Polish Football Season 2023/24

[Juliusz]

Matchday 8

League table


Results

Puszcza Niepołomice - Śląsk Wrocław 1:3
Artur Crăciun 20' (penalty) - Erik Expósito 82' (penalty), 90'+5 (penalty), Burak İnce 89'
Attendance: 1992

Górnik Zabrze - Ruch Chorzów 1:0
Lukas Podolski 51'
Attendance: 22 508

Pogoń Szczecin - Korona Kielce 3:1
Vahan Bichakhchyan 45'+6, Alexander Gorgon 66', Danijel Lončar 81' - Nono 36' (penalty)
Attendance: 12 281

Raków Częstochowa - ŁKS 1:0
Giánnis Papanikoláou 8'
Attendance: 5488

Piast Gliwice - Legia Warszawa 1:1
Serhiy Krykun 45'+5 - Ernest Muçi 69'
Attendance: 7467

Jagiellonia Białystok - Radomiak Radom 3:2
Jesús Imaz 27', José Naranjo 45'+8, Afimico Pululu 46' - Pedro Henrique 3', 12'
Attendance: 12 091

Widzew Łódź - Cracovia 2:0
Bartłomiej Pawłowski 36', Jakub Jugas 71' (own goal)
Attendance: 16 548

Warta Poznań - Lech Poznań 0:2
Filip Marchwiński 28', Filip Dagerstål 81'
Attendance: 28 419

Stal Mielec - Zagłębie Lubin 4:2
Ilya Shkurin 21', Maciej Domański 45', Kai Meriluoto 69', Krystian Getinger 71' - Juan Muñoz 26', Mateusz Wdowiak 90'
Attendance: 5532

Top scorers:
8 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
5 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
4 - Tomáš Pekhart (Legia Warszawa), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań)
3 - Adrián Dalmau (Korona Kielce), Patryk Dziczek (Piast Gliwice), Josué, Ernest Muçi (both Legia Warszawa), Filip Marchwiński (Lech Poznań), Bartosz Nowak, Łukasz Zwoliński (both Raków Częstochowa), Afimico Pululu, Bartłomiej Wdowik (both Jagiellonia Białystok), Jordi Sánchez (Widzew Łódź), Ilya Shkurin (Stal Mielec)

Exciting week of football, but also some terrible referee mistakes. They include:

- no red card for Triantafyllopoulos (Górnik), who hit his opponent in face without the ball nearby, but only got yellow,
- wrong red card for Josué (Legia), who got his second yellow, although he was fouled and it was the opponent who should have been booked,
- disallowed goal for Radomiak, which was valid, and no penalty awarded for them,
- wrong second yellow card for Nalepa (Zagłębie),
- there were also long VAR reviews in Pogoń - Korona match, but final decisions were correct.

Some of these mistakes are just crazy. Others could have been easily corrected by VAR, but it didn't happen.

There was some good football anyway. Śląsk won their fifth match in a row in stunning final minutes, with Erik Expósito scoring another penalties. Pogoń turned the match around and finally won. Raków was very lucky to win vs ŁKS, but the latter lacks quality in front. Match in Białystok was fascinating, with a brace of Henrique, including a goal from the half line, and Dominik Marczuk (Jagiellonia) had three assists. Widzew changed coach in the international break and the new one, Daniel Myśliwiec, got three points in his Ekstraklasa debut.

This week, Raków and Legia will play their first matches in EL and ECL GS, respectively. Both are underdogs but hopefully at least one of them will be able to pull an upset. Polish teams used to be particularly effective against English opposition at home.

Well, well, well, huge surprise took place in Ekstraklasa today, something what nobody would have never expected Warta Poznań lost to Lech Poznań
0-2.

All Warta - Lech clashes since Warta returned to the top tier:

20.09.20 Lech - Warta 1-0
26.02.21 Warta - Lech 1-2
28.11.21 Lech - Warta 2-0
14.05.22 Warta - Lech 1-2
18.09.22 Warta - Lech 0-1
08.04.23 Lech - Warta 2-0
17.09.23 Warta - Lech 0-2

Even Lokomotiva Zagreb used to beat or draw from time to time to Dinamo Zagreb, but here in Poland we have a much better version of Lokomotiva.

I used to cheer for Warta in the past. I thought "small and poor club, so I wish them all the best in Ekstraklasa", but not anymore.

And the match once again took place at the stadium which is usually used by Lech. Since their return, Warta played only two home games in Poznań - both actually were away matches vs Lech. All the other home matches were played in Grodzisk Wielkopolski.

It is just an bonus home game for Lech, which gives them advantage. Cracovia will have something similar against Puszcza, but the latter play all their matches at this stadium and don't switch for one match to do the other club a favour.

[Greyn]

Exciting week of football, but also some terrible referee mistakes. They include:

- no red card for Triantafyllopoulos (Górnik), who hit his opponent in face without the ball nearby, but only got yellow,
- wrong red card for Josué (Legia), who got his second yellow, although he was fouled and it was the opponent who should have been booked,
- disallowed goal for Radomiak, which was valid, and no penalty awarded for them,
- wrong second yellow card for Nalepa (Zagłębie),
- there were also long VAR reviews in Pogoń - Korona match, but final decisions were correct.

Some of these mistakes are just crazy. Others could have been easily corrected by VAR, but it didn't happen.

Some of those mistakes were made by young and inexperienced referees like Damian Sylwestrzak (Piast - Legia) or Marcin Kochanek (Stal - Zagłębie). Since they are young and inexperienced I think they deserve for some credit of understanding and patience. Being a football referee is a much tougher job than most of fans think, particularly those who insult them at the stadiums (and not only at the stadiums) with every possible occasion. I believe particularly in Damian Sylwestrzak, I think he will be a great referee in the future and he already apologised Legia publicly for that mistake. Although I agree with you that there is no justification for not using VAR in these kind of moments.

On the other hand we have referees like Bartosz Frankowski, who is not a young referee and watching him I have an impression that despite not being young he is still inexperienced, or perhaps, he is simply a very poor referee and should be replaced ASAP.

[Juliusz]

Some of those mistakes were made by young and inexperienced referees like Damian Sylwestrzak (Piast - Legia) or Marcin Kochanek (Stal - Zagłębie). Since they are young and inexperienced I think they deserve for some credit of understanding and patience. Being a football referee is a much tougher job than most of fans think, particularly those who insult them at the stadiums (and not only at the stadiums) with every possible occasion. I believe particularly in Damian Sylwestrzak, I think he will be a great referee in the future and he already apologised Legia publicly for that mistake. Although I agree with you that there is no justification for not using VAR in these kind of moments.

On the other hand we have referees like Bartosz Frankowski, who is not a young referee and watching him I have an impression that despite not being young he is still inexperienced, or perhaps, he is simply a very poor referee and should be replaced ASAP.

I agree about Kochanek, but Sylwestrzak has some experience despite young age. I had an an impression that he wanted to sent off Josué and waited for a moment to do so. If he hadn't shown the second card immediately, he might have received a hint that the foul was the other way, but it was too late.

For me he behaves like Frankowski, which means he allows rough play, doesn't book the players, but then starts showing yellow cards to everyone for much less serious offenses. This results in chaos and hostile atmosphere.

Today he was appointed as the referee in Viktoria - Ballkani match. Hopefully he will do better in Europe than in the domestic league.

[Greyn]

To be honest, I watched only a few games with Sylwestrzak as the referee and it is quite possible that I was "lucky" to see only the matches when he had a 'good day'. I don't watch as many matches as I used to in the past due to health issues. I watch only some European games, particularly these involving Polish clubs + some Ekstraklasa matches from time to time and that's all. I don't watch foreign domestic leagues completely, although I used to watch them in the past. Therefore, I believe in your opinion about Sylwestrzak since you watch a few times more Ekstraklasa matches than I do and basing on your contributions on this forum I know that you are a reliable source of information.

At least we both agree that Frankowski is a poor referee and if Sylwestrzak will follow him, then he won't be a great referee never ever for sure.

[Greyn]

When it comes to direct promotion, it's hard to predict now, but the competition is strong. Miedź is likely to fight for it again. I am really curious about Motor Lublin, which is led by aggressive, but very competent coach. Bruk-Bet, Wisła Płock and Podbeskidzie should be powerful too, but they are even lower ranked than Wisła, which proves the balanced level of this league (even more than in Ekstraklasa).

There are always surprising teams as well. This summer they are GKS Katowice, Odra Opole and Górnik Łęczna. A dark horse, apart from Motor, might be GKS Tychy. I have no idea how Arka Gdynia and Lechia Gdańsk will proceed.

What a "mess" in 1. Liga. Everything looks like in a kaleidoscope. Normally I would say that there were many unexpected results since then, but it is hard to call them "unexpected" since everything is possible in this league. Teams that were expected to fight for direct promotion before the season started tend to fail one after another against teams that are underdogs on paper and on paper only. As your wrote, very balanced level in this league and I don't dare to name main candidates for promotion.

We will see how Wisła Kraków find themselves in this company, but I agree with your previous prediction, most likely a play-off spot is their max at the moment and I also think that even in case of finishing on 3-6 (particularly 5-6) places, Wisła would not win promotion anyway. Sadly, I don't see Wisła's future in bright colors, but let's wait how the season goes on and how it will end up.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 9

League table


Results

Korona Kielce - Widzew Łódź 1:1
Mateusz Czyżycki 2' - Bartłomiej Pawłowski 42' (penalty)
Attendance: 12 587

ŁKS - Jagiellonia Białystok 2:2
Kay Tejan 23', Dani Ramírez 90' (penalty) - Afimico Pululu 40' (penalty), 77'
Attendance: 11 032

Radomiak Radom - Puszcza Niepołomice 1:1
Pedro Henrique 50' - Łukasz Sołowiej 49'
Attendance: 7523

Śląsk Wrocław - Piast Gliwice 1:0
Nahuel Leiva 41'
Attendance: 17 902

Cracovia - Pogoń Szczecin 1:5
Michał Rakoczy 90'+4 - Kamil Grosicki 8' (penalty), Alexander Gorgon 21', 50', Efthýmis Kouloúris 64', Kacper Smoliński 87'
Attendance: 9017

Lech Poznań - Stal Mielec 2:1
Kristoffer Velde 37', Filip Marchwiński 40' - Maciej Domański 23'
Attendance: 15 527

Zagłębie Lubin - Warta Poznań 1:0
Tomasz Makowski 56'
Attendance: 5738

Ruch Chorzów - Raków Częstochowa 3:5
Tomasz Wójtowicz 7', Tomás Podstawski 71', Daniel Szczepan 80' (penalty) - Dawid Drachal 20', 28', 42', Srđan Plavšić 68', Vladyslav Kochergin 87'
Attendance: 9367

Legia Warszawa - Górnik Zabrze 2:1
Tomáš Pekhart 8', Igor Strzałek 90'+2 - Sebastian Musiolik 12'
Attendance: 24 409

Top scorers:
8 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
6 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
5 - Tomáš Pekhart (Legia Warszawa), Afimico Pululu (Jagiellonia Białystok)
4 - Filip Marchwiński (Lech Poznań), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań)
3 - Adrián Dalmau (Korona Kielce), Maciej Domański, Ilya Shkurin (both Stal Mielec), Dawid Drachal, Bartosz Nowak, Łukasz Zwoliński (all Raków Częstochowa), Patryk Dziczek (Piast Gliwice), Alexander Gorgon, Efthýmis Kouloúris (both Pogoń Szczecin), Josué, Ernest Muçi (both Legia Warszawa), Bartłomiej Pawłowski, Jordi Sánchez (both Widzew Łódź), Łukasz Sołowiej (Puszcza Niepołomice), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)

Three penalties missed this week, all on Saturday and all by players who won these penalties as they were fouled:

Rafał Wolski (Radomiak) vs Puszcza while it was 0-0,
Erik Expósito (Śląsk) vs Piast while it was 1-0,
Patryk Makuch (Cracovia) vs Pogoń while it was 0-3.

The latter match was the return of Kamil Glik to Ekstraklasa and it ended with a heavy defeat for his team. The penalty probably wouldn't have changed anything. Cracovia was supposed to be even stronger in the defense now, but it was their worst display this season. On the other hand, Pogoń is on fire again and seems to recover after several losses in a row in summer.

Raków won a thrilling match in Gliwice against Ruch. Dawid Drachal, who is 18, scored a hat-trick - a really remarkable achievement for such a young player. Ruch defense played slapstick today, but Drachal was always at the right place to finish and did it brilliantly.

Legia fought until the end again and won against Górnik. They needed to field their star players from 60th minute, who were supposed to rest after Aston Villa. Probably they thought it would go easier, but a gifted goal (back pass by Baku went to Musiolik, who was clear one-on-one vs the keeper) forced them to look for the winning goal for a long time.

In other matches, very exciting show in Łódź, with a red card for ŁKS at the end of the first half and two penalties. There was a similar situation for Piast as well, who also got a player sent off just before the break. They weren't able to equalize like ŁKS did. Instead, Erik Expósito had three fantastic chances for Śląsk in the final minutes, including a penalty, but he missed all of them. Either he missed the goal completely or hit the bar (from the penalty).

This week, Polish Cup and two postponed Ekstraklasa matches will be played. One cup game was already completed this week. Miedź II Legnica lost 0-3 to Stal Rzeszów.

What a "mess" in 1. Liga. Everything looks like in a kaleidoscope. Normally I would say that there were many unexpected results since then, but it is hard to call them "unexpected" since everything is possible in this league. Teams that were expected to fight for direct promotion before the season started tend to fail one after another against teams that are underdogs on paper and on paper only. As your wrote, very balanced level in this league and I don't dare to name main candidates for promotion.

We will see how Wisła Kraków find themselves in this company, but I agree with your previous prediction, most likely a play-off spot is their max at the moment and I also think that even in case of finishing on 3-6 (particularly 5-6) places, Wisła would not win promotion anyway. Sadly, I don't see Wisła's future in bright colors, but let's wait how the season goes on and how it will end up.

Wisła Kraków won 4-1 vs Motor just one week after drawing vs last placed Chrobry. They are still in the race for promotion play-offs, but for a direct promotion, a perfect run would be needed.

I didn't watch that game, but saw Wisła Płock vs GKS Tychy. The away team, which performed very well so far, lost there 1-4. This is another result that created some mess in the table. Currently Odra Opole is on top, but the only undefeated team is second placed Górnik Łęczna. Bruk-Bet started collecting points... So it might be really interesting, although it's very early in the season.

[Greyn]

Polish Cup Round 1
Legia II Warszawa (4th tier) - Ruch Chorzów 3-2
As a side, but very interesting info - Legia's GK in that match was 15 (!) years old Jakub Zieliński.
Yep, there is no place in the Polish Cup for a club whose fans boo during playing Polish National Anthem. Well done Legia II Warszawa.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 6 - postponed matches

League table


Results

Pogoń Szczecin - Legia Warszawa 3:4
Kamil Grosicki 29', Efthýmis Kouloúris 51', Vahan Bichakhchyan 71' - Tomáš Pekhart 33', Paweł Wszołek 69', Juergen Elitim 78', Steve Kapuadi 84'
Attendance: 19 551

Lech Poznań - Raków Częstochowa 4:1
Michał Gurgul 7', Filip Marchwiński 25', Kristoffer Velde 72', Adriel Ba Loua 90'+3 - Deian Sorescu 2'
Attendance: 21 874

Top scorers:
8 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
6 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom), Tomáš Pekhart (Legia Warszawa)
5 - Filip Marchwiński (Lech Poznań), Afimico Pululu (Jagiellonia Białystok)
4 - Efthýmis Kouloúris (Pogoń Szczecin), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań)
3 - Adrián Dalmau (Korona Kielce), Maciej Domański, Ilya Shkurin (both Stal Mielec), Dawid Drachal, Bartosz Nowak, Łukasz Zwoliński (all Raków Częstochowa), Patryk Dziczek (Piast Gliwice), Alexander Gorgon (Pogoń Szczecin), Josué, Ernest Muçi (both Legia Warszawa), Bartłomiej Pawłowski, Jordi Sánchez (both Widzew Łódź), Łukasz Sołowiej (Puszcza Niepołomice), Kristoffer Velde (Lech Poznań), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)

Top 4 played against each other and their matches were fantastic to watch. Legia again got a red card before the break, after a very controversial call. But even down to ten, they are extremely powerful in front. Even if they concede, they are able to score one more than the opponent. This win wasn't by chance, they were pushing for more goals in the second half. Legia hasn't played like this for a long time.

Lech needed a convincing win against a strong opposition and they got it. The scoreline tells much as well. After they turned it around, they had the match under control and were almost always closer to extend their lead than Raków to equalize. Marchwiński-Velde duo is spectacular and they don't have to worry about many injuries among other offensive players. Raków miss a lot of players too, which is particularly worrying before Sturm fixture.

Polish Cup first round - results

Miedź II Legnica - Stal Rzeszów 0:3
Jagiellonia II Białystok - Korona Kielce 1:2
Pogoń Siedlce - Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biała 1:3
Start Krasnystaw - Zawisza Bydgoszcz 0:4
Wieczysta Kraków - Piast Gliwice 0:4
Wisła Puławy - Chrobry Głogów 3:1
Concordia Elbląg - Widzew Łódź 0:4
Miedź Legnica - Arka Gdynia 0:2
Motor Lublin - Puszcza Niepołomice 0:1
KKS 1925 Kalisz - ŁKS 2:3
Odra Opole - Stal Mielec 1:2
Skra Częstochowa - Polonia Warszawa 2:3 AET
Jagiellonia Białystok - Śląsk Wrocław 2:0
Carina Gubin - Radunia Stężyca 4:1
Garbarnia Kraków - Radomiak Radom 2:1
Legia II Warszawa - Ruch Chorzów 3:2
Sokół Kleczew - Zagłębie Lubin 2:3 AET
Stal Brzeg - Unia Skierniewice 4:0
Gryf Wejherowo - Zagłębie Sosnowiec 1:3
Górnik Łęczna - Cracovia 3:4
Stal Stalowa Wola - Znicz Pruszków 2:0
KSZO Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski - Warta Poznań 1:2
Chojniczanka Chojnice - Resovia 2:3
GKS Katowice - Górnik Zabrze 0:4
Pogoń II Szczecin - Polonia Bytom 1:4
GKS Tychy - Wisła Płock 3:1
Kotwica Kołobrzeg - Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza 4:4, 3:4 on penalties
Wisła Kraków - Lechia Gdańsk 2:1 AET

On Tuesday, nothing surprising happened. The only Ekstraklasa team to exit the tournament was Śląsk, but they played vs Jagiellonia, who are Ekstraklasa side as well.

But it began on Wednesday. Radomiak went out in favour of Garbarnia, and Ruch lost to Legia's second team (no reinforcements from the first team squad; they were away in Szczecin on the same day and some players like Rose or Pich are permanently moved to the reserves). Zagłębie needed extra time in small town Kleczew, while Cracovia scored four goals in a bizarre match, where all of them were gifts by Górnik Łęczna keeper.

Today, GKS Tychy took revenge on Wisła Płock for a loss in the league last weekend. The only match decided on penalty shoot-out took place in Kołobrzeg. Lechia had two VAR penalties in the added time of the second half. The first one was saved, but the second one was scored which brought them to extra time. However, Wisła was superior in this period and qualified deservedly for the next round.

Matches themselves are not the main topic around the cup though. There were 28 matches played, and only few of them were shown on TV. It's technically impossible to cover all of them, but we don't have even highlights, although clubs recorded them on their own. Polsat, the tv rights holder, doesn't allow them to publish any video footage from these games. The broadcaster doesn't want to do it themselves as well.

So in the end, we had like 6 matches shown by Polsat I think, and two on YouTube channel belonging to PZPN. For the other 20, we will probably not see any kind of videos. Clubs are making jokes of this ridiculous decision. On social media, they post photos of the goals (construction), drawings of match action, recordings from FIFA or Football Manager video games, or blurred videos.

Round of 32 draw will take place tomorrow at 12:00 CET. Raków, Legia, Lech and Pogoń received byes to this phase and didn't participate in the first round.

[Greyn]

Matches themselves are not the main topic around the cup though. There were 28 matches played, and only few of them were shown on TV. It's technically impossible to cover all of them, but we don't have even highlights, although clubs recorded them on their own. Polsat, the tv rights holder, doesn't allow them to publish any video footage from these games. The broadcaster doesn't want to do it themselves as well.

So in the end, we had like 6 matches shown by Polsat I think, and two on YouTube channel belonging to PZPN. For the other 20, we will probably not see any kind of videos. Clubs are making jokes of this ridiculous decision. On social media, they post photos of the goals (construction), drawings of match action, recordings from FIFA or Football Manager video games, or blurred videos.

This is very typical for Polsat, or perhaps I should say for Mr. Zygmunt Solorz-Żak and his people. Maximizing financial profits and not caring completely about people/fans. I remember when he bought tv rights for 2002 World Cup and tried everything what was possible to code all matches including matches of Poland NT, so people would be forced to buy Polsat decoders on a mass scale. At the end he was forced by some government's institution to broadcast Polish matches in a free to air station.

Same story with Volleyball World Cup in Poland, when he tried to code all matches including matches of Poland once again. Volleyball is very popular in Poland, not as much as football, but Poland NT matches have a viewership numbered in a few millions. Again, he was forced to show it in a free to air tv.

He was also the owner of Śląsk Wrocław for some period of time, but his only intention was to milk the club like a cow.

[Juliusz]

Polish Cup round of 32 - result of the draw

Stal Brzeg - Warta Poznań
Carina Gubin - Stal Stalowa Wola
Polonia Bytom - Arka Gdynia
GKS Tychy - Legia Warszawa
Garbarnia Kraków - Stal Mielec
ŁKS Łódź - Raków Częstochowa
Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza - Piast Gliwice
Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biała - Pogoń Szczecin
Stal Rzeszów - Puszcza Niepołomice
Legia II Warszawa - Korona Kielce
Resovia - Jagiellonia Białystok
Wisła Puławy - Widzew Łódź
Zawisza Bydgoszcz - Lech Poznań
Cracovia - Zagłębie Lubin
Wisła Kraków - Polonia Warszawa
Zagłębie Sosnowiec - Górnik Zabrze

Matches to be played between 31 October and 2 November.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 10

League table


Results

Stal Mielec - Korona Kielce 2:3
Krystian Getinger 33' (penalty), Bert Esselink 90'+4 - Yevgeniy Shikavka 20', Martin Remacle 22', Jakub Konstantyn 74'
Attendance: 6325

Piast Gliwice - Widzew Łódź 3:2
Serhiy Krykun 24', 38', Patryk Dziczek 68' (penalty) - František Plach 47' (own goal), Imad Rondić 90'+5
Attendance: 5697

ŁKS - Cracovia 0:2
Virgil Ghiță 14', Jani Atanasov 21'
Attendance: 9572

Puszcza Niepołomice - Ruch Chorzów 2:2
Łukasz Sołowiej 35', 45'+4 (penalty) - Tomasz Swędrowski 66', Michał Feliks 90'+4
Attendance: 2785

Warta Poznań - Śląsk Wrocław 0:1
Burak İnce 18'
Attendance: 2386

Raków Częstochowa - Radomiak Radom 3:0
Bogdan Racovițan 3', 61', John Yeboah 82'
Attendance: 5399

Pogoń Szczecin - Lech Poznań 5:0
Fredrik Ulvestad 17', Alexander Gorgon 33', Vahan Bichakhchyan 39', Kamil Grosicki 47', Mariusz Fornalczyk 90'+3
Attendance: 20 157

Jagiellonia Białystok - Legia Warszawa 2:0
José Naranjo 13', Jesús Imaz 29'
Attendance: 17 892

Górnik Zabrze - Zagłębie Lubin 0:2
Serhiy Buletsa 36', Mateusz Wdowiak 90'+7
Attendance: 10 337

Top scorers:
8 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
6 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom), Tomáš Pekhart (Legia Warszawa)
5 - Filip Marchwiński (Lech Poznań), Afimico Pululu (Jagiellonia Białystok), Łukasz Sołowiej (Puszcza Niepołomice)
4 - Patryk Dziczek (Piast Gliwice), Alexander Gorgon, Efthýmis Kouloúris (both Pogoń Szczecin), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań)

Many things changed in last few days. But one didn't. Śląsk won their 7th league match in a row! After three rounds, they had just one point and now they have this remarkable streak. They are not spectacular anymore, are close to drop points, but still manage to produce positive results. Warta had a penalty in final minutes, but Kajetan Szmyt hit the post, they missed some other great chances too.

Shock of the week is massive victory of Pogoń against Lech. Just few days after Pogoń lost 3-4 vs Legia although they played with one man advantage, and Lech had their best performance and won 4-1 vs Raków. Lech was present in the match for 15 minutes. When they conceded the first goal after set piece, they fell apart. It's really hard to tell what is happening and what they will show in next matches. Lech is capable of everything, both positive and negative.

Legia lost for the first time in the league this season, but it must have happened at some point. Jagiellonia are very strong at home and keep improving under the youngest coach in the league, Adrian Siemieniec. Now it will be even more difficult against AZ, but overall one can be optimistic about Legia performance.

Raków recovered after their loss vs Lech. Fran Tudor is back, but Adnan Kovačević and Srdjan Plavšić had to be substituted vs Radomiak due to injuries. They have to change the line-up a lot, not because they want to, but they have to. They will definitely have their chances against Sturm on Thursday, but they are running out of options on the bench.

In other matches, very important fixture was in Kraków, where Puszcza hosted Ruch. The former lost their lead again and are still close to other teams engaged in the battle. Performance of Łukasz Sołowiej is noticeable. He is 34-year-old centre back, who has never played at this level before, and now he converts every shot he has. Puszcza are extremely dangerous after set pieces and this is their main asset. Other newcomers, Ruch and ŁKS, don't have such advantages. Particularly the latter looks awful and although the points difference is not big, they are most likely to be relegated at this point.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 10

League table


Results

Korona Kielce - Warta Poznań 1:1
Martin Remacle 90'+6 - Mateusz Kupczak 50'
Attendance: 9398

Lech Poznań - Puszcza Niepołomice 4:1
Adriel Ba Loua 2', Jesper Karlström 43', Mikael Ishak 51', Antonio Milić 90'+5 - Kamil Zapolnik 4'
Attendance: 25 755

Radomiak Radom - ŁKS 3:0
Pedro Henrique 20', Marcin Flis 36' (own goal), Edi Semedo 69'
Attendance: 8161

Widzew Łódź - Stal Mielec 1:0
Andrejs Cigaņiks 73'
Attendance: 16 834

Zagłębie Lubin - Piast Gliwice 1:1
Aleks Ławniczak 45' - Grzegorz Tomasiewicz 73'
Attendance: 5034

Ruch Chorzów - Pogoń Szczecin 0:3
Fredrik Ulvestad 28', Kamil Grosicki 57' (penalty), Maciej Sadlok 63' (own goal)
Attendance: 9236

Śląsk Wrocław - Górnik Zabrze 1:1
Erik Expósito 33' - Szymon Czyż 90'+4
Attendance: 20 755

Cracovia - Jagiellonia Białystok 2:4
Virgil Ghiță 57', Kamil Glik 60' - Bartłomiej Wdowik 7', Kristoffer Hansen 9', 49', Dominik Marczuk 55'
Attendance: 8132

Legia Warszawa - Raków Częstochowa 1:2
Paweł Wszołek 45'+2 - Vladyslav Kochergin 26', Rafał Augustyniak 73' (own goal)
Attendance: 25 368

Top scorers:
9 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
7 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
6 - Tomáš Pekhart (Legia Warszawa)
5 - Filip Marchwiński (Lech Poznań), Afimico Pululu (Jagiellonia Białystok), Łukasz Sołowiej (Puszcza Niepołomice)
4 - Patryk Dziczek (Piast Gliwice), Alexander Gorgon, Kamil Grosicki, Efthýmis Kouloúris (all Pogoń Szczecin), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)

Well... Just after I praised Legia, they lost three matches in a row. Their unbeaten home streak of 24 league matches is over as well. Against Raków, it was an intensive, high quality first half by both sides and many pauses and injuries in the second period. Legia was strong from set pieces, Rafał Augustyniak had a shot cleared off the line, a minute later he hit the post, and another minute later put the ball into his own net.

Top 4 matches are crazy this season:

Pogoń lost 3-4 to Legia, who were down to 10 for more than half of the game,
Lech won 4-1 vs Raków, the best performance of the former and the worst of the latter,
Pogoń defeated Lech 5-0 in the same week, and it was a humiliation as the result suggests,
Legia lost 1-2 vs Raków away just one week later.

I am really worried about our newly promoted teams. All of them are mediocre and I am sorry to write that. Many of their points are collected in matches against each other. This week they had fairly difficult games, but so far they are not competitive. I guess the difference between Ekstraklasa and I liga is growing. It also has to be noted that not the strongest or richest clubs advanced. They were about to avoid relegation or reach play-offs (6th place) at maximum. All are in Ekstraklasa though and have hard time here.

Anyway, the league is still quite balanced. Although they are at bottom 3, they can still reach safe places. Top 7 teams are separated by 5 points. Probably Śląsk, Jagiellonia and Zagłębie won't stay long in the race, but we can't rule out their European qualification. Śląsk was close to win their 8th match in a row, but again decided to defend their lead instead of extending it. They were punished by Górnik, who haven't done a lot in this match except this lucky punch.

I liga standings below. So that's a really balanced league. Motor started losing game after game and are mid table now. Wisła Kraków and Arka are in top 6, but also just one point above Motor. Podbeskidzie, instead of fighting for promotion, are in the relegation zone, joined by Zagłębie Sosnowiec, who lost a crucial match today against Polonia.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 12

League table


Results

Piast Gliwice - Pogoń Szczecin 0:0
Attendance: 4744

Jagiellonia Białystok - Zagłębie Lubin 3:0
Mateusz Skrzypczak 28', Afimico Pululu 44' (penalty), Bartłomiej Wdowik 66'
Attendance: 8049

Puszcza Niepołomice - Cracovia 1:1
Artur Siemaszko 41' - Karol Knap 85'
Attendance: 5834

Śląsk Wrocław - Legia Warszawa 4:0
Petr Schwarz 46', Erik Expósito 71', 77', Piotr Samiec-Talar 73'
Attendance: 39 583

Lech Poznań - ŁKS 3:1
Mikael Ishak 18', 44', Kristoffer Velde 81' - Stipe Jurić 64'
Attendance: 25 026

Radomiak Radom - Korona Kielce 1:1
Frank Castañeda 63' - Ronaldo Deaconu 71'
Attendance: 8558

Widzew Łódź - Ruch Chorzów postponed due to heavy rainfall

Górnik Zabrze - Raków Częstochowa 2:1
Daisuke Yokota 10', 22' - Ante Crnac 82'
Attendance: 14 789

Stal Mielec - Warta Poznań 0:1
Miguel Luís 75'
Attendance: 4242

Top scorers:
11 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
7 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
6 - Tomáš Pekhart (Legia Warszawa), Afimico Pululu (Jagiellonia Białystok)
5 - Filip Marchwiński (Lech Poznań), Łukasz Sołowiej (Puszcza Niepołomice), Bartłomiej Wdowik (Jagiellonia Białystok)
4 - Patryk Dziczek (Piast Gliwice), Alexander Gorgon, Kamil Grosicki, Efthýmis Kouloúris (all Pogoń Szczecin), Mikael Ishak, Kristoffer Velde (both Lech Poznań), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań)

Legia was beaten hard by Śląsk in front of full house in Wrocław. As they conceded right after the beginning of the second half, Legia started to play with all players on Śląsk half, not caring about defense. The hosts were able to start their runs from their own half and avoided being offside. Their counterattacks were extremely dangerous and they created them in a simple, but spectacular way. Well done to Śląsk, meanwhile Legia lost fourth match in a row. They look better than two years ago when they had their worst streak ever (7 in the league), but results don't support it. They must somehow beat Zrinjski on Thursday, otherwise they might become more and more nervous. However, I am aware of Zrinjski capabilities and respect them enough to expect a very tough match in Mostar.

Raków also lost, they completely cannot play against Górnik, either under the current coach or the previous one. Some key players are slowly returning to the team though, so the quality might improve. Ante Crnac also looks like an upgrade as a striker. Any point collected against Sporting would be a bonus and I am even more pessimistic in this case. Allegedly the turf in Sosnowiec was improved last weeks, so the game should be more pleasant to watch overall.

Apart from that we had local derby Radomiak vs Korona, which was rather mediocre, and major disappointment of the round is the matchup Piast vs Pogoń. Jagiellonia are still brilliant at home, while Lech make use of their comfortable schedule an defeated another newcomer at home. ŁKS have a new coach as Piotr Stokowiec replaced Kazimierz Moskal during the international break.

Tomorrow, Lech and Jagiellonia will play their postponed match from round 4. Then, EL and ECL matches will follow on Thursday, featuring Raków and Legia.

[Juliusz]

Matchday 4 - postponed match

League table


Result

Lech Poznań - Jagiellonia Białystok 3:3
Adriel Ba Loua 3', 51', Mikael Ishak 43' - Kristoffer Hansen 54', Mateusz Skrzypczak 66', Bartłomiej Wdowik 90'+6 (penalty)
Attendance: 15 372

Top scorers:
11 - Erik Expósito (Śląsk Wrocław)
7 - Pedro Henrique (Radomiak Radom)
6 - Tomáš Pekhart (Legia Warszawa), Afimico Pululu, Bartłomiej Wdowik (both Jagiellonia Białystok)
5 - Mikael Ishak, Filip Marchwiński (both Lech Poznań), Łukasz Sołowiej (Puszcza Niepołomice)
4 - Adriel Ba Loua, Kristoffer Velde (both Lech Poznań), Patryk Dziczek (Piast Gliwice), Alexander Gorgon, Kamil Grosicki, Efthýmis Kouloúris (all Pogoń Szczecin), Kajetan Szmyt (Warta Poznań)

Jagiellonia are the new team on the top. They were able to get back to this match despite 0-3 after 50 minutes. This season, home advantage plays a significant role, so this result is even more valuable for them. They played with their usual tactics, but gifted goals to Lech. Their consistency paid off in the end though. It is really rare to see Lech at home with just 40% possession.

Many things about Lech remain up to date. They are able of absolutely anything, both positive and negative. Their advantage is progress of players who seemed to be definitely not good enough before. First Michał Skóraś, then Kristoffer Velde and Filip Marchwiński, and now Adriel Ba Loua helps the team a lot. Return of Mikael Ishak after his illness is also noticeable. Lech definitely has high potential, but they fail to build a higher advantage over Raków and Legia, who play twice a week.

The postponed match Widzew vs Ruch will be played on 18 November, so during the international break. This weekend, Ruch will move to Stadion Śląski in Chorzów and will host Śląsk on Saturday.

[Firnen]

Both Legia and Rakow have started really struggling to balance domestic and European matches lately (at the expense of domestic results).