Our team will play its next league match on Friday, 12 September, at Polsat Plus Arena in Gdańsk. Our team’s opponent will be GKS Katowice, which finished 8th in the PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa league table last season. The referee’s first whistle is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Come back in style after the international break
It is with undisguised joy that we can officially announce that the long wait for the White-and-Green matches is over. Every Gdańsk fan can breathe a sigh of relief, as our team returns to league competition this Friday after a short international break.
In the previous round, we faced Jagiellonia in Białystok. At Chorten Arena, our team lost to the Yellow-Reds 0:2. During the international break, our players had plenty of time to analyse their mistakes from that match and learn lessons for future games. Our players spent the break from league play working hard in training and analysing the game of their next opponent.
In addition to intensive work on the pitch, the last days of the transfer window were very busy for our club. Three new players have joined the team. Lechia’s squad has been strengthened by: the highly experienced centre-back Matej Rodin from Rakow Częstochowa, the young right-back Bartłomiej Kłudka from Zagłębie Lubin and the creative winger Aleksandar Ćirković from Hungarian club Ferencvaros. The new players are expected to give coach John Carver more room for manoeuvre when making key decisions, improve the team’s footballing quality and introduce greater competition for key positions on the pitch. Our team’s coach has given a positive assessment of the new signings and sees them as an opportunity for the whole team to develop.
– First of all, I would like to thank the people who worked extremely hard behind the scenes on these transfers to bring new players to us. As far as transfers are concerned, their main purpose is to strengthen competition within the squad, and I think that is exactly what we have achieved. Of course, some players are at different levels of physical preparation, so they may need more time to adapt to the intensity of our training. Nevertheless, I am very pleased that we have brought these players in, as they have good footballing quality, and testing them will certainly introduce more competition within the team and raise the level of the whole group – said coach John Carver at the pre-match press conference.
The new players feel at home in Gdańsk and are eagerly awaiting their debut with Lechia. During the pre-match briefing, Bartłomiej Kłudka, our team’s new right-back, mentioned the smooth acclimatisation process within the White-and-Green team:
– The adaptation is going very well. I already knew a few of the lads from the Polish national team or from Zagłębie. Of course, I am closest to Szymon Weirauch and Dawid Kurminowski. I had a very good conversation with the coach right away. We talked about how I would be introduced to the team. Earlier, I also spoke with the President and the Sports Director, so everything is really going very well.
RIVAL PROFILE – GKS KATOWICE
For GKS Katowice, last season was full of challenges, but also new opportunities. The team from Upper Silesia, as a league newcomer, had a very good season, impressing in many matches with good organisation and effective pressing, and ultimately finishing in a high 8th place. The Katowice team made considerable progress in its first season after returning to the top flight, and it seemed that in the next campaign it was going to fight for even higher goals.
However, the Katowice team started the 2025/26 season below expectations. Before the match against our team, the Tricolours are in 14th place in the league table. So far, they have played seven matches – winning twice, drawing once and losing four times. It seems that GKS has particular difficulty playing away games. So far, they have played three times as visitors and lost all of those matches: 0-3 to Widzew in Łódź, 1-3 to Legia in Warsaw, and 0-3 to Górnik in Zabrze. The goal difference in the Katowice team’s away games is 1-9. For the offensively playing Lechia, which scores many goals in virtually every match, this match may be another opportunity to showcase their bold, attack-oriented football.
However, it should be remembered that GKS Katowice is a team with good footballing quality, effective high pressing after losing the ball and very good tactical organisation. Coach John Carver spoke about the high level of our today’s opponent and the previous match against GKS at a press conference before the match:
– We played against GKS at the end of last season, and the team hasn’t changed much since then. They have their own unique style of play, but we understand how they play: lots of energy and high pressing combined with very good organisation. We know we have a tough match ahead of us, but every match in the Ekstraklasa is tough.
The players of ‘Gieksa’ played their last match in the PKO BP Ekstraklasa competition against Radomiak Radom at their new stadium. In a match full of beautiful goals, GKS Katowice won 3:2, recording their second victory of the season. During the international break, GKS players played a friendly match against Górnik Zabrze, defeating their rivals 2:1 with goals from Aleksander Buksa and Eman Markovic.
When it comes to personnel changes, GKS has also made many interesting additions. In the last days of the transfer window, the Tricolours made an important transfer and brought in Belarusian striker Ilya Shkuryn from Legia Warsaw. In addition, Jesse Bosch, Filip Rejczyk, Kacper Łukasiak, Aleksander Paluszek, Jakub Łukowski and Marcel Wędrychowski joined the team during the summer transfer window. Furthermore, Maciej Rosołek from Piast Gliwice and Mateusz Kowalczyk from Danish club Brondby IF were bought out from their previous employers for a record €1 million in GKS history.
LAST MATCHES AGAINST GKS KATOWICE
Considering our team’s last five matches against Katowice, the win record favours Katowice, who have won three times. The White-Greens have won twice. The last match between these teams at Polsat Plus Arena in Gdańsk took place in the last round of the previous season and ended in a 2:3 defeat for our team. Kacper Sezonienko and Maksym Khlan scored the goals for our team in that match. The last time we beat GKS at our home stadium was on 22 September 2023, still in the Fortuna 1 Liga competition. On that day, we defeated Katowice in spectacular fashion. After two goals from Tomas Bobcek, two from Luis Fernandez and one from Elias Olsson, we triumphed over Katowice 5–1. Knowing the offensive potential of our team, we are also hoping for a resounding victory in the upcoming match.
OVERALL RECORD AGAINST GKS KATOWICE
Friday’s match will be the 30th in history that our team has played against GKS. So far, we have won seven times. Five matches ended in a draw, and we left the pitch defeated 17 times. The goal difference is 17-38.
REFEREES PANEL
The match between Lechia Gdańsk and GKS Katowice will be refereed by Paweł Malec from Łódź. Michał Obukowicz and Maciej Majewski will assist the main referee. Marcin Szczerbowicz will be the technical referee, while Łukasz Szczech and Daniel Stefański will be responsible for the VAR system.
WHERE TO WATCH THE MATCH?
Jeżeli nie możecie w piątek zjawić się na Polsat Plus Arenie zachęcamy do obejrzenia transmisji spotkania, które rozpocznie się o godzinie 18:00. Transmisja z tego meczu będzie dostępna w telewizji w Canal+ Sport 3, Canal+ Sport 5, na stronie Canal+online oraz w aplikacji mobilnej Canal+. Przedmeczowe studio rozpocznie się o godzinie 17:25. Mecz skomentują Bartosz Gleń oraz Michał Żyro.
