Tomorrow, Friday, 3 October, our team will play its first league match this month. In the 11th round of games, our opponent at Polsat Plus Arena in Gdańsk will be the best newcomer to the PKO BP Ekstraklasa competition so far, Wisła Płock. The referee’s first whistle is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Our players will approach this clash with mixed feelings. Last month began with a confident home victory for our team against GKS Katowice (2–0). Later, riding high on their winning streak, our team earned two more victories: first in the league, after a crazy match, we defeated Pogoń Szczecin 4:3 away, and just three days later, we triumphed in the STS Polish Cup over Pogoń Grodzisk Mazowiecki 1:0.
To maintain a perfect balance in September, all that was needed was to dot the i’s and cross the t’s, i.e. win the away match in Kielce. Unfortunately, despite many good chances to score, Lechia failed to beat Xavier Dziekoński, who was in good form that day, and ultimately lost to the local Korona team 0:3. In the match at the Exbud Arena in Kielce, our team lacked, above all, effective finishing and composure in front of the hosts’ goal. In two situations, when our players hit Dziekoński’s goal frame, we also simply lacked a bit of football luck.
Our team will therefore approach the match against Wisła Płock in a combative mood, guided by one common goal on the pitch: to start October with a victory.
Coach John Carver will be forced to make unusual rotations in the starting line-up and rely on the current substitutes at left-back and right-wing. The following players will definitely not play in the match against Wisła: Camilo Mena – the Colombian has already accumulated four yellow cards, and Miłosz Kałahur – the left-back received a straight red card in the match against Korona Kielce after a foul on Wiktor Długosz. However, at the pre-match press conference, coach John Carver emphasised that despite the personnel shortages, he remains calm and confident in his rotational players.
– I will not discuss individual injured players, but we still have a few health issues. We also have players who are just returning from injuries and will be back in the squad, so that is good news. As for players suspended due to yellow cards, this is an opportunity for other players to accumulate minutes on the pitch. I think that in any team, the loss of a player like Camilo Mena would be disappointing. However, it is an opportunity for someone to step into his place, and perhaps it will be a player who has been waiting a long time for such an opportunity. I am not bitter that I do not have this or that player, but I believe in the whole team and the whole group – said the English coach.
RIVAL PROFILE – WISŁA PŁOCK
Before the start of the current season, Płock advanced to the Ekstraklasa. This was thanks to Wisła’s victory in the play-offs. Nafciarze entered the play-offs as the third-placed team in the Betclic 1. Liga regular season. First, in the semi-final played at their home stadium, Wisła defeated Polonia Warsaw 2–1, and then in the play-off final, they confidently beat Miedź Legnica 2–0, thus securing their place in Poland’s top league.
During preparations for the Płock team’s performances in the PKO BP Ekstraklasa, the Nafciarzy team did not undergo a personnel revolution, but made several significant reinforcements that significantly increased their personnel potential. Almost all of the architects of their previous season’s success remained with the club: Łukasz Sekulski, Dominik Kun, Iban Salvador Jorge Jimenez, Marcus Haglind-Sangre and Andrias Edmundsson. The most important players who joined Nafciarzy before the start of the current season include: seven-time Polish international Marcin Kamiński, last season’s best young player in Betclic 1. Liga Wiktor Nowak, Tomas Tavares, who once shone at the Benfica Lisbon academy, French wing-back Quentin Lecoeuche and former Śląsk Wrocław goalkeeper Rafał Leszczyński. Wisła Płock also made two high-profile transfers on the last day of the transfer window. At the last minute, striker Deni Jurić from FC Koper and wing-back Žan Rogelj from Royal Charleroi joined the Płock club. The latter, a 25-year-old Slovenian, has already made it onto the scoresheet in the 10th round of the PKO BP Ekstraklasa, in which Nafciarze shared points with GKS Katowice.
Reinforced by experienced players, the team from Płock has not radically changed the philosophy of its game, for which it was already known on the pitches of the Ekstraklasa reserve league. Coach Misiura’s team continues to play consistent, well-organised football, based mainly on tight defence and quick counterattacks initiated by two strikers. So far, Wisła’s goalkeeper has only had to retrieve the ball from his own net six times. The Oilers are therefore impressive with their stability on the pitch and can be a very difficult opponent for any Ekstraklasa team, as they have proven several times this season. The Płock team has had an excellent start to this league season. In the first six matches, Nafciarze accumulated a total of 16 points – winning five times, including against Legia Warsaw, Rakow Częstochowa and Korona Kielce – and drawing only once with Widzew Łódź. Thanks to such impressive results at the start of the season, the team from Mazovia remained the leader of the PKO BP Ekstraklasa until the end of the ninth series of games. Now, however, the machine from Płock has stalled somewhat and is going through a rough patch. The Płock team lost three matches in a row, including one cup match against GKS Katowice, and their last league match, also against the Katowice team, ended in a 1-1 draw on their home turf after a fatal mistake by their goalkeeper Rafał Leszczyński. Despite their decline in form, Nafciarze are still at the top of the league table. Before the match against our team, they are in 5th place with 17 points in 9 matches played. However, it seems that this is the perfect moment for our team to take advantage of their rivals’ poor form and go for the full three points in this match.
Coach John Carver spoke highly of our tomorrow’s rival at a press conference:
– I think they are still a good team. Their recent slump is correlated with the fact that they have lost one or two of their best players to injury. I think if they had won last weekend’s match, they would be at the top of the league. I know they are currently in fifth place, but they are still a good team. They have two or three players who play very impressive football and two or three players who need to be watched particularly closely.
Despite the praise directed at the Płock team, coach John Carver clearly stated that Lechia will fight with all its might in this home match to win all three points:
– We want to win this match, and the most important thing is to find a way to do that. I’m not saying that if you have more possession, you won’t win the match, but we simply have to work harder than our opponents in this match to ultimately win.
LAST MATCHES AGAINST WISŁA PŁOCK
The last five matches between our team and the team from Płock favour our team, but they do not indicate a sure winner in the upcoming match. Lechia won two of these matches, there were two draws, and Nafciarze won once. However, the last match between these teams, which took place on our pitch, gives our team’s fans reason for optimism. On 17 February 2024, at Polsat Plus Arena in Gdańsk, we witnessed a magnificent performance by our team, which played like a well-oiled machine that day. The White-Greens defeated the team from Płock 3:1 in style, with our team’s entire offensive trio at the time – Tomas Bobcek, Maksym Khlan and Camilo Mena – finding the back of the net. Tomorrow evening, we are counting on another display of bold play from our team, and we wish Tomas Bobcek another ‘bite’ at the Oilers.
OVERALL BALANCE OF MATCHES AGAINST WISŁA PŁOCK
Friday’s match will be the 22nd game in history that our team will play against Nafciarzom. In this statistic, the balance is significantly in favour of our club. So far, we have beaten Wisła Płock 12 times. Four matches ended in a draw, and we had to acknowledge the superiority of the team from Płock only five times. The goal difference is 34-18.
REFEREES PANEL
The match between Lechia Gdańsk and Wisła Płock will be refereed by Mateusz Piszczelok from Katowice. The main referee will be assisted by Dawid Golis and Damian Rokosz. Dominik Sulikowski will serve as the technical referee, while Daniel Stefański and Tomasz Listkiewicz will be responsible for the VAR system.
WHERE TO WATCH THE MATCH?
If you are unable to come to Polsat Plus Arena on Friday to cheer on our players, we warmly encourage you to watch the broadcast of the match. The match will start at 6 p.m. The broadcast of this clash will be available on Canal+ Sport 3, Canal+ Sport 5, on the Canal+online website and in the Canal+ mobile application. The pre-match studio will begin at 5:25 p.m. The match will be commented on by Rafał Dębiński and Michał Żyro.
