Lechia salvage a point in Krakow

In Gdansk, Sport

On Saturday night Lechia traveled to Wisla Krakow for round 7 of the Ekstraklasa 2017/18 season. With the increasingly worrying position Lechia find themselves in so far this season, traveling to face Krakow, who have started the season well, was going to be a tough test.

Lechia have added some more new faces this week with 20 year old Romario Balde joining from Benfica, the versatile winger wasn’t added to the squad for the match with Wisla. Matt Newton joined the club to support Adam Owen in the analytical analysis of the players, Matt brings a wealth of knowledge and will be focusing on GPS tracking data to begin with.

The Match

Lechia played defensively like they have been doing in recent away games. Marco Paixao had a couple of chances in the first 15 minutes. His free kick was blocked by the wall and he hit a volley over the crossbar. Lechia seemed to be lacking accuracy again. After only 29 minutes Lechia’s problems got worse when Lipski limped off injured from an earlier challenge, he was replaced by Matras. Big loss for Lechia as Lipski has looked good since his debut. In the 40th minute Carlitos put the hosts 1:0 up after an assist from Maciej Sadlok. Once again Lechia didn’t manage a shot on target and the first half ended 1:0.

In the 57th minute Joao Oliveira made his second appearance for Lechia after replacing Lukasik. Lechia were looking increasingly dangerous as we moved past the 65 minute mark. In the 79th minute Joao Oliveira got the breakthrough Lechia needed and scored his first goal for the club, 1:1. He’s was virtually unmarked in the area. Lechia had to defend in numbers during the closing minutes as Wisla tried everything to get the winning goal.

Full Time 1:1

Lechia are now in 14th place in the league and only 1 point off bottom. For the next two weeks we have an international break so this could be a blessing for Lechia and those not on international duty will have a chance to regroup, recharge and get back to winning ways when we return.

Post Match Reaction

Peszko said ‘In Krakow we have not won sixth game in a row in the league this season, but I expect that after the break (international break) we will begin to play to the expectations, It took a lot of effort to get a point in a meeting with the Vistula and we left a lot of health on the pitch. It’s a good result if we look at our last matches, but it’s still not what we expect’
Coach Nowak said ‘The first half was in our performance, as we have had so far in previous matches, and we have to change’
‘The first half was in our performance, as we have had so far in previous matches, and we have to change – If you do not shoot at the goal, you will not win the game. In the second half my players have shown they can play. They exerted a high pressure and perfected the difficulties of the meeting. Not only did they score but they also looked for the next. You have to praise them.’

Next Match

Piast Gilwice Vs Lechia Gdansk – Monday 11th September 18:00