The Politehnica Timisoara football team achieved its first victory in this season’s League III against Minerului Lupeni.

In the second stage of the play-off, the score of the match against the team from the Jiului Valley was 3-1 (1-0).

The beginning of the match was one without scoring chances, with the guests having more of the initiative. The first chances to open the scoring came from Marincu (27, found with a deep pass, is blocked in the box) and Baidoo (29, fails to beat Mosoarcă from 6 m).

Timișoren open the scoring in the 40th minute. After a cross from the left by R. Ciurel, the goalscorer Istratie (on his 14th goal in this championship) headed home from near the bottom of the box. The last important phase of the first half was a Miner’s free kick, sent by Al. Popescu just wide (min. 45+2).

Mosoarcă’s goalkeeper, Mosoarcă, comes to the rescue: he saves June’s shot in the corner (49), then catches June’s shot (52). Istratie sends the ball across the face of goal, Marincu can’t reach it (54). Petea sends over from the box (55). In the 58th minute, a huge chance to increase the lead, but two Polista players fail to connect from a free kick. Marincu, shot saved by the goalkeeper (60).

The 64th minute brings another goal for the hosts. Euro-goal by Prună, with a low shot from 21 meters, under the crossbar, after an extraordinary combination. 2-0!

June tries another shot from outside the box wide (76). D. Ciurel also shoots wide (83).

The visitors’ hopes were rekindled in the 90+2 minute. From a corner on the right, Dr. Vlad headed into the net from the penalty area. It was 2-1 and there were two minutes left in the extra time signaled by the reserve referee. And in the 90+4th minute the dice are definitely cast. Mosoarcă cleared a long ball, Istratie headed back for D. Ciurel, he sent back from the corner line, somewhere on the left, for Prună, and the right midfielder shot first time into the long corner, making the “double”.

It’s 3-1, it’s final, what a final! After a very good game on both sides, as rarely seen at this level, Poli gets a deserved victory against a brave and courageous opponent.

The very young team showed, first of all, maturity. They accepted to cede the initiative, attacked positively but also on the counter-attack and hit on the counter-attack. The intelligence of young coach Cristi Gălan’s tactical plan paid off.

Noteworthy is the large number of Miner Lupeni supporters who were present at the match.

Politehnica: Mosoarcă – Miclăuș (78, Nagy) , D. Roșu, Vlaicu, R. Ciurel – Pureca, Militaru (71, Rotariu) – Prună, D. Popa, Marincu (c) (61, D. Ciurel) – Istratie. Reserves: Enășescu – Amariei, Huminic, Tătaru, Boariu. Coach: Cristian Gălan.

Poli is back in first place with 38 points. Three consecutive away trips are next for the White-Violets!

“A very important victory against a very good opponent. I congratulate the Lupeni team for today’s game. I think it was a game at least at League 2 level, not League 3 play-off. It was a very good match, with a very good intensity, with very good game organization from both sides. I’m very happy that we are the winners today because we worked for this victory and the boys are admirable. We knew how hard we had to fight to beat Lupeni. We prepared for this and I congratulate them once again.

I congratulate Victor for both goals. For us, Victor’s execution is nothing new (editor’s note on goal 2) because we have three or four of this kind in training every week, where he comes out. He’s had situations in other games where he’s hit the bar or the keeper has taken it out in extremis, we know what Victor can do. We are happy, because since he came back from injury he has been a very important player for us and he contributes a lot to the team’s development.

Unfortunately, probably due to a lack of concentration in the 91st minute, we didn’t organize ourselves properly, we knew what our opponent does in fixed phases, we trained this, we knew who should get there, who should block. Unfortunately we conceded that goal, we’re happy that we conceded another goal after that and that calmed things down, because otherwise the final was incendiary. Of course we were nervous, because the opposing team was coming with a momentum on us and balls thrown into the box can lead to a fluke and we couldn’t control that. It created maybe a panic, but the boys reacted very well after conceding the goal, we scored another goal, we had enough maturity to handle the situation and despite our youth we had maturity. It’s a very nice thing.

We have three consecutive away games, we know the schedule, we know that after that we have home games again and then we go on another away game… we have to play every team three times, home or away, we have to play every team, that’s the format. The play-offs have just started, seven games to go. The teams are all good. This game looked like a match above League 3… very determined teams, each knew what they wanted and both wanted the win. The games are wide open, we can’t say that anything has happened at this point. No, we are happy that we are in first place and three points ahead, but you have seen how tight the championship is and any team can win. I was at the match yesterday (n.r. Ghiroda – Pecica 2-1), very tight and that game, it’s clear. All in all, I want to congratulate our opponents, because they played a very good game and we put on a show for the public who attended the match”, said Cristian Gălan, head coach of Politehnicii Timisoara.