Politehnica Tim Timisoara starts the regular season’s second leg of the Ligii 3 on Saturday, with an important duel for points at home, in the company of Minerul Lupeni. A win in the direct match would take the white-violets over the Hunedoreni in the standings.

“It’s a pretty important match, considering that the second leg is starting and already the points are more valuable now, considering that there will be fewer matches to play. We know which opponent we will face. There are indeed changes in both teams, they have a few more players than in the first leg. For us, the changes are due to the fact that the players have already gained some competitive experience, but there are still nine games plus the cup matches. For those who haven’t played at senior level at all, that makes a difference. Plus the boys have understood or understand more and more what we want to do on the pitch, what we are trying to put into practice from game to game and we have shown enough consistency in the last few rounds. We are looking forward to the game. I think it’s less relevant whether we’ve had more away or at home, I think what’s going to be relevant is what we’re going to do on the pitch and the fact that we’ve got almost the whole squad valid. And it will be a match in which we can evaluate ourselves practically“, said Cristian Gălan, head coach of Politehnicii Timisoara.

Aurel Vlaicu and David Ciurel are back from suspension at Poli, while the news regarding the injured players has been better lately. “The whole squad is training, except for Victor, who had surgery yesterday, but some with a few physical problems, we don’t have our physical training up to speed yet because they’ve been out for five weeks or more. We are training but we are not 100% the whole lot,” said the coach of the white-violets.

The only player who certainly cannot be counted on in the coming period is Victor Pruna, who underwent knee surgery on Tuesday, he was diagnosed with a torn meniscus after being injured in training. “I spoke with him, he is feeling good now, he has very good morale because he was suffering a lot that until we got the MRI he didn’t know if he also had ligament problems. After we got the MRI and it showed that he only had a torn meniscus, his morale improved a bit. But the doctor didn’t know 100% until he was having surgery. During the surgery the ligament was not affected, he only had surgery for a torn meniscus and now he is fine and is looking forward to being back with us. Let’s hope that he will be 100% fit by the start of training (winter),” said Cristi Gălan.

In the first round of the championship, the two teams drew 2-2 in Lupeni, in the first round of the championship, a match in which the white-violets managed to equalize in numerical inferiority.

“It’ll probably be at least the same, if not tougher, because it’s a style that Lupeni like. They like a strong style, where long balls and physical duels predominate, because they have players who know how to do that. We expect that. The guys are prepared to do the same in the way they get involved and we try to play what we want to play every game. We know that we have a tough game ahead of us, but I think we are on the right track and at the end of the game we come out of the field winners!”, Cristian Gălan, head coach Politehnica Timisoara

The game Politehnica Timisoara – Minerul Lupeni will be played on Saturday, from 14.00, in the 10th round of League 3, Series 9, at the “Electrica” stadium. Before this match, the white-violets are in 6th place with 13 points, three points less than their opponents from Hunedoara county, in 4th position. Tickets for this game are already available online on the portal Bilete.ro.Tickets will also be available at the stadium one hour before kick-off.