Lech Poznań - Korona Kielce 3:2

“We focus only on the match against Korona. We don’t think about the upcoming Polish Cup final,” repeated Lech’s players ahead of the clash with Korona. Nenad Bjelica had a similar stance. The coach decided to make a couple of substitutions shortly before the league game. A few players were rested, among them Putnocky, Gajos, and Kownacki who had been a part of the starting line-ups regularly in the past matches.

Surprisingly, the guests were the first ones to come close to scoring. The first 15 minutes were marked by a couple of scoring chances for Korona, but it was Lech that got a goal first. In the 17^th minute, Majewski converted a corner kick into a pass to Jevtic, who was running into the box. The Swiss player sent the ball flying into the corner of the goal. However, Lech’s joy lasted only 4 minutes. On the other end of the pitch, Mozdzen decided to fire a shot from outside the box. Wilusz changed the trajectory of the ball and it fell into the back of the net.

Lech attempted to gain control over the match, but they struggled visibly. In the 41^st minute, the team from Poznan took the lead again. Jevtic’s pass in between the defenders was recovered by Robak who was fouled in the box by Rymaniak shortly afterward. The forward converted the penalty kick into a goal. However, again Korona managed to catch up very quickly. Shortly before the halftime whistle, Tralka fouled Mozdzen in Lech’s box and Kielb scored an equalized for Korona.

Lech’s aim was to collect 3 points and therefore they focused on the offensive in the second half. Indisputably, the hosts were looking for the third goal. However, Korona’s defensive line made little errors and Lech struggled to get close to the goal. The guests not only defended well but also had a couple of good scoring chances. In the 54^th minute, Grzelak shot from outside the box was just slightly off target. Lech responded with Majewski’s clever pass to Robak which was intercepted by the goalkeeper at the last moment.

Radut brought a lot of fresh energy to the team. His task was to accelerate the play and increase the tempo at which the passes were exchanged in the midfield. During one of Lech’s offensive actions Radut played a key role by recovering the ball from the rival, but the counterattack finished poorly. On the other end of the pitch, Buric was doing a good job and saved a couple of Korona’s dangerous offensive runs.

In the last 15 minutes of the match, Lech finally managed to dominate the game. In the 79^th minute, Jevtic dribbled past two defending players and rushed into the penalty area. However, since he was fouled by Mozdzen, the referee was forced to award Lech with another penalty kick. Robak easily beat Borjan and Lech took the lead again. This time, however, they managed to stop Korona from equalizing and the final score was 3:2 for the hosts.

LECH POZNAŃ - KORONA KIELCE 3:2 (2:2)

Goals: Jevtić (17), Robak (42 penalty), (80 penalty) - Możdżeń (21), Kiełb (44 penalty)

Yellow cards: Tetteh, Kostevych - Grzelak, Rymaniak, Dejmek, Możdżeń.

Lech: Jasmin Burić - Tomasz Kędziora, Jan Bednarek, Maciej Wilusz, Volodymyr Kostevych - Abdul Aziz Tetteh (71. Dawid Kownacki), Łukasz Trałka - Maciej Makuszewski (61. Mihai Radut), Radosław Majewski (81. Maciej Gajos), Darko Jevtić - Marcin Robak

Korona: Milan Borjan - Rafał Grzelak, Bartosz Rymaniak, Radek Dejmek, Ken Kallaste - Jakub Żubrowski, Mateusz Możdżeń - Miguel Palanca, Nabil Aankour (84. Marcin Cebula), Serhij Pylypchuk (57. Dani Abalo) - Jabek Kiełb

Attendance: 11 192