Lech Poznań – Standard Liege 3:1 

In the last round of Europa League qualifiers, Lech faced Royal Charleroi from Belgium. Fast forward, in the group phase the club from Poznań was once again drawn a Belgian rival, but this time it was Standard Liege.

Both teams had high hopes for the Thursday clash which was held in Poznań since neither side had managed to win points in the previous two games. However, when the referee announced finish time, it was Lech that celebrated their first win in the group stage of Europa League. Aside from a brief period at the end of the first half, Lech was in full control of the game. 15 minutes into the match, the team from Poznań took the lead – Tiba set up Skóraś with a perfect cross between defenders and the later dived in to redirect the ball into the net with a header. It was the 20-year-old’s debut goal for Lech.

A few minutes later, it was already 2:0 for Lech. This time it was Ishak who found the back of the net following a great pass from Puchacz. At the beginning of the second half, the Swedish striker added another goal to his account which set the final score. However, prior to that, in the 29^th minute, Standard caused some problems to Lech’s defensive line. First, Dussen’s shot bounced off the post and then Bednarek’s back, and even though it wasn’t heading towards the goal line, Lestienne was in the right place at the right time and tapped the ball into the net. Shortly afterwards, Bednarek made a mistake that helped the Belgians intercept the ball a few meters away from the goal, but luckily for the hosts, the goalkeeper quickly intervened.

These were the few goal-scoring chances that Standard Liege created on Thursday night. Lech kept on looking for another goal but they wasted most of the opportunities despite being in possession of the ball and occupying Standard’s half of the pitch for a majority of the time.

Lech is going to have to wait three weeks for the next group phase match. On November 26^th, the team from Poznań is going to face the Belgian side again, however, this time on the stadium in Liege.

Lech Poznań – Standard Liege 3:1 (2:1)

Goals: Michał Skóraś (14), Mikael Ishak (22, 48) – Maxime Lestienne (29)

Lech Poznań: Filip Bednarek - Alan Czerwiński, Lubomir Šatka, Thomas Rogne, Tymoteusz Puchacz - Michał Skóraś (62 Jan Sýkora), Pedro Tiba (81 Karlo Muhar), Jakub Moder, Filip Marchwiński (62 Jakub Kamiński), Dani Ramirez (81 Mohammad Awwad) - Mikael Ishak (85 Nika Kacharava).

Standard Liege: Arnaud Bodart - Laurent Jans, Merveille Bokadi, Noe Dussenne, Nicolas Gavory (46 Hugo Siquet) - Nicolas Raskin (73 Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez), Samuel Bastien, Gojko Cimirot (88 Joachim Carcela-Gonzalez) - Michel-Ange Balikwisha, Selim Amallah (60 Aleksandar Boljević), Maxime Lestienne (73 Obbi Oulare).