Lechia Gdansk played away against Pogon Szczecin in round 30 of the Lotto Ekstraklasa on Saturday at 18:00. Coach Nowak fielded the same starting line up as he did again Arka last Monday. Lechia went into the game without an away win in the league since October last year. Despite some good performances at home, luck really hasn’t been on their side away from the Energa stadium. Pogon really needed all 3 points to ensure a top 8 spot before the league split.
The Match
Pogon started the match with only attack in mind and this soon paid off, in the 11th minute they were 1:0 up after a goal from the on form midfielder Adam Fraczczak who netted his 12 of the season. The goal seemed to wake Lechia up and just 7 minutes later, after some beautiful plays from Rafal Wolski and Jakub Wawrzyniak, Captain Milos Krasic saw his shot hit the back of the net 1:1. Lechia were clearly the better team going into half time but they couldn’t pull through later in the game.
Half time 1:1.
Pogon came out for the second half reenergized and in the 62nd minute they took the lead again with a goal from Dawid Kort 2:1. Lechia should have quickly levelled the game when Marco Paixao had a great opportunity in front of the goal. In the 69th minute Pogon went on the counter attack and it was that man Dawid Kort again who netted his 2nd of the night to make it 3:1. Lechia was really caught sleeping at the wheel and the game was now out of reach for the white and greens.
Final Score 3:1
Post Match
Coach Nowak had the following comments after the match – ‘Up to a certain point we had the match under control. Unfortunately, in the second half, happened to us a period of downtime, which committed the cardinal mistakes in defense. It cost us very dearly’
‘At 2:1 we had an ideal opportunity to equalize. However, the effectiveness failed because Marco Paixao should take advantage of this situation. So we have something to work on.’
The Split
Many people have asked me what is ‘the split’ as this is something that doesn’t happen in some of the more popular leagues in Europe.
There are 16 clubs in the Ekstraklasa. During the course of the season each club plays the other twice, once at their home stadium and once at that of their opponents. Since the 2013-14 season after the 30th round the league has been split into ‘champion’ (top eight teams) and ‘relegation’ (bottom eight teams) groups. Each team plays seven more games (1–4 and 9–12 teams will play four times at home), starting with half the points (rounded up) achieved during the first phase of 30 matches.
Next Match
After finishing round 30 in 4th place Lechia are now in the ‘Champion’ group (Group A)
The first match in this group will be:
Lechia Gdansk Vs Bruk-Bet Nieciecza Termalica – April 29th 20:30 at the Stadion Energa, Gdansk.
