Lech Poznań - F91 Dudelange 2:0

Lech’s objective for the match against F91 Dudelange was simple but not necessarily easy – to build a significant advantage over the opponent in the first leg and take an important step toward playing in the Europa Conference League group stage. The hosts were the favorites considering their current form when competing at home in international matches. Prior to the match against the team from Luxembourg, Lech won all three games, scored 10 goals, and conceded just one.

Lech put pressure on F91 Dudelange’s defensive line since the first whistle. Very quickly they built an advantage over the opponent with a goal – in the 6^th minute, Antonio Milić crossed the ball into the box from a corner kick and Kristoffer Velde converted the pass into a goal from outside the box.

Everybody expected the hosts to continue their offensive attempts in order to score again and, therefore, secure the advantage over F91 Dudelange, however, it was the Luxembourg team that started dominating. They came close to scoring with a shot from Dejvid Sinani, but his attempt turned out to be slightly off target. Slowly, Lech regained possession of the ball and started creating goal-scoring opportunities. First, Michał Skóraś’s shot was blocked, and shortly afterward, Lucas Fox was forced to intervene when Pedro Rebocho fired a strong shot at the goal. Joao Amaral could have changed the score to 2:0 at the end of the first half, but his shot was slightly off target.

The first 20 minutes of the second part of the match were rather uneventful until, in the 66^th minute, Lech finally found the target. Rebocho sent a perfect long ball to Mikael Ishak and the captain beat Dudelange’s goalkeeper with a beautiful, technical volley. It was the Swede’s fourth goal in this season’s qualifiers to the European competition. Antonio Milić, Filip Szymczak, and Gio Tsitaishvili all came close to scoring the third goal, but they were imprecise.

Not long before the end of the match, Lech was forced to play in 10 men – Antonio Milić received a direct red card for a technical foul on Samir Hadji who was about to go one-against-one with the goalkeeper. Following the foul, F91 Dudelange had two more opportunities to score but Kirch’s free kick was inaccurate, whereas Hadji’s shot was successfully stopped by Filip Bednarek.

Lech’s will not play a league game this upcoming weekend, therefore their next game will take place on Thursday, August 25^th – that’s when van den Brom’s team will face F91 Dudelange in the second leg, at Stade de Luxembourg. The kick-off is scheduled for 8:30 pm.

Lech Poznań - F91 Dudelange 2:0 (1:0)

Goals: Velde (6.), Ishak (66.)

Yellow cards: Diouf, Vova

Red cards: Milić (tactical foul)

Lech Poznań: Filip Bednarek - Joel Pereira, Maksymilian Pingot, Antonio Milić, Pedro Rebocho - Kristoffer Velde (67. Gio Tsitaishvili), Radosław Murawski, Jesper Karlström (61. Nika Kvekveskiri), João Amaral (61. Filip Marchwiński), Michał Skóraś (90. Barry Douglas) - Mikael Ishak (68. Filip Szymczak)

F91 Dudelange: Lucas Fox - Eliot Gashi (38. Sylvio Ouassiero), Aldin Skenderović, Jules Diouf, Mehdi Kirch - Bruno Freire (38. Vova), Charles Morren, Dejvid Sinani (72. Edis Agovic), Filip Bojić - João Magno (72. Francisco Ninte), Samir Hadji (90. Calmente Pedro Mendes)