September 4, 2022
Despite having attended four Poland vs England internationals ( Poznan 1991, Chorzow 1993 and 1997, and Warsaw 1999 ), two Poland vs England Under 21 internationals ( Pila 1991 and Katowice 1997 ), a friendly between Poland and Spain ( Warsaw 1999 ) as well as Wales vs Poland ( Cardiff 2001 ), I have never seen a Polish league match, either in the flesh or via a screen. Today’s lunchtime kick-off between the sides in 13th and 14th place in the Ekstraklasa was therefore the opportunity for Poland to become the 51st country to be covered by these diaries !
Lubin is a town in Lower Silesia in western Poland, around 70km north-west of Wroclaw and 460km south-west of the capital Warsaw. It has an estimated population of around 70,000.
It’s football club, Zaglebie, have twice been the champions of Poland, in 1990/91 and 2006/07, but have been relegated a couple of times since their last title. They have though remained in the Ekstraklasa since the 2015/16 season. They play in the 16,000 capacity all-seat Stadion Miejski, which was renovated in 2010 and has a grass pitch. Their first choice colours are all tangerine with black sleeves, and they are known as Miedziowi, which apparently translates as The Coppers, presumably in reference to the colour of their shirts rather than any connection to the Police ! In 2021/22 they came 13th in the Ekstraklasa.
Notable members of the Zaglebie squad include mercurial Slovenian winger Damjan Bohar ( 16 caps ), who featured in these diaries whilst with Osijek, and from whom he was signed for a reported 225K Euros. Czech striker Martin Dolezal ( 6 caps ) has also been mentioned in these diaries when with Jablonec, frequently scoring from the bench. Georgian left-back Guram Giorbelidze ( 11 caps ) has previously played for Dynamo Dresden and Austrian side Wolfsberger AC, and Senegalese striker Cheikhou Dieng has also played for Wolfsberger AC.
Georgian forward Tornike Gaprindashvili was signed from Dinamo Batumi for 180K Euros and Serbian midfielder Marko Poletanovic joined from Wisla Krakow. Striker Rafal Adamski is not to be confused with the artiste who had a huge global hit with “Killer” in 1990 !
Polish centre-back Jaroslaw Jach ( 2 caps ) spent four years at Crystal Palace but never played a game for them, spending virtually the whole time out on loan, whilst midfielder Filip Starzynski ( 4 caps ) had a short spell at Lokeren.
Bialystok is located in the north-west of Poland and is the 10th largest city in the country with a population of around 300,000. It is approximately 30km from the Belarus border and 200km from Warsaw. The journey to Lubin is 650km, or just over 6 hours by road. To some, the name is more recognised from the character Max Bialystock, from the Mel Brooks film “The Producers” !
Jagiellonia also play in a stadium named Stadion Miejski, but theirs has 22,432 seats and its redevelopment was completed in 2014. They have been in the Ekstraklasa since 2007/08 and finished runners-up in both 2016/17 and 2017/18. Last season they ended up in 12th place.
They are frequently abbreviated to Jaga and their home shirt is red and yellow. Surprisingly with the colour clash today with Zaglebie’s tangerine, they played in their normal strip, whilst Zaglebie were in a white kit with green socks. Maybe the tradition in Poland is that the home sides change when there is clash rather than the away side ?
Followers of the Belarus Premier League during the Covid pandemic will be familiar with Bosnian defender Bojan Nastic ( 5 caps ), who was a regular in the BATE Borisov side in 2021 but left to join Jagiellonia. Lithuanian forward Fedor Cernych ( 76 caps ) has played for Dnepr Mogilev and Dinamo Moscow, Czech winger Tomas Prikryl has played for Mlada Boleslav and Sparta Prague, whilst fellow Czech, midfielder Martin Pospisil cost 325K Euros when signing from Jablonec in 2017.
Other foreigners in the Jagiellonia squad include Spanish forwards Marc Gual and Jesus Imaz, ex-Santa Clara Portuguese midfielder Nene, Romanian defender Bogdan Tiru ( ex-Viitorul Constanza ) and Serbian goal-keeper Zlatan Alomerovic. Experienced defender Michal Pazdan won 38 caps for Poland.
Both sides started the day with a 2-2-3 record and showed remarkably similar form. Both sides wins had come against Miedz Legnica and Piast Gliwice, but both had lost to Radomiak Radom and Pogon Szczecin. A win for either side could put them into the top 8 in the table.
Zaglebie had scored just three goals, both their victories being 1-0 away victories, with the other goal coming in a 1-1 home draw with Lech Poznan. Their other point came in a 0-0 home draw with Slask Wroclaw.
Despite their lowly position, Jagiellonia went into today’s match on an unbeaten run of three games, with draws at Gornik Zabrze and Rakow Czestochowa surrounding a home win over Legnica.
After seven rounds of fixtures the average attendance in the Ekstraklasa was 9,308, with Legia Warsaw having the highest with 19,979. Jagiellona had an average of 9,384 whilst Zaglebie averaged 8,612.
The weather at the 12.30 local time kick-off was dry but overcast, with temperatures around 20 degrees. Bet365 made Zaglebie 23/20 favourites, with Jagiellonia at 9/4 and the draw 5/2. Ticket prices on the day ranged from 35 PLZ ( £6 ) for the cheap seats to 85 PLZ ( £16 ), with match-day hospitality costing 215 PLZ ( £39 ).
Ekstraklasa matches had been shown live in the UK on the Freesports channel, but that arrangement appears to have ended. Matches have also been available on the Onefootball.com and Eleven Sports websites, but this fixture could only be viewed via the Bet365.com website, with a commentary in Polish. Highlights of all Ekstraklasa matches can be found on the Ekstraklasa YouTube channel.
Both sides made three changes to their starting XI’s from last time out, with Bohar, Starzynski and Lawniczak coming in for Zaglebie with Wozniak, Poletanovic and Gaprindashvili dropping to be bench. Jagiellonia brought in ex-Sevilla Spanish centre-back Puerto, Cernych and Lewicki, replacing Gual, Tiru and Skrzypczak.
The game started slowly as both sided sounded each other out, but then Jagiellonia suddenly burst in to life. On 8 minutes, Jach needed to be alert to prevent Imaz stealing in at the near post and a minute later, Puerto’s chip down the right was poorly headed by Giorbelidze, leaving Prikryl free to advance on goal, but his shot was blocked by keeper Bieszcad’s legs. The action replay showed Prikryl was a couple of yards off-side so VAR should have cancelled the goal had the Czech found the net. Then a flowing move down the left required Makowski to block the cross.
Zaglebie then launched their own counter attack, but Chodyna shot horribly across the face of the goal when well placed. Slovene Bohar looked in the mood today for Lubin, and after playing a short pass to Adamski, he ran onto the clever return flick, only to steer the bouncing ball over both the advancing keeper and the bar.
As the play went frantically from end-to-end, Jaga’s Cernych flashed a shot just over after a lay-off by Imaz, after which Bohar beat two markers on the left only to place his shot from a tight angle just high and wide.
It remained goal-less after 20 minutes but the non-stop action continued as Chodyna’s long range effort was directed straight at keeper Alomerovic, after which Puerto’s tantalising chip was inches beyond Imaz allowing Bieszcad to safely gather.
The visitors nearly took the lead in the 28th minute as Puerto’s ball forward was volleyed by Nene on the left across goal, where Bida’s reaction header sent the ball just over the bar.
The home side’s response was a long-range left-footed effort from Lakomy which produced a diving save from Alomerovic, and then a nice move saw Chodyna set-up Makowski, but the midfielder could only shoot tamely at the keeper.
In the 33rd minute, a delightful chip found Bohar in space on the left, and his dangerous cross required Puerto to intercept and head over his own bar to prevent Adamski from having a close-range tap-in. Jagiellonia were only able to partially clear the resulting corner, and Starzynski shot narrowly over from the edge of the area.
Three minutes later, Jaga’s Bida latched onto a long ball over the top and was bundled over in the penalty area, but the referee failed to be impressed and allowed play to continue, and Lubin went straight to the other end to set-up Chodyna in plenty of space inside the penalty area, but his thunderbolt shot was superbly tipped over the bar by Alomerovic.
Half-time arrived with game surprisingly still awaiting its first goal, but perhaps giving an indication as to why Zaglebie had scored only three times so far this season.
In perhaps an effort to address this deficiency, Zaglebie brought on Georgian striker Gaprindashvili but rather than act as an additional forward in support of Adamski, he took Chodyna’s place on the right-side of midfield, despite being obviously left footed. However, his introduction appeared to give the home side more urgency down the right as they started to dominate.
Bohar cut-back in from the left to put a right-footed shot just over the bar, and Lakomy’s left footed effort went inches wide with the keeper beaten. Bohar then got to the by-line, but sent his low cross behind Adamski. The ball fell to Makowski, but his shot was blocked. In between, a rare foray into the Lubin area saw a home defender slip trying to intercept Prikryl’s low cross, but Imaz was unable to capitalise.
The opening goal finally arrived in the 58th minute but it involved a huge slice of luck. Makowski’s hopeful cross from the left looked harmless enough, but everyone in the penalty area missed it, and the ball was allowed to bounce into the far corner with Alomerovic rooted to his line. 1-0 to Zaglebie !
Jagiellonia immediately made a double substitution, taking off Bida and Cerych, but initially it seemed to have an adverse effect as The Coppers came close to adding a second on several occasions, with Gaprindashvili in the thick of the action. First, the Georgian was put clear but his left-footed shot was too close to Alomerovic, allowing the keeper to push away, then in the 64th minute Starzynski fed Bohar, but his shot was blocked by Lewicki. The ball fell to Gaprindashvili, who this time did much better, but his fizzing effort was denied by a flying diving save. Two minutes later Gaprindashvili ran from half-way but as the defence backed-off, he was allowed to shoot, but his effort from just outside the area drifted fractionally wide.
With twenty minutes left on the clock, a Zaglebie corner was headed out to Bohar on the edge of the area, but his instant volley flew a foot over the bar.
Another rare attack from Jagiellona saw their two Czechs, Prikryl and Pospisil combine to play in Imaz, who was able to control on his chest, turn and shoot, but the ball was deflected over for a corner. From the set-piece, the ball fell to Gual 10 yards out, but his effort was blocked.
Zaglebie immediately broke as Gaprindashvili showed good vision to find Lakomy, but his goal-bound attempt hit his own player, Adamski, and went well wide of the goal.
Against the run of play, the visitors should have equalised 12 minutes from time. Prikryl beat Giorbelidze all too easily close to the right-hand touchline and made for the by-line. Looking up he picked out Bortniczuk six yards out, but having to stretch a little, the unmarked substitute could only steer his header wide of the post.
Bortniczuk made amends for his glaring miss five minutes from time. Nastic’s ball down the left channel was headed on by Nene for Bortniczuk run clear of his marker and bear down on goal. His left footed effort rifled into the roof of the net at the keeper’s near post to give Jagiellona an equaliser they probably didn’t deserve.
Stunned by the set-back, the home side were only able to muster a couple of half-attacks in the remaining few minutes, as Dieng’s cross into the mixer was completely missed by a defender but gathered by Alomerovic, and with added time just about up Poletanovic was unable to control Dieng’s incisive pass and the chance was gone.
At full-time Zaglebie were probably wondering how they failed to take the three points after having a remarkably 26 goal attempts. However, perhaps more tellingly only 9 of these were only target. In contrast, Jagiellona scored from their only effort on target. Another unusual statistic from the match was there was no yellow cards.
Zaglebie Lubin : Bieszcad – Kopacz, Lawniczak, Jach, Giorbelidze – Chodyna ( Gaprindashvili ), Starzynski ( Poletanovic ), Lakomy ( Hinokio ), Makowski, Bohar ( Dieng ) – Adamski ( Kurminowski )
Jagiellonia Bialystok : Alomerovic – Puerto, Pazdan, Nastic – Prikryl, Romanchuk ( Pospisil ), Nene, Lewicki ( Kowalski ) – Cernych ( Bortniczuk ), Imaz ( Laski ), Bida ( Gual )
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGFe4AxWHCk
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