A poor display by Lechia’s defence was responsible for a 0-5 home defeat against Korona Kielce. The away team only had to profit from Lechia’s errors. As a result the guests reached half time with a four goal advantage.
Problems with Lechia Gdansk
Korona Kielce profited from a string of defensive mistakes by Lechia to reach an easy away win by 0-5. The defeat amplified problems of Adam Owen’s team even more. Lechia is desperately fighting to escape the second half of Ekstraklasa’s table.
Good start of bad performance
Lechia started well with a good attempt by Wolski at the fifth minute. The shot hit the post. Defensive problems were already too visible in last week’s 3-3 draw with Lech Poznan. This came back when Kacharava was left in very good position to score in the 12th minute after a bad cut by Joao Nunes. Keeper Kuciak saved and result was kept in the null.
On the 23rd minute, Wawrzyniak let himself be surprised by an opponent near the goal. Korona Kielce almost profited to make the 0-1. Augustyn tried to move the ball away from the box. Lechia’s defender couldn’t do better though than hit Wawrzyniak’s head. As a result, Korona got a corner kick.
The disaster
At the third try, Korona reached the advantage. On the 26th minute, Lechia’s defensive players lost the ball to Korona’s attackers. Zubrowski served Katcharava, who escaped an offside trap. This was a result of an undecided and slow defence of Lechia.
Five minutes later, Mozdzen crossed Lechia’s midfield. He also passed the defence without losing the ball and tried to serve a colleague. Lewandowski got in the way but only to offer the ball to Korona. Gorski easily scored the second goal for the away team with Kuciak already out of the way.
Crushed Lechia
With a crushed defence and already without injured Lewandowski, replaced by Joao Oliveira at the 35th minute, the final minutes of the first half proved to be a nightmare for the home team. Additionally, Lechia was still to suffer another two goals before the break.
After a Gorski’s corner kick, Rymaniak scored at the far post completely unmarked at the 39th minute. There was still time for a fourth goal. Rymaniak served Katcharava to make the 0-4 at the 44th minute. This was again because of a poor defence performance by Lechia.
Half time
At half time, Lechia’s fans unsurprisingly whistled the team. However Adam Owen decided to remain the team unchanged for the second half. Korona decided to remove Katcharava and Dejmek to put Soriano and Diaw in their places.
Little improvement
Lechia Gdansk improved a little bit in the second half and almost got the goal at the 47th minute. Rymaniak nearly scored in his own goal. Keeper Gostomski managed somehow to keep his goal untouched.
The next minute proved that Lechia’s defensive problems were still there. However this time Kallaste wasn’t able to benefit from the home team mistake and allowed Kuciak to save the ball.
At the 65th minute, Lechia Gdansk moved closer to Korona’s goal. However Romario Balde, who entered only eight minutes before to Flavio Paixao’s place, was unable to shot to goal. Korona’s defence closed the way for the Portuguese winger.
Knock Out
Four minutes later, Balde was again in the spotlight, but only to touch Kallaste in the box. Zubrowski from the 11-meter spot was unable to make the 0-5 allowing Kuciak to grab the ball. The fifth goal was to arrive only five minutes later when Soriano, served by Kosakiewicz, made the final result.
Situation in the league
With this defeat, Lechia Gdansk remained on the 12th position, 12 points away from leaders Gornik Zabrze. Korona Kielce moved to the sixth place with 22 points, only four away from leadership.
Post-match comments
After the match, Gino LItteri, swiss-born Korona’s trainer, admitted his team had problems only in the first 7 to 8 minutes. During the rest of the game everything was fine and he had no doubts congratulating his players for the victory.
On his side, Adam Owen, Lechia’s trainer, admitted that he was “very disappointed” with the 0-5 result. He explained that this was a consequence of a “spiral” of mistakes made by his team, that he said “was fully aware” of what happened.
The Welsh coach also admitted that “lack of confidence” was at the heart of the mistakes committed by Lechia Gdansk and that the team didn’t comply with the plan for this game. However, Adam Owen underlined that he “wouldn’t do anything different in the week” as all players performed well at training sessions.
