Lech Poznań  - Raków Częstochowa 3:0

In the first match following winter break, Lech Poznan was going to face Raków Częstochowa. In the opening minutes, the top-division newcomers dominated on the pitch whilst Lech struggled to find a steady rhythm. Even though Raków was in possession of the ball for the majority of the time, the hosts were the first ones to come close to scoring. Marchwiński tried surprising Raków’s keeper with a shot from outside the box. Szymski stopped the shot but failed to catch it which gave chance for Gytkjaer to fire a follow-up shot. Fortunately for the guests, the goalkeeper intervened well once again.

For the next few minutes, the team from Częstochowa struggled to stop Puchacz who was very active in the offense, looking for space to shoot from outside the box. Most of his attempts had to be stopped by the goalkeeper. Šatka had the best goal-scoring opportunity of the first half but he was less precise than his teammate and the ball flew above the crossbar. Lech managed to dominate the closing minutes of the first half but Raków wouldn’t give in and their occasional counterattacks forced van der Hart to intervene.

Lech continued pressing on Raków in the second half, however, neither Muhar nor Puchacz successfully surprised the goalkeeper from Częstochowa. The game gradually moved towards the midfield where the two teams fought for the ball until in the 67^th minute the match took an unexpected direction. Tiba crossed the ball into the box where Gytkjaer was positioned, however, just as the Danish striker was reaching for the ball, he was knocked down by Raków keeper. At first, the referee let the game continue but a VAR consultation made him change his decision and award Lech with a penalty kick. Gytkjaer effortlessly converted this great opportunity into an opening goal.

Since then on, Lech had the game under control. It didn’t take them long to score a second goal. This time Jozwiak got the assist whilst Puchacz, having first dribbled past two defenders, placed the ball in the net with a strong and confident shot. Raków’s coach was sent off the pitch for protests which didn’t help his team recover from the two blows, neither did Moder’s outstanding goal from outside the box which left the goalkeeper helpless and set the final score to 3:0. Therefore, Lech’s league first match of 2020 finished with a great score for the side from Poznan and three extra points on their account.

Lech Poznań – Raków Częstochowa 3:0 (0:0)

Goals: Christian Gytkjaer (67. – pen.), Tymoteusz Puchacz (81.), Jakub Moder (87.)

Yellow cards: Tomasz Petrasek, Sebastian Musiolik, Jakub Szumski, Fran Tudor

Lech Poznań: Mickey van der Hart – Jakub Kamiński, Lubomir Šatka, Thomas Rogne, Volodymyr Kostevych – Tymoteusz Puchacz (83. Juliusz Letniowski), Karlo Muhar, Filip Marchwiński (72. Jakub Moder), Pedro Tiba, Kamil Jóźwiak – Christian Gytkjaer (89. Filip Szymczak)

Raków Częstochowa: Jakub Szumski – Daniel Mikołajewski, Tomas Petrasek, Jarosław Jach – Fran Tudor (83. Piotr Malinowski), Igor Sapała (76. Felicio Brown Forbes), Rusłan Babenko, Petr Schwarz, Miłosz Szczepański (83. Bryan Nouvier), Daniel Bartl – Sebastian Musiolik

Attendance: 10,872