Final Round of Tour 3 of Optibet Virsliga will begin with the derby of Kurzeme when Liepaja being at 6th place will host Ventspils being at 4th place. The start of battle will begin at 19:00 live on LV7. Taking into account also Latvia Cup and Europe Cup Liepaja under the lead of Alexander Starkov has lost 5 times I succession (goals 3:8) and in 8 games won only once against Metta (3:2), pulling out three lucky points (1-1-6, goals 6:12). There was a dramatic kick-off on Wednesday in the quarterfinal that almost destroyed hopes of Liepaja to get into Euro Cup – whether to finish with medals or get into fours and wait for Riga’s triumph in the tournament. Now the gap between Liepaja and third place is 9 points, and the fourth place – 6 points, Ventspils has one game in reserve. Today’s match can be the last for Liepaja or one of the last chances to step up the struggle for the fours, and Derby of Kurzeme is a very welcome opportunity – Ventspils is a direct competitor and exactly Ventspils has the worst schedule of the unplayed matches, so basically Ventspils is most possible outcast of the four. While Venstpils out of next seven Virsliga matches will play at home against Jelgava and out of rest ten matches at their home field will play only in three matches, Liepaja has on the contrary, much better schedule of the unplayed matches – out of six next games at home and six out of nine left in total will be played in Liepaja. In order to show the bad schedule of Ventspils one has to remind the balance in the season. While Ventspils did not lose not even once in Ventspils area – nine victories and six draws (goals 31:11), out of the area Ventspils won only twice in 14 games – in Daugavpils (3:0) and in Jelgava (2:1). In total out of 14 matches 10 losses and only once clean sheets (15:36). This is going to be the third Kurzeme derby in the season. In first Round Pavel Osipov helped Ventspils to bounce back at their home field (1:1), but in round 2 Liepaja blew out Ventpils with the score 4:0 – hat-trick of Richard Friday and one goal by ex leader of Ventspils Amancio Fortes. The full back Muhammad Abdul Ghaffar is prohibited to play tonight, though after suspension for two matches Yevgeny Kazachok will be allowed to come back. In Liepaja Vadim Zhulev has suffered suspension, and on Wednesday finally Janis Ikaunieks will return being in the first eleven for the first time since July 11th at the match against Minsk Dinamo (1:1). Author : sportacentrs.com PHOTO : Martins Silis