⚽ Polish League - Ekstraklasa Prediction & Discussion Thread ⚽

[pawel7777]

A short summary of the Polish Ekstrklasa teams' participation/drawings in this season's edition of the European Cups:

Champions League: none

Europa League:
Ferencvaros Vs Górnik Zabrze
Jagiellonia Białystok Vs Rangers
Lech Poznań Vs KI Klaksvik

Conference League:
Raków Częstochowa Vs Hammarby IF
Hapoel Tel Aviv Vs GKS Katowice

Hopefully at least one of these 5 Polish clubs will advance to the further knock-out stages of the tournaments.

[pawel7777]

Not the best result for Górnik Zabrze yesterday, who lost 1-0 in an away game against Hungarian Ferencvaros in the 1st leg of the 3rd qualifying round of the Europa League, but today was a much brighter day for other Polish teams.
Lech Poznań defeated Klaksvik 1-0 at home, a modest win but still a win, and Jagiellonia Białystok beat a much higher-rated Rangers 2-1 at home.

The Conference League results are disappointing: Raków with a goalless draw at home against Swedish Hammarby and GKS Katowice suffered a 2-0 away loss agains Hapoel Tel Aviv. I expected them to do much better than that.

[cygan]

✂️
Hopefully at least one of these 5 Polish clubs will advance to the further knock-out stages of the tournaments.

based on all the results i think górnik, lech and jagiellonia have the best chances of advancing through this qualifying round. unfortunately, i think raków and gks katowice have very, very slim chances...


and to kick off the 3rd matchday, here are yesterday's results:
newly promoted wisła kraków defeated wisła płock 2-1 at home and securing their second win after three games!

[pawel7777]

(...)
based on all the results i think górnik, lech and jagiellonia have the best chances of advancing through this qualifying round. unfortunately, i think raków and gks katowice have very, very slim chances...

GKS are pretty much gone, they will have a home advantage in the rematch but I don't expect them to be able to come back from 0-2 loss in the first leg. It's not just the goal difference in this case, but the fact that Hapoel had more than twice as many goal attempts as GKS.
As fpr Raków, I wouldn't write them off just yet. They wasted the home advantage but it was an even game, so, with a bit of luck, they can still go through, although they won't be the favourite.

[cygan]

on matchday #3, lech poznań took over the leadership of the table and, along with legia, remains undefeated this season.
this matchday also could not be completed in its entirety, as several clubs still have a chance to qualify for international competitions.

[pawel7777]

A good start by the reigning champions, Lech Poznań. They are on a good way of winning the league 3 times in a row for the first time in the club's history.
Hopefully Legia will give Lech more competition and will not repeat mistakes of the previous season.
Wisła Kraków can also make some waves in the league. Although they have been freshly promoted, they are still considered to be in the top 3 of the largest Polish clubs, so their apetite will probably be more than just to avoid relegation.

As for the European cups, GKS sadly ended their adventure in the Conference league. They defeated Hapoel 2-1 but that wasn't enough as they lost 3-2 on aggregate.

[pawel7777]

Jagiellonia is one step closer of qualifying to the league phase of the Europa League. Yesterday they eliminated Glasgow Rangers after an away 1-1 draw. The one goal advantage from the first leg paid off.
In the next play off stage, they will face Georgian Saburtalo. I believe Jagiellonia will be the favourite but I hope they don't underestimate their opponents.

In another game, Górnik Zabrze played a decent game against Ferencvaros. They neutralised Ferencvaros' one goal advantage from the first game, but sadly conceded the deciding goal at the end of the game and dropped out of the tournament.
Their European cups adventure is not yet over, as they moved down to play in the Conference League, when they will face Monaco.

[cygan]

@pawel7777 you forgot to mention raków's big win!
after a 0-0 draw at home against the swedish club hammarby if, raków celebrated a 1-0 away victory yesterday and qualified for the final playoffs.
their opponent there will be hajduk split from croatia...

[cygan]

to kick off the fourth matchday of the ekstraklasa, legia crushed the visiting team from radom 5-0 at home last night and remains undefeated this season.

[cygan]

on matchday #4, the third and final promoted team finally celebrated its first win of the season!
wieczysta kraków defeated away piast gliwice 4-3 and marking the first ekstraklasa victory in the club’s history.
raków is now the only club still without a single point this season... legia, lech poznań and górnik zabrze remain undefeated this season.

[pawel7777]

Today was a great day for Polish clubs in the Europa League.
In the 1st leg of the play-off stage, Lech Poznań absolutely demolished Swiss FC Thun 7-0, which was the highest win of the day in the tournament. That's a dream scenario that no one expected. The 2nd leg will be just a formality as there's no way Thun can come back from that.

Jagiellonia also delivered a great result, as they defeated Georgian Saburtalo 4-0.

So it looks like we'll most likely see both of them in the league stage, which is quite a success for Polish football.

In the Conference League, Górnik Zabrze lost to Monaco 3-2 at home, and Raków Częstochowa drew 2-2 with Hajduk Split in an away game.

[cygan]

to kick off matchday #5, yesterday saw the first of many kraków derbies.
the first derby of the season was played between cracovia and wieczysta, with the hosts coming away with a 3-2 victory
A. Hasić scored the winning goal for the home team in the 90+4th minute!

[cygan]

not all matches were played on matchday #5 either...
of the top four teams, only legia was able to play its match, but could not manage more than a 1-1 draw against piast gliwice.
gks katowice recorded the biggest win of the round and celebrating a 5-0 home victory over wisła płock!

[pawel7777]

A quick update on Polish clubs' performance in European cups play-off rounds:
Europa League: as expected, both Jagiellonia and Lech are through to the league stage. They didn't waste the advantage they had from the 1st leg. Jagiellonia eliminated Saburtalo by winning 6-1 on aggregate and Lech defeated Swiss Thun 9-2 on aggregate.
Conference League: Things were not so rosy here. Górnik Zabrze lost to Monaco 7-3 on aggregate and Raków, despite playing at home today, lost to Hajduk Split 2-3 (4-5 aggregate) and ended their European Cup advantage this season.

[pawel7777]

Matches for the league phase of the Europa League have been drawn. Each team will play 8 games during that phase.
Lech's and Jagiellonia's rivals are as follows:


I think the best Lech can realistically hope for here is around 8-9 points. Jagiellonia will have an even tougher challenge, but at least they brought some more excitement for their fans.
In the last season, 9 points were needed to advance to the play-off qualifier stage, so Lech is not without a chance, but they will have to play at their best.

[cygan]

Matches for the league phase of the Europa League have been drawn. Each team will play 8 games during that phase.
Lech's and Jagiellonia's rivals are as follows:
✂️

i believe both clubs are capable of earning the necessary number of points to advance to the next round. the key is for them to pick up most of their points at home.

and shifting from the european stage to the national level… yesterday marked the start of matchday #6 in the ekstraklasa, and korona kielce celebrated a 2-0 away win at wisła płock.
meanwhile, legia could only manage a 1-1 draw at home against newly promoted śląsk wrocław

[pawel7777]

i believe both clubs are capable of earning the necessary number of points to advance to the next round. the key is for them to pick up most of their points at home.

Earning points won't be easy, especially for Jagiellonia. Out of the 4 games they are to play at home, only Ararat can be considered a weaker team than them. I'm hoping that Crystal Palace will prioritise the Premier League over European cups and will make it easier for Lech/Jagiellonia.
Crystal Palace performed rather poorly at the end of the prior season and this has carried on to the current season, as they lost both of their league games so far.

[cygan]

on the sixth matchday, all nine games were finally able to take place again after a long time - and they were quite the spectacles with two derbys...
jagiellonia won its away game at raków 5-2 - raków remains in last place with zero points, and the first calls for the coach’s firing are already being heard...
in the derby between górnik zabrze and gks katowice, the hosts were leading 2-1 until the 91st minute, when two more goals by the visitors from katowice turned the game around!
the best promoted team right now is wisła kraków, which won the city derby against wieczysta 2-0

[pawel7777]

Two outstanding games of matchday 5 have been played today.
We had a duel at the top. The current champions, Lech, hosted Jagiellonia, a 3rd in the table last season. The game lacked action for the first 40 minutes, but the pace picked up just before the end of the first half. The game ended with Lech winning 2-1, after they scored a late winner (87th minute).

In another game, Raków Częstochowa lost again. This time it was a 2-1 loss at home to Górnik Zabrze. Something is clearly not working right for Raków. They've lost all of their 5 games this season and are at the very bottom of the table. That's not what you would expect from a team that has been close to the top in the last two seasons.

[cygan]

to kick off the seventh matchday, yesterday’s result was as follows...
piast gliwice won their home match against gks katowice comfortably and without any trouble, with a 3–0 victory