Florence conquered

Lech returns from Florence with three additional points on its account! Solid defending for over an hour and two brutal blows from Kownacki and Gajos allowed Lech to triumph against Fiorentina.

Lech went to Italy in the role of a loser. The team from Poznan is occupying the lowest rank in Polish Ekstraklasa while their rival is the leader of Serie A. Nonetheless, both coaches decided to make several changes in their squads - Urban made 7 of them, while Sousa 9.

The hosts dominated the match since the referee's first whistle and as early as in the 2nd minute they could have already scored a goal. A free kick caused chaos in Lech's penalty area and the ball found itself on the goal line a few times until finally Tralka managed to clear the threat, avoiding a situation that the team from Poznan feared the most - conceding a goal in the opening minutes.

Lech managed to withhold through its opponent's intense attacks, but because of Fiorentina's clear advantage in terms of technique all of their offensive actions caused problems to the defense line from Poznan. In 21st minute Tralka lost the ball to Rossi who immediately passed it on to Babacar. If it wasnt for Buric's well-timed intervention, Lech might have already been losing 0:1. 10 minutes Verdu had his own goal-scoring opportunity, but the goalkeeper made no mistake this time either.

Lech did not want to defend for the whole 90 minutes, but there wasn't much the team could do in the offense. Thomalla and Holman tried causing problems to Fiorentinas defense line, however they were isolated and therefore inefficient. The hosts, on the other hand, tried forming their offensive actions by playing to Pasqual who's known for good crosses, but Lech's defenders were very cautious. The defending player from Poznan supported each other which did not allow the Italians to score a single goal in the first 45 minutes.

Fiorentina began the second half relatively poorly and Urban's team attempted to exploit the rival's lack of concentration. Despite momentary domination Lech did not get many goal-scoring opportunities. Meanwhile the stands began to show their dissatisfaction more loudly.

Most of the game took place on Lech's half of the pitch, but the Italians struggled for over 15 minutes to create their first opportunity. Verdu smartly let the ball pass to the left flank, but Buric saved Babacar's shot successfully.

As the minutes passed one could have gotten the feeling that Fiorentina wasn't determined to win this match. Kownacki appeared on the pitch and suddenly the whole game was flipped upside down. Less than a minute after his entrance the team from Poznan was already winning 1:0. The 18 year-olds action built together with Lovrencsics resulted in a goal that was the turning point of the match.

The conceded goal motivated Italians to attack more intensively and if it wasn't for Lech's wel organized defense and Burics great interventions Fernandez or Vecino would have scored. The wasted chances took revenge on Fiorentina and soon after the score changed again. Lech converted a free kick into a center by the further post where Kaminski was waiting and the defender played the ball back to Gajos whose shot rolled into the back of the net.

Fiorentina remained fighting till the very end. Shortly before injury time Rossi scored a goal that gave some hope to the hosts. Partially due to luck, but also due to the Italians' inefficiency Lech managed to avoid conceding another goal and when the referee whistled for the last time that Thursday night, the players from Poznan raised their hands triumphantly.

ACF Fiorentina - Lech Poznań 1:2

Goals: Rossi (90') - Kownacki (66), Gajos (82)

Yellow cards: Lovrerncsics, Trałka

Red cards: Rebić (90+1, for a brutal foul)

Fiorentina: Luigi Sepe - Nenad Tomović, Facundo Roncaglia, Davide Astori, Manuel Pasqual (68. Federico Bernardeschi) - Matias Fernandez, Mario Juarez (73. Josip Iścić), Joan Verdu (65. Matias Vecino) - Ante Rebić, Khouma Boubacar, Giuseppe Rossi

Lech: Jasmin Burić - Tomasz Kędziora, Dariusz Dudka, Marcin Kamiński, Tamas Kadar - Łukasz Trałka, Abdul Aziz Tetteh - Dariusz Formella, David Holman (68. Kasper Hamalainen), Gergo Lovrencsics - Denis Thomalla (63. Dawid Kownacki, 77. Maciej Gajos)

Attendance:14 293.