we hope it will remain the same!”.

Karlo Plantak had only words of appreciation for the atmosphere at Știința during the match against Unirea Constanta: “The atmosphere was extraordinary, when you have such fans you don’t feel you are missing anything. It’s not easy for them, they don’t have good conditions to see the game, but when they support you like that … what more could you want?”.

The match CSC Șelimbăr – Politehnica Timișoara will be played on Saturday, August 13, starting at 11.00, at the Municipal Stadium in Râmnicu Vâlcea. The match will not be broadcast on TV, but will be available live on the club’s Youtube channel.