A draw in the first match

Sunday was the fourth day of Lech’s winter training camp. On that day, John van den Brom’s team played their first sparring match in Dubai, 50 km away from their training venue, at the Ajman Stadium, where they faced the hosts. Ajman Club is currently ranked 5^th in UAE Pro League which, similarly to Polish Ekstraklasa, will resume at the end of January.

Lech dominated in the opening minutes of the Sunday game. In the 3^rd minute, the Polish side had their first goal-scoring opportunity when Bartosz Salamon sent a long ball to Michał Skóraś and the latter raced into the box and set Adriel Ba Loua with a perfect pass. The player from Ivory Coast fired a shot which, unfortunately, was slightly off target. Not long later, that same player was fouled right outside the box. Nika Kvekveskiri converted the free kick into a beautiful pass which also turned out to be imprecise.

Ba Loua was also involved in the offensive attempt that resulted in a goal for Lech. In the 19^th minute, Ajman Club made a howler during their counterattack. Filip Szymczak recovered the ball and passed it to Ba Loua who was positioned on the wing. The latter crossed the ball into the box where Michał Skóraś was waiting, and the latter tapped the ball into the back of the net. It was Lech’s very first goal of 2023. A few moments later, it could have been 2:0 after Lech was awarded a penalty kick, but Ajman’s keeper stopped Filip Szymczak’s shot.

A totally different line-up came on for the second half, but the game didn’t change much. In the second part of the game, Ajman also attacked intensely, with frequent fouls and a few controversial situations. In the first 15 minutes of the second half, Ajman found an opportunity to equalize and took it. The situation was also slightly controversial since Antonio Milić was being pulled by his shirt outside the box whilst Ajman scored. He and the defender who clashed both received a red card, but the coaches agreed to let the players stay on the pitch.

The conceded goal visibly irritated the Polish squad. Lech instantly got back to work; Afonso Sousa, Gio Tsitaishvili, and Kristoffer Velde all tried to defeat Ajman’s keeper for the second time that day, but their shots weren’t good enough to make it into the net. 10 minutes before the final whistle, Filip Marchwiński sent a great pass to Gio who raced towards Ajman’s goal and gave the ball to Lech’s captain. Unfortunately, Mikael Ishak’s shot was stopped by one of the defenders.

Lech’s next training game in Dubai – against Eintracht Frankfurt – is scheduled for Friday, January 13^th.

Lech Poznań - Ajman Club 1:1 (1:0)

Goals: Skóraś (19.) - Faiz (56.)

Lech Poznań (1st half): Krzysztof Bąkowski - Alan Czerwiński, Bartosz Salamon (C), Filip Dagerstål, Antoni Kozubal - Adriel Ba Loua, Nika Kvekveskiri, Jesper Karlström, Michał Skóraś - Filip Szymczak - Artur Sobiech

Lech Poznań (2nd half): Artur Rudko - Joel Pereira, Bartosz Tomaszewski, Antonio Milić, Pedro Rebocho - Gio Tsitaishvili, Radosław Murawski, Afonso Sousa, Kristoffer Velde - Filip Marchwiński - Mikael Ishak (C)