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Team captains will watch the game from the stands

Jagiellonia regain confidence in the Cup, while Gornik look unstoppable at the moment

A heavy defeat against Korona gave birth to doubts among the hosts' ranks because it was their third defeat in four matches out of which they have won only one skinny point. They fell to seventh place and ahead of the 13th round allowed the competition at the top to establish a quite big points difference.

Still, they saw the light in the Cup and played a good game in Wroclaw against Slask, in which they scored a goal in injury time. They reached Cup 1/4 finals and it will be easier for them to reach Europe through the Cup than through the championship. This victory has brought a dash of positive atmosphere amid all the gloom, and they will try to use it in this game and break a winless series.

- We have been encouraged by the Cup win, with which we met our first objective for this year. Now we want to use this in the championship and finally break the negative series. We are aware of how difficult the match with Gornik will be, they are an excellent team, but we are ready for them. We will do everything to win three points - said manager Stokowiec.

The hosts will for this match, beside team captain Grzyb and left fullback Straus, who had already missed a few games, be without injured defender Martin Baran and  suspended defender Tosik, who accumulated yellow cards, as well as keeper Slowik who was sent off in the match against Korona. Despite these absences, Stokowiec revealed that he will not change the way they play.

Gornik are resolutely marching alongside Legia towards the title. Their third win in a row came on home turf in the match with Slask. For a moment that win put them into the leader's position, but after Legia had played their game, things again returned to the way they were.

After the triumph against Slask, a lot of positive things were said about the team, but in interviews with the press the team denied any euphoria. All players sent out a message how the team is rock-solid and with both feet on the ground.

- Last season we learned our lesson, we learned how to be humble. We were in a similar position and competing for trophies. We all know how that ended - said captain Maczynski.

In Bialystok Gornik do not feel comfortable. They almost can not remember the last time they won here, but they also do not care too much for the statistics. Manager Nawala, who has in recent days constantly featured in the media in the context of new Polish national manager, is focused solely on the his team and the best possible preparation. There will be certain changes in the starting lineup, but what the visiting coach is up to is not known. Danch, the team captain, and his teammate from the defense, Magiera, are still out of action, as well as midfielder Nowak who missed the last round too. Besides these three, Nawałka can not count on defender Augustyn either, while the performance of defenders Gancarczyk and Szeweluchin is also in question.

Jagiellonia's bad run started by losing to title holders Legia and has stretched for four league games now. They only won a point in this period, but no one can say they didn't deserve more. In their midweek cup tie against Slask they had luck on their side as they scored a winner in the injury time. This result has definitely reinvigorated them, and they will try to use this momentum to take three points against second-placed Gornik, a team that has been equal to Legia this season, and rightly so. The home team have no problems with scoring goals. Their attack is working flawlessly, but no such thing can be said about their defense. This much is visible from their results so far, especially since that bad run started. The reason for this can be found in suspensions and injuries. Namely, the team captain, midfielder Grzyb, is still out for this match, as well as their left back Straus. Additional problems for coach Stokowiec are the suspensions of defenders Baran and Tosik, as well as goalkeeper Slowik. These are important players, and this will definitely bring down the quality of their defensive line even further. Gornik are in a good form this season, but so they were last season and then fell into an inexplicable crisis of results after the autumn part. However, they claim they have learned their lesson and will not allow anything like that to happen again. The proof of their serious intentions are their results so far. Coach Nawalka prefers attacking play and no departure from it should be expected in this match as that would disrupt their conception and concentration. They like to play football, they like to attack and score goals, especially on the road. But they tend to concede as well. They are on a run of eight matches in which they both scored and conceded, while this season they only played two games in which both teams didn't score. They are trying to improve their defense, albeit without success, as their preferred playing style makes it impossible. Nawalaka isn't without problems of his own with absent players. Defenders Danch (captain) and Magiera have been out for a while, and now he lost reserve defender Augustyn. In addition, important defenders Gancarczyk and Szeweluchin are uncertain for this match. My opinion is that this game - provided that both teams put in their standard performances, and there's no reason to be otherwise - should go over 2.5 goals.