This weekend Lotto Ekstraklasa came back to Tricity after a winter break. In the 22nd round of the league teams from Tricity both played their matches home. On Saturday Lechia Gdansk hosted Wisla Krakow and on Sunday Arka Gdynia welcomed Lech Poznan at their stadium. Both teams finished their games with draws gaining single league points only.
Lechia Gdansk – Wisla Krakow
On Saturday evening lights at Energa stadium in Gdansk lit up for Lechia’s first league game after the winter break. Filip Mladenovic from Serbia, a new player of Lechia Gdansk debuted in the game playing from the first minute. The match was very leveled what we can see by statistics of ball possession (48% Lechia, 52% Wisla). Lechia players however were creating more chances. 4 out of 9 attempts were on target whereas Wisla shot on target only once.
All goals in the first half
This one shot was enough to begin the score though. After a mistake from Kuciak, Bogucki from Wisla passed the lost ball to Carlitos Lopez. The Spanish forward lobbed the goalkeeper from Gdansk and the score 0:1 appeared on the board in the 15th minute of the game. Lechia didn’t want to give up the game though. They rushed to the attack making three attempts. The fourth attempt in the 33rd minute resulted with a score for the White&Greens. Peszko knew well what to do with a pass from Stolarski and the ball hit the back of the net.
The second half
The second half of the game didn’t bring any changes in the result despite attempts on both sides of the pitch. As a result fans, who gathered in the amount of 7915 at the stadium in Gdansk left the stadium with a bit of disappointment. Lechia is now on the 11th place in Lotto Ekstraklasa with 25 points. On February 18th White&Greens are going to host Piast Gliwice, who now is the last in the league. Does that mean easy points for Gdansk?
Arka Gdynia – Lech Poznan
A match of friendship between Arka Gdynia and Lech Poznan attracted a huge number of fans. 12 568 supporters came to watch their teams entering the spring part of the season. Though the match was goalless, the atmosphere at the stadium was unforgettable.
Arka with problems
Arka entered the game with some problems. The main striker of the team – Rafal Siemaszko is recovering from the injury, so he couldn’t play. What’s more, a new striker – Enrique Esqueda from Mexico wasn’t able to play either. The league didn’t manage to register him on time. As a result Arka had to play defensively with Ruben Jurado as the only striker.
The first half
From the very beginning of the match Lech was visibly dominating with much better ball possession (59%). It was Arka however that made more attempts on goal. The team from Gdynia focused on defending and counter attacks. The first major chance for the Yellow&Blues came in 23rd minute when Marciniak shot on goal from the distance. His powerful strike was very difficult to save, but Buric managed to save Poznan’s goal. Lech didn’t have any idea how to create a dangerous situation and Arka was there to stop their efforts. The last good chance for a goal came in the 40th minute of the first half of the game. After Jurado missed the ball, it fell right in front of Zarandia’s feet. The Georgian was though only able to send the ball to the fans. His shot slightly missed the goal.
The second half
At the beginning of the second half Lech took over the control over the game. The team was dominating not only with ball possession, but they also made some attempts on goal none of which was successful. Their best chance came in the 71st minute when Steinbors saved a very good shot by Dilaver. In the final part of the match Arka made some more attempts. First Szwoch tried to score in the 76 minute. Buric saved Lech again in the match. Poznan’s goalkeeper had to do his job in the 81st minute when Piesio shot on goal after a great run. The score remained unchanged until the end of the match.
Arka luckily stayed in the group of top half of the table and is now at the 8th place in the league with 32 points. The next match Arka is going to play in Cracow against Wisla. The opponent is challenging and the team from Gdynia need every point possible.
