Stal Mielec – Lech Poznań 1:3

After over two months, the wait for Lech’s fans was finally over and they could see their team on the pitch once again. The away clash with Stal Mielec was an exhilarating match to restart the season with, especially considering that the semifinals were at stake and Żuraw’s team emphasised numerous times that their objective is to reach the final.

Lech controlled the match from the opening minutes and managed to mark their domination with an early goal. Kostevych, who was positioned wide on the left flank, received the ball, passed to Ramirez who was waiting in the penalty box and the Spaniard beat the goalkeeper with a clever shot. Following the goal, the match became more balanced which meant that Stal got a few goal-scoring opportunities. About 15 minutes into the game, Żyro came close to equalising but his header stopped on the post. After a period of relatively mundane football, Lech changed the score to 2:0. Zhamaletdinov initiated an offensive attack and converted Jóźwiak’s perfectly-timed heel pass into a beautiful, strong shot right into the corner of the goal.

A couple of minutes later, Gil awarded Lech with a penalty kick following an apparent handball, however, after consulting with VAR and watching a replay, the referee took back his decision. Just when it seemed that the first half would end with a two-goal advantage for Lech Poznań, Stal Mielec converted one of their occasional offensive attempts into a goal. Bartosz Nowak who was left unmarked in the penalty area received the ball after it bounced off one of the defenders and managed to successfully beat van der Hart with a volley kick.

The second half looked similar to the first 45 minutes with Lech remaining in possession of the ball for the majority of the time whilst Stal occasionally caused problems to their defensive line. Ramirez and Moder both tried surprising the opponent’s goalkeeper with a free-kick whereas Skrzypczak had a great opportunity score the third goal, but neither of them was precise enough to place the ball in the back of the net. It was Jóźwiak who set the final score to 3:1 10 minutes before the final whistle with a precise shot right next to the corner which followed a great individual run. A 3:1 win meant that Lech is going to play in the semifinals of the Totolotek Polish Cup.

Stal Mielec – Lech Poznań 1:3 (1:2)

Goals: Bartosz Nowak (45.) – Dani Ramirez (5.), Timur Zhamaletdinov (34.), Kamil Jóźwiak (82.)

Yellow cards: Mateusz Bodzioch, Mateusz Mak – Karlo Muhar, Tymoteusz Puchacz

Stal Mielec: Jakub Wrąbel - Jakub Bartosz, Mateusz Żyro, Mateusz Bodzioch, Krystian Getinger - Mateusz Mak, Maciej Domański (75. Grzegorz Tomasiewicz), Maciej Urbańczyk (79. Adrian Paluchowski), Bartosz Nowak, Andreja Prokić (61. Robert Dadok) - Michał Żyro

Lech Poznań: Mickey van der Hart - Bohdan Butko, Lubomir Šatka, Djordje Crnomarković, Volodymyr Kostevych - Jakub Kamiński (58. Tymoteusz Puchacz), Karlo Muhar (75. Mateusz Skrzypczak), Pedro Tiba, Dani Ramirez (65. Jakub Moder), Kamil Jóźwiak - Timur Zhamaletdinov