Polish Football Season 2023/24

[Juliusz]

Matchday 20

League table


Results

Stal Mielec - Puszcza Niepołomice 2:1
Ilya Shkurin 83', Piotr Wlazło 90'+3 - Mateusz Cholewiak 23'
Attendance: 3915

Ruch Chorzów - Legia Warszawa 0:1
Marc Gual 56'
Attendance: 37 223

Cracovia - Radomiak Radom 6:0
Paweł Jaroszyński 8', 90'+1, Benjamin Källman 18', Dawid Abramowicz 32' (own goal), Mike Cestor 62' (own goal), Jani Atanasov 65'
Attendance: 8450

Piast Gliwice - Górnik Zabrze 1:3
Jorge Félix 83' - Adrián Kaprálik 15', 60', Lukas Podolski 65'
Attendance: 8035

Lech Poznań - Zagłębie Lubin 2:0
Filip Szymczak 3', Radosław Murawski 72'
Attendance: 18 256

Warta Poznań - Raków Częstochowa 2:1
Kajetan Szmyt 3', Stefan Savić 20' - Bartosz Nowak 45'+5 (penalty)
Attendance: 2016

Widzew Łódź - Jagiellonia Białystok 1:3
Bartłomiej Pawłowski 11' - Afimico Pululu 9', Dominik Marczuk 33', Jesús Imaz 50'
Attendance: 17 658

Śląsk Wrocław - Pogoń Szczecin 0:1
Fredrik Ulvestad 72'
Attendance: 22 232

Korona Kielce - ŁKS 2:1
Yoav Hofmeister 36', Danny Trejo 90'+4 - Husein Balić 45'+6
Attendance: 9980

Top scorers:
14 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
9 - Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
8 - Kamil Grosicki, Efthýmis Kouloúris (both Pogoń Szczecin), Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
7 - Afimico Pululu (Jagiellonia Białystok), Daniel Szczepan (Ruch Chorzów), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Daisuke Yokota (Górnik Zabrze)

Welcome back after winter break. We have some changes at key positions. First of all, Śląsk lost to Pogoń and dropped down to second place. The teams 'swapped' their playing styles for their match which led to first league defeat of Śląsk since August.

Jagiellonia remained unchanged and, together with Widzew, played the most entertaining match of the weekend. Scoring stats of Jagiellonia are among the best in the 21st century. Only powerful Wisła teams from the first decade were better, so results of Jagiellonia are really remarkable.

Legia and Lech registered obligatory wins. The former is severely weakened by departures of Bartosz Slisz (Atlanta) and Ernest Muçi (Beşiktaş). There is a replacement for Slisz - Qëndrim Zyba (Ballkani) and a new option on either right or left wing - Ryōya Morishita (Nagoya). But for Muçi, there will be no new player eligible to play in ECL. There is a possibility to register new ones for the league as the transfer window is still open, but so far there are no rumours about how Legia will spend part of their earnings (over €13m).

When it comes to Lech, they have a lot of injuries in the team and an extremely demanding schedule: Jagiellonia away, Śląsk home, Pogoń home (in the cup), Raków away. Coming weeks might decide if they stay in the race or are out of it.

The biggest disappointment among the favourites is Raków. Last year they drew vs Warta at the beginning of calendar year, despite being 0-1 behind and down to 10 men. This time it was 0-2, they managed to score a penalty, and improved in the second half, but were denied multiple times by Warta keeper. Polish champions have one more match to play than their rivals, but can't feel comfortable with their situation.

The win of Warta was a major result at the bottom, too, but so were also victories of Stal and Korona in the added time. ŁKS have already been buried for a long time and even their winter investments might not be enough.

An impressive result in Cracow has to be mentioned as well. Radomiak got a red card in the first minute and collapsed immediately just after Cracovia had taken the lead. The hosts were successful in almost every touch, and the guests had another red card late in the second half. Apart from that some Radomiak players picked yellow cards causing suspensions, so almost half of the team will be absent next week. It's hard to imagine a worst start in the year than Radomiak (who sold their best striker Pedro Henrique to Wuhan, and the other striker, Leonardo Rocha, was the one who was sent off).

This week, we will see Legia in Norway vs Molde. Without two top players it will be difficult, but the chances should still be around 50/50.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 21

League table


Results

Radomiak Radom - Pogoń Szczecin 0:4
Fredrik Ulvestad 27', 43', Kamil Grosicki 35' (penalty), Patryk Paryzek 90'+1
Attendance: 7128

Śląsk Wrocław - Stal Mielec 0:1
Ilya Shkurin 45'
Attendance: 12 646

Ruch Chorzów - Warta Poznań 0:0
Attendance: 13 428

Jagiellonia Białystok - Lech Poznań 1:2
Kristoffer Hansen 82' - Filip Marchwiński 18', Filip Szymczak 30' (penalty)
Attendance: 17 141

Raków Częstochowa - Piast Gliwice 3:1
Ante Crnac 79', Łukasz Zwoliński 90'+11 (penalty), Marcin Cebula 90'+14 - Patryk Dziczek 56' (penalty)
Attendance: 5346

Zagłębie Lubin - Cracovia 1:1
Kacper Chodyna 45'+1 - Jani Atanasov 73' (penalty)
Attendance: 4713

Legia Warszawa - Puszcza Niepołomice 1:1
Maciej Rosołek 86' - Michał Koj 42'
Attendance: 21 341

ŁKS - Widzew Łódź 0:2
Jordi Sánchez 54', Fábio Nunes 90'+2
Attendance: 14 893

Górnik Zabrze - Korona Kielce 3:1
Dominick Zator 35' (own goal), Sebastian Musiolik 39', Adrián Kaprálik 76' - Yevgeniy Shikavka 68'
Attendance: 11 506

Top scorers:
14 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
10 - Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec)
9 - Kamil Grosicki (Pogoń Szczecin), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
8 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom), Efthýmis Kouloúris (Pogoń Szczecin)
7 - Afimico Pululu (Jagiellonia Białystok), Daniel Szczepan (Ruch Chorzów), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Daisuke Yokota (Górnik Zabrze)

The league leader lost again, this time it was Jagiellonia in a top clash vs Lech. The guests played a perfect first half, but in the second it looked completely different, they had so little possession and passes like a team from the bottom of the table. But Lech did the job, are very close to the top 2, and will host Śląsk next week.

Jagiellonia remained first, because Śląsk lost as well. They could find some excuses last week against Pogoń, but this time it's hard to do so. Maybe their good luck is gone, actually they play better than last year, so their match in Poznań might be really exciting.

Pogoń destroyed Radomiak, who again played most of the time down to 10. This time their keeper hit Efthýmis Kouloúris with the knee when catching the ball, which also caused conceding a penalty. Pogoń will face ŁKS now before they head to Warsaw to visit Legia.

Our ECL representative disappointed a lot. Their match vs Puszcza required a lot of effort to grab one point, and they didn't play with reserve team. It's the kind of matches when you have 28 shots and 19 corners, which brings nothing, while the opponent scores on their only chance. Legia already had 140 corners in the league this season and one could argue if the one against Puszcza was the first which ended with a goal or not. The ball was cleared, but then came back into the area. Anyway, if Legia can't beat Puszcza, can they do it against Molde? If they sleep in first half again, then probably not, but if they finally play consistently for 90 or 120 minutes, then they stand a chance.

But who knows if the worst performance from top 6 isn't Raków. They needed a penalty very late in the injury time to beat Piast. Nothing has improved since autumn and now they don't have so many matches and injuries. They were nervous in Częstochowa after failure vs Warta, and the match against Piast might calm them down only for a moment, because the result is the only positive thing about this match for Raków.

Not much changed at the bottom, Puszcza is still in the relegation zone due to inferior goal difference. Widzew did a lot to sink their local rivals and they can hope they will not meet again in I liga, which resumed this weekend by the way.

[Greyn]

Raków look worse and worse since Papszun's departure. I would say that they already lost their style of play. Everything is going in a wrong way there and club owner should realise that giving this job to inexperienced Szwarga was a bad idea. I would replace him with a new coach to save the season, otherwise it is quite likely they will not qualify for Europe, not to mention defending championship title. To me it looks like Szwarga has no idea how to fix problems with this team which is clearly declining.

Overall we will have a weak champion in Poland this season. Jagiellonia and Śląsk show a lot of weakness after winter, Legia weakened themselves, has a short squad and lacks quality striker and replacements, Raków are clearly not a championship material at this moment and Lech, despite 2 wins at the start of this round, are nothing special as well. I don't rate too high their new coach - Mariusz Rumak and I think that potential champions don't play "kick the ball as far away as possible" without even trying to be in a ball possession for a few moments and that's how Lech played in Białystok for almost whole 2nd half.

I expect that the championship race this season will be a race of snails. There is no team at stake which would be well above the others.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 22

League table


Results

Piast Gliwice - Cracovia 0:0
Attendance: 4413

Pogoń Szczecin - ŁKS 4:2
Rafał Kurzawa 13', Alexander Gorgon 63', 70', Kamil Grosicki 82' - Dani Ramírez 47', Antoni Młynarczyk 85'
Attendance: 17 534

Jagiellonia Białystok - Ruch Chorzów 1:1
Jesús Imaz 90'+7 - Daniel Szczepan 41'
Attendance: 11 098

Lech Poznań - Śląsk Wrocław 0:0
Attendance: 32 568

Stal Mielec - Raków Częstochowa 0:0
Attendance: 6240

Puszcza Niepołomice - Zagłębie Lubin 2:2
Roman Yakuba 8', Kamil Zapolnik 63' - Aleks Ławniczak 31', Dawid Kurminowski 40'
Attendance: 1304

Widzew Łódź - Górnik Zabrze 3:1
Antoni Klimek 30', Juan Ibiza 34', Noah Diliberto 90'+4 - Rafał Janicki 51'
Attendance: 17 367

Korona Kielce - Legia Warszawa 3:3
Martin Remacle 45', Yevgeniy Shikavka 69', Adrián Dalmau 90'+2 - Blaž Kramer 6', 30', Marc Gual 60'
Attendance: 14 141

Warta Poznań - Radomiak Radom 0:0
Attendance: 1154

Top scorers:
14 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
10 - Kamil Grosicki (Pogoń Szczecin), Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec)
9 - Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
8 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom), Efthýmis Kouloúris (Pogoń Szczecin), Daniel Szczepan (Ruch Chorzów)
7 - Alexander Gorgon (Pogoń Szczecin), Jesús Imaz, Afimico Pululu (both Jagiellonia Białystok), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Daisuke Yokota (Górnik Zabrze)

Weekend of draws in Ekstraklasa (7; tied record in the history of the league). In these circumstances, Pogoń and Widzew are the real winners of this round (these results make sense, since Pogoń, Widzew, ŁKS and Górnik have the least draws in the league). Pogoń are just 3 points behind despite starting from the worst position among top 6 in winter. Widzew are closer to have quite calm next weeks, although nothing is certain yet.

However, it is likely that only one relegation spot is unknown. ŁKS lost as usual, and Ruch drew as usual. Ruch won only once this season, on 2nd matchday, against ŁKS! It's 20 matches in a row without a win and in Białystok it looked like they were cursed. They performed really well and were leading deservedly, but conceded just before the final whistle.

It's hard to tell which match was the worst, Piast vs Cracovia or Warta vs Radomiak. Lech struggled to break the wall of Śląsk, same for Raków against Stal. Legia is another team, after Ruch, to collapse. They were 2-0, 3-1 up, they thought they were 4-2 up, but there was offside position in an earlier phase of the build-up. Instead of winning in Kielce comfortably, the drew another match vs a team from the bottom. It's just depressing for the moods in Warsaw.

This week, Polish Cup quarter-finals will be played. And not only that, a postponed match of teams which not participate in the cup (Stal vs ŁKS) will also take place.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 17 - postponed match

League table


Result

Stal Mielec - ŁKS 1:0
Ilya Shkurin 27'
Attendance: 5673

Top scorers:
14 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
11 - Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec)
10 - Kamil Grosicki (Pogoń Szczecin)
9 - Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
8 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom), Efthýmis Kouloúris (Pogoń Szczecin), Daniel Szczepan (Ruch Chorzów)
7 - Alexander Gorgon (Pogoń Szczecin), Jesús Imaz, Afimico Pululu (both Jagiellonia Białystok), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Daisuke Yokota (Górnik Zabrze)

Crazy match in Mielec with a total of 5 goals disallowed - 2 for Stal, 3 for ŁKS. One or two of them could be controversial and Stal could have lost their lead. But ultimately ŁKS lost all their 11 away games this season, while Stal collected 10 points this calendar year and are 10 points above relegation zone.

Polish Cup quarter-finals - results

Piast Gliwice - Raków Częstochowa 3:0
Tomáš Huk 25', Jakub Czerwiński 49', Jorge Félix 68'
Attendance: 3864

Lech Poznań - Pogoń Szczecin 0:1 AET
João Gamboa 119'
Attendance: 17 434

Jagiellonia Białystok - Korona Kielce 2:1 AET
Afimico Pululu 80', 120'+2 - Martin Remacle 58'
Attendance: 7280

Wisła Kraków - Widzew Łódź 2:1 AET
Ángel Rodado 90'+19, Szymon Sobczak 119' - Bartłomiej Pawłowski 80' (penalty)
Attendance: 26 742

We were robbed of three penalty shoot-outs in this round. Raków played their worst domestic match for months (in December they lost against a reserve Atalanta, but it was in Europe). There is a huge crisis in the club and coach Dawid Szwagra might be in danger if the team doesn't improve on Sunday against Lech.

Both teams are wounded as Lech played two similar matches. Against Pogoń, like vs Śląsk, they had advantage, but failed to beat defense or the keeper. In 118th minute, they scored, but after an offside position. Then they conceded after a free kick. Each match weighs a lot now and this one makes Lech low-spirited and lends wings to Pogoń, who will visit Legia on Saturday.

Jagiellonia and Korona had to play on an awful pitch in Białystok and the former manages to achieve better results than their performance, even if drawing vs Ruch or Korona after 90 minutes is nothing special.

Most exciting match was played at the end of the round. It lasted almost 150 minutes as there were 25 minutes of stoppage time in the second half (with 17 signaled officially). There were some complex situations and decisions to be made by referees. Widzew received a penalty instead of a goal, because it was scored from offside, but there was a foul earlier. The equalizing goal for Wisła was very controversial and rather wrong for me. Wisła player was offside and disturbed Widzew defender, but the goal stood. In the extra time, a bizarre goal could have been scored, but Imad Rondić entered the penalty area too quickly before he grabbed the ball from the keeper: https://www.streambug.io/cv/bac33e https://www.streambug.io/cv/ec1a19

Then, Wisła scored just before the end of the extra time. A reminder here that they are a I liga side which will have it difficult to gain a direct promotion and a participation in play-offs is more probable, although of course not certain yet.

Semi-finals draw will be made on Friday 1 March at 12:00 CET.

[Juliusz]

Polish Cup semi-finals - result of the draw

Pogoń Szczecin - Jagiellonia Białystok
Wisła Kraków - Piast Gliwice

A pity that the replay of 2010 final (Pogoń - Jagiellonia) will take place now, and not in the final again. The winner of this tie should be the favorite of the final and also the formal host of it at National Stadium in Warsaw.

One-off matches to be played on 2 and 3 April.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 23

League table


Results

Cracovia - Warta Poznań 0:1
Tomáš Přikryl 79'
Attendance: 7601

Ruch Chorzów - Piast Gliwice 3:0
Robert Dadok 34', Daniel Szczepan 56' (penalty), Patryk Sikora 66'
Attendance: 15 169

Górnik Zabrze - Jagiellonia Białystok 2:1
Damian Rasak 24', Lawrence Ennali 68' - Kaan Caliskaner 70'
Attendance: 14 921

Śląsk Wrocław - Widzew Łódź 2:1
Nahuel Leiva 53' (penalty), 78' - Imad Rondić 90'+4
Attendance: 24 117

Legia Warszawa - Pogoń Szczecin 1:1
Paweł Wszołek 49' - Efthýmis Kouloúris 60'
Attendance: 25 126

ŁKS - Puszcza Niepołomice 3:2
Dani Ramírez 38' (penalty), Husein Balić 58', 76' - Kamil Zapolnik 29', 90'+1 (penalty)
Attendance: 6508

Zagłębie Lubin - Korona Kielce 1:0
Dawid Kurminowski 17'
Attendance: 4684

Raków Częstochowa - Lech Poznań 4:0
Bartosz Nowak 14', Gustav Berggren 25', 36', Bartosz Mrozek 69' (own goal)
Attendance: 5500

Radomiak Radom - Stal Mielec 2:1
Luka Vušković 17', Leonardo Rocha 65' - Mateusz Matras 63'
Attendance: 7070

Top scorers:
14 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
11 - Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec)
10 - Kamil Grosicki (Pogoń Szczecin)
9 - Efthýmis Kouloúris (Pogoń Szczecin), Daniel Szczepan (Ruch Chorzów), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
8 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
7 - Alexander Gorgon (Pogoń Szczecin), Jesús Imaz, Afimico Pululu (both Jagiellonia Białystok), Bartosz Nowak (Raków Częstochowa), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Daisuke Yokota (Górnik Zabrze)

Scenes in Ekstraklasa. Just few days after their worst match this season, Raków played brilliantly and destroyed Lech 4-0. Actually, all their four goals were lucky (a goal from a cross, two goals from distance, one of them after a deflection and an own goal), but they worked hard for this luck. Lech was the last away team to win in Częstochowa (late in the last season) and were dominant then, now they didn't have a single shot on target. So it all changes rapidly, Raków now gains a confidence boost while Lech is back to their performance from autumn.

Another top match was played in Warsaw. Pogoń, as did other teams previously, took what they wanted, which was one point. Again an individual mistake of Legia defender (this time Marco Burch) led to the only scoring opportunity which was converted immediately. But to be honest, Legia scored after clear error in Pogoń defense too. It's their third draw in a row. The club authorities try to stay patient or act like they are so, but the fans are not anymore. Of course things can change quickly and Legia does not play that bad, but simply gives too many points away.

The league leader failed to win once again which cost Jagiellonia the first place. Górnik players, despite being not paid, are dangerous and almost no team in the league have easy matches against them. Śląsk finally won, but it was really narrow as the second goal potential offside or not was decided by centimeters and there was no penalty for Widzew despite a clear foul. Widzew feel aggrieved by such decisions, including cup match against Wisła earlier that week. Next weekend will feature another top match as Jagiellonia host Śląsk, and Widzew will play a prestigious game against Legia.

Two bottom teams won. ŁKS did it after 6 months, and Ruch after 7. And it was not by accident, but convincing victories. Korona lost, so at least Ruch can still hope, but they have to keep in mind that Korona and Puszcza have one more match to play each (not this week, but next one). Another consolation for Puszcza is their first goal, which might become the goal of the season: https://www.streambug.io/cv/d6b6c2

[Juliusz]

Matchday 24

League table


Results

Piast Gliwice - Radomiak Radom 2:3
Patryk Dziczek 33' (penalty), Michael Ameyaw 60' - Luka Vušković 5', Leonardo Rocha 57', Lisandro Semedo 75' (penalty)
Attendance: 3263

Jagiellonia Białystok - Śląsk Wrocław 3:1
Dominik Marczuk 7', 31', Michal Sáček 17' - Piotr Samiec-Talar 53'
Attendance: 13 480

Korona Kielce - Cracovia 1:1
Miłosz Trojak 71' - Davíð Kristján Ólafsson 37'
Attendance: 11 230

Puszcza Niepołomice - Raków Częstochowa 1:1
Łukasz Sołowiej 90'+2 (penalty) - Artur Crăciun 26' (own goal)
Attendance: 2264

Górnik Zabrze - Lech Poznań 0:0
Attendance: 21 474

Stal Mielec - Ruch Chorzów 3:1
Ilya Shkurin 11', Matthew Guillaumier 29', 58' - Josema 64'
Attendance: 5756

Pogoń Szczecin - Zagłębie Lubin 0:2
Kacper Chodyna 21' (penalty), Dawid Kurminowski 86'
Attendance: 19 543

Widzew Łódź - Legia Warszawa 1:0
Fran Álvarez 90'+3
Attendance: 17 481

Warta Poznań - ŁKS 0:1
Piotr Janczukowicz 75'
Attendance: 2268

Top scorers:
14 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
12 - Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec)
10 - Kamil Grosicki (Pogoń Szczecin)
9 - Efthýmis Kouloúris (Pogoń Szczecin), Daniel Szczepan (Ruch Chorzów), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
8 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
7 - Alexander Gorgon (Pogoń Szczecin), Jesús Imaz, Afimico Pululu (both Jagiellonia Białystok), Bartosz Nowak (Raków Częstochowa), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Daisuke Yokota (Górnik Zabrze)

Guess what - league leader failed to win again. But not only them. In top 6, only Jagiellonia won this weekend, against the other team from this part of the table. But actually it might not be sensible to talk about top 6 anymore, as Górnik and Stal are close to 6th placed Legia. The latter ended their 24-year-long unbeaten streak against Widzew (16-5-0), Lech also couldn't beat Górnik what they usually do... Raków are again awful away, were one man more for 30 minutes, but since 50th minute both teams were down to 10. Pogoń missed a penalty soon after conceding the first goal. It was disgusting performance from almost all top teams this weekend. Next week none of them will face each other, so no easy match for any of them, as mid-table teams and those from the bottom look more dangerous now.

Even ŁKS claimed their first away points this season, while Puszcza and Korona drew matches they weren't supposed to, judging from the run of play. Ruch were decimated with an illness, while the best match was played in Gliwice, where Piast failed to draw another match by missing penalty in the injury time.

This week, finally postponed matches from autumn will be played. Tomorrow, Piast and Puszcza will continue from the 15th minute and a throw-in for Piast Then, on Wednesday, Raków will visit Korona to play a game that was scheduled to take place in July

[Juliusz]

Matchday 2 and 17 - postponed matches

League table


Results

Piast Gliwice - Puszcza Niepołomice 1:0 (resumed from 15')
Jorge Félix 43'
Attendance: 3365

Korona Kielce - Raków Częstochowa 0:2
Ante Crnac 3', Vladyslav Kochergin 6'
Attendance: 7747

Top scorers:
14 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
12 - Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec)
10 - Kamil Grosicki (Pogoń Szczecin)
9 - Efthýmis Kouloúris (Pogoń Szczecin), Daniel Szczepan (Ruch Chorzów), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
8 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
7 - Alexander Gorgon (Pogoń Szczecin), Jesús Imaz, Afimico Pululu (both Jagiellonia Białystok), Bartosz Nowak (Raków Częstochowa), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Daisuke Yokota (Górnik Zabrze)

This time favourites won. Raków finally did it away and achieved something that Legia and Cracovia should, too, but those teams only drew in Kielce this year. Piast and Puszcza were the last teams not to win this year, and fortunately it did not end with a draw. I would like to draw more conclusions from these matches, but Raków and Piast are big unknowns and everything can change in just 3 days. Korona and Puszcza have been plummeting for some time already and their current positions can't surprise.

[Greyn]

Thanksgiving day starts in Poznań in less than 1 hour. Warta Poznań will have to pay their 2nd part of annual tribute to their guru club Lech Poznań. Bookies even have odds of 1.65 for this to happen (although don't take anyone this as a betting tip ).

[Juliusz]

Matchday 25

League table


Results

Zagłębie Lubin - Stal Mielec 0:0
Attendance: 4205

Lech Poznań - Warta Poznań 2:0
Kristoffer Velde 52', 80'
Attendance: 23 361

Cracovia - Widzew Łódź 2:2
Eneo Bitri 10', Michał Rakoczy 90' - Mateusz Żyro 21', Bartłomiej Pawłowski 85'
Attendance: 10 111

Radomiak Radom - Jagiellonia Białystok 0:2
Mateusz Skrzypczak 15', Kaan Caliskaner 73'
Attendance: 8553

Ruch Chorzów - Górnik Zabrze 1:2
Soma Novothny 86' - Adrián Kaprálik 45', Sōichirō Kōzuki 81'
Attendance: 38 106

Śląsk Wrocław - Puszcza Niepołomice 0:0
Attendance: 14 811

Korona Kielce - Pogoń Szczecin 2:2
Nono 22', Dawid Błanik 42' - Kamil Grosicki 54' (penalty), Alexander Gorgon 67'
Attendance: 10 417

ŁKS - Raków Częstochowa 1:1
Dani Ramírez 69' (penalty) - Giánnis Papanikoláou 90'+7
Attendance: 9328

Legia Warszawa - Piast Gliwice 3:1
Josué 17', Marc Gual 41', 47' - Fabian Piasecki 33'
Attendance: 21 853

Top scorers:
14 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
12 - Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec)
11 - Kamil Grosicki (Pogoń Szczecin)
9 - Efthýmis Kouloúris (Pogoń Szczecin), Daniel Szczepan (Ruch Chorzów), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
8 - Alexander Gorgon (Pogoń Szczecin), Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
7 - Patryk Dziczek (Piast Gliwice), Jesús Imaz, Afimico Pululu (both Jagiellonia Białystok), Josué (Legia Warszawa), Bartosz Nowak (Raków Częstochowa), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań), Daisuke Yokota (Górnik Zabrze)

Jagiellonia extended their lead, having found the back of the net five teams, but only twice approved. Finally they played really well in an away match which has not happened for a long time before. Lech, as mentioned above, had again certain three points against Warta. Legia won after some beautiful goals, but had to defend almost 30 minutes down to 10, while Górnik won a prestigious match vs Ruch and can still have a shot on Europe (on Easter matchay they will play against Legia).

Śląsk, Raków and Pogoń all just drew against teams from the bottom. Raków had the biggest advantage, but at the same time was the luckiest team, as they scored basically after the injury time, which was 6 minutes. Pogoń were horrible in the first half and could have also conceded third goal while it was 1-2 from their perspective. Śląsk played a rather dull match vs Puszcza, but still should have won it. Their strikers are not efficient anymore though.

I liga


Lechia won all 5 matches in this calendar year and are now at the first place after Arka drew today. Teams down to 10th place can realistically think about qualifying for play-offs. Zagłębie Sosnowiec is even worst than ŁKS in Ekstraklasa (who started to be competitive there), Podbeskidzie is also sinking. Today they lost 0-5 vs GKS Katowice, and a summary of their performance was their defender who conceded a penalty, got a yellow card, and did exactly the same when the penalty was saved and Katowice tried to get a rebound, which resulted in a second penalty and second yellow.

I liga, same as Ekstraklasa, will be back in two weeks on Saturday.

[Greyn]

Very weird Silesian Derby between Ruch and Górnik. Basically Ruch played football for the entire match, while Górnik were constantly in defensive mode, but managed to score twice (a bit thanks to Ruch GK's mistakes). I expected a completely different run of play, with Górnik having much more of ball possession and Ruch focused on counter attacks. I feel sorry for Ruch, but football is brutal sometimes.

Legia, same like Górnik, may also consider themselves quite lucky. After the red card Piast hit the bar twice and had a few more chances to score. There is some course on Piast with scoring the goals. One of commentators mentioned that they have the most negative record for expected goals vs goals scored in the league. They signed Piasecki from Raków last Winter, but seems like he is not a solution to resolve this problem and Piast will have to again look for a quality striker in next transfer window.

Jagiellonia are leaders and I consider themselves main favorites to win the title, although things in Ekstraklasa often change quickly. They have a brilliant chance to win first championship title for northern Poland in history. Still long way to go, but in my opinion it is very likely that they will take advantage of weakness of their main rivals like Śląsk, Raków, Lech, Legia and Pogoń.

As for Legia, finishing in top 3 and qualifying for Europe should be a goal for this team right now. Bad decisions were made by the club board last Winter, particularly in a transfer policy and Legia pay high price currently for that. A pity because championship title was absolutely in reach this year with Lech and Raków showing so much of weakness.

[Greyn]

From Polish perspective this ranking https://kassiesa.net/uefa/data/method5/crank2025.html looks quite promising. Unfortunately there is a very decent chance that Poland will send weak "squad" to Europe next season. Still many matches to play in the Polish league, but our main point collectors - Legia, Lech and Raków are simply weak and each of them are in danger to not qualify for Europe at all. I don't trust teams like Jagiellonia, Śląsk or Pogoń and their chances to achieve anything in Europe, particularly with their low number of coefficients. As I wrote, still long way to the end of domestic season, but, in my opinion, there is a very high risk that Poland will collect very few coefficient points next season.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 26

League table


Results

Raków Częstochowa - Ruch Chorzów 1:1
Ante Crnac 14' - Łukasz Moneta 90'+5
Attendance: 5500

Jagiellonia Białystok - ŁKS 6:0
Nené 12', 83', Dominik Marczuk 41', Jesús Imaz 64', Afimico Pululu 70' (penalty), Jarosław Kubicki 77'
Attendance: 15 007

Piast Gliwice - Śląsk Wrocław 2:2
Jorge Félix 54', Patryk Dziczek 86' - Erik Expósito 62' (penalty), Petr Schwarz 68'
Attendance: 5719

Pogoń Szczecin - Cracovia 3:1
Fredrik Ulvestad 1', Eneo Bitri 15' (own goal), Vahan Bichakhchyan 87' - Benjamin Källman 3'
Attendance: 19 353

Puszcza Niepołomice - Radomiak Radom 1:1
Roman Yakuba 4' - Gabriel Kobylak 66'
Attendance: 1822

Stal Mielec - Lech Poznań 0:0
Attendance: 6501

Widzew Łódź - Korona Kielce 3:1
Imad Rondić 45'+1, Fran Álvarez 56', Antoni Klimek 86' - Yevgeniy Shikavka 75'
Attendance: 17 126

Górnik Zabrze - Legia Warszawa 1:3
Lawrence Ennali 61' (penalty) - Tomáš Pekhart 42', Bartosz Kapustka 68', Josué 75'
Attendance: 22 889

Warta Poznań - Zagłębie Lubin 1:1
Mateusz Kupczak 26' - Dawid Kurminowski 57'
Attendance: 1851

Top scorers:
15 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
12 - Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec)
11 - Kamil Grosicki (Pogoń Szczecin)
9 - Efthýmis Kouloúris (Pogoń Szczecin), Daniel Szczepan (Ruch Chorzów), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
8 - Patryk Dziczek (Piast Gliwice), Alexander Gorgon (Pogoń Szczecin), Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom), Jesús Imaz, Afimico Pululu (both Jagiellonia Białystok), Josué (Legia Warszawa)

Another impressive match by Jagiellonia and they are now 4 points clear. They played vs last placed ŁKS who were down to 10 quickly, but it still should be appreciated. Tomorrow they will face Pogoń in the cup semi-final, and then Legia in the league. This might be a key week to this team, who are now clearly the best in the league, but you never know if they are able to stay consistent.

Śląsk are awful as usual, Raków collected just 3 points vs Puszcza, Ruch and ŁKS (all matches drawn 1:1), Lech are not able to beat anyone but Warta. In these circumstances, solid matches of Pogoń and Legia let these teams realistically fight for top 3. Both also will play Jagiellonia (Legia on Sunday, Pogoń on matchday 30), so can reduce the difference to 4 points.

Actually the event of the week is goal of Radomiak keeper Gabriel Kobylak. He scored from 80 metres to equalize while his team was again down to 10: https://streamin.me/v/ca3e5d6c The loss of Korona helped Puszcza get above the relegation line.

Tomorrow cup semi-finals will be played. First Wisła Kraków vs Piast, then Pogoń vs Jagiellonia. The final is on 2 May.

[Greyn]

I think it is worth to mention that, if we exclude match vs Warta (which is unofficially fixed), Lech scored 0 goals in last 5 matches.

24.02 Lech - Śląsk 0-0
27.02 Lech - Pogoń 0-1 AET (Polish Cup)
03.03 Raków - Lech 4-0
09.03 Górnik - Lech 0-0
01.04 Stal - Lech 0-0