Arka Gdynia played at home against Wisla Plock in the last round of the Lotto Ekstraklasa before the league split on Saturday at 18:00. It was the second match for Arka under the leadership of coach Ojrzynski and first one in Gdynia. With the new coach, Yellow&Blues fans were hoping to see their team win for the first time since 24th of February.
Good beginning for Arka
Players from Gdynia began the play very aggressively and were trying to work out dangerous plays quite often. In the 12th minute there was confusion in the Wisla’s penalty area, but nobody managed to kick the ball into the net. Dominik Hofbauer and Mateusz Szwoch had some good chances but failed to score. In the 41st minute after Marcin Warcholak throw-in Rafal Siemaszko scored a beautiful header goal. Half time result 1:0.
Second half more defensive
In the second half Arka played more defensively and was waiting for a good chance for the counterattack. Wisla’s players took the initiative, but their attacks were too readable to surprise the locals. With time it was clear that the aggressive first half cost the Yellow&Blues a lot of energy and strength. However, they still were showing a lot of determination by creating opportunities to score a second goal. In 59th minute after Rafal Siemaszko shot the ball went over the bar. In the 76th minute Szwoch was very close to score but Seweryn Kielpin was in the right place at the right time. Players from Plock also had their chances but fortunately for Arka Konrad Jalocha was in a very good shape on Saturday. Although just by the end of the match, in the 94th minute, after Antoni Lukasiewicz’s hand in the penalty area, Wisla got the penalty kick. Jose Kante took the chance and defeated Jalocha and the referee finished the match.
Post Match
At the press conference after the match Leszek Ojrzynski said: “The worst that can happen is to lose points in the last play of the match when you are unable to strike back. (…) Now the fun begins, we have to play better and there will be even more pressure on us. We are definitely smarter now.”
Two groups
After the 30th round the league has been split into “?champion” and “?relegation” groups. Each team plays seven more games, starting with half the points (rounded up) achieved so far. The final result 1:1 meant for both Arka and Wisla places in the “relegation group”. After the split Arka with 16 points is now in the 12th place and will play 4 matches at home and 3 away.
There are 7 more rounds to play and each one of them will be extremely important for the Yellow&Blues. The next match Arka is playing in Gdynia against Piast Gliwice on Friday 28th of April at 18:00.
