⚽ Polish League - Ekstraklasa Prediction & Discussion Thread ⚽

here are the results from the first two games of matchday #26
widzew lódź win 2-0 away at piast gliwice and the match between legia and pogoń szczecin ends goalless 0-0

raków took advantage of jagiellonia's surprising blunder (0-1 away defeat at lechia gdańsk) with a 2-0 away win at zagłębie yesterday, extending their lead over first place to four points.
with newly promoted lechia gdańsk's surprise victory over the polish champions, lechia has left the relegation zone for the first time in a long time.
it all remains very exciting...

in the super cup match between wisła kraków and jagiellonia bialystok on wednesday, the reigning polish champions won 1-0 to win the polish super cup for the second time in the club's history
the winning goal was scored by former wisła player Miki Villar in the 14th minute of the game

here are the results from the first two games of matchday #27:
stal mielec draws 1-1 at home against cracovia and widzew lódź wins its home match against lechia gdańsk 2-0

matchday 27 ended yesterday with a 1-1 draw between puszcza and raków.
the draw and the win by lech poznań (2-0 against korona kielce) have reduced the lead to 3 points again
reigning polish champions jagiellonia also have every chance of defending their title this season

here are the results from the first two games of matchday #28:
this time there was a 2-1 home win in each of the two friday games
this result was achieved in the game zagłębie vs. górnik zabrze as well as in the game korona kielce vs. widzew łódź

yesterday the 28th matchday ended with a spectacular 3-2 home win for lechia gdańsk against stal mielec (the last two goals for lechia were scored in injury time)
śląsk wrocław also celebrated an important away win (4-2 at cracovia) and picked up 3 important points in the relegation battle

górnik zabrze have sacked Jan Urban, the club announced on tuesday morning. the coach will no longer be in charge of the team this season, although his contract was due to run until june.
his successor will be his assistant Piotr Gierczak, who will coach the club until the end of the season.

Both Polish teams dropped out after the 2nd leg of the Conference League quarter-finals yesterday.
Jagiellonia hosted Real Betis at home, and the game ended 1-1 with Betis winning 3-1 on aggregate.

Although Chelsea won 4-2 on aggregate, their fans were far from happy seeing their team defeated 2-1 at home by the 5th team of Ekstraklasa. It was a small victory by Legia. I've seen some social media posts claiming it was the first time a Polish club defeated an English club while playing away, but that's not quite true, it happened a few times before, but that was decades ago.

Quote from: pawel7777 on April 18, 2025, 08:03:43 AM

✂️
It was a small victory by Legia.
✂️

but a great success for polish football

nobody would have thought that legia and jagiellonia would have made it to the quarter-finals. these two clubs have represented polish football very well in europe and their fans have also contributed a lot! Cool

Quote from: cygan on April 19, 2025, 05:30:44 AM

(...) and their fans have also contributed a lot! Cool

Polish football fans are just on a different level than fans of the Western European clubs. To them, it's much more than having a pint or two during the game, chanting a few songs, and going home. It's almost like the football and the team's performance are secondary.
I still don't know how they managed to sneak in all those flares into the stadium. To my understanding, they are strictly prohibited, and using them could be seen as a criminal offence. If, so, that's a major screw-up by Chelsea's stadium security.

Pic related:

credit: https://x.com/Football__Tweet/status/1912966086439420329

Quote from: pawel7777 on April 18, 2025, 08:03:43 AM

The teams that made it this far this season should be commended because I can't remember a team from Poland that made it far this is shows that there is quality in the Polish league watching the game between legia warsaw against Chelsea in the conference league I know that the Polish league has improved because in terms of quality of football and even players.

The problem that I have with the Polish league is there is no publicity about the league the country fA should look for a way to make sure that the league has the needed media coverage that is necessary so that more talent can even be spotted from the league

Quote from: Mate2237 on April 19, 2025, 10:48:14 PM

The problem that I have with the Polish league is there is no publicity about the league the country fA should look for a way to make sure that the league has the needed media coverage that is necessary so that more talent can even be spotted from the league

It's a vicious circle:
> No money to retain talented players
> No talented players means no results (i.e. no international successes)
> No results leads to no interest
> No interest leads to no income (aka no money)

The Polish PZPN (football association) has no power and no real resources to promote the sport in Poland (not to mention outside of it).
The shortest way to success is to gain interest from some bored Arab billionaires, but I think I'd rather see Polish clubs in Polish hands with primarily Polish players (preferably local ones).

29th matchday ended yesterday with a goalless draw between stal mielec and górnik zabrze
the top match between pogoń szczecin and raków ended 1-0. lech poznań could now draw level on points with raków.
polish champions jagiellonia could not take advantage of this opportunity and lost 1-3 at home vs. zagłębie

As expected, UEFA struck at Legia for the behaviour of Legia fans during the quarter-final game against Chelsea for the use of pyrotechnic materials.
The penalty includes:
- unsuspension of the previously suspended penalty, (imposed in 2024 for the game against Real Betis), which involved the closure of the part of the stadium
- additional 2-game suspension (suspended for 2 years)
- 100k Euro fine
- an additional 22k Euro fine for their game in 1/8 of the final against Norwegian Molde

It could be worse.

Source:
https://gol24.pl/jest-decyzja-uefa-sroga-kara-dla-legii-warszawa-za-mecz-przeciwko-chelsea-fc-przy-lazienkowskiej-zyleta-zamknieta/ar/c2-19097941

at the start of matchday #30, a total of 12 goals were scored in the following two games yesterday!!! Shocked

puszcza vs. pogoń szczecin will most likely be the game of the season, as puszcza were beaten 4-5 by the visitors
in the second game, league leaders raków easily won 3-0 at home against śląsk wrocław

have the polish champions jagiellonia already said goodbye to the current title race after this matchday #30?
the 1-3 defeat against korona kielce and the home win by raków (3-0 against śląsk) means that the gap is now 7 points with 4 games left to play
it remains exciting, even in the bottom of the table - all 3 clubs still have the chance to continue playing in the ekstraklasa next season

legia warsaw have won the polish cup for the 21st time in their history! after a crazy spectacle, it defeated pogoń szczecin 4:3 yesterday
thanks to the victory, legia will play in the first (or second) qualifying round of the europa league in the upcoming 2025/2026 season.
despite its fantastic performance, pogoń suffered another bitter defeat. it is the fifth defeat in the final in the club's history...

arka gdynia was the first team from league 1 to win promotion to the polish ekstraklasa.
for the yellow-and-blue team, it's a return to the highest polish league after five seasons in the second league
after the 2-1 home win against bruk-bet termalica nieciecza, the club can no longer be denied promotion in the last 3 matchdays

A very impressive win by Lech on Saturday, they defeated Puszcze 8-1. Lech is still 2 points behind the leader, Raków. Thanks to all the goals scored against Puszcza, they now have a better goal difference, but, unfortunately for them, in case of two teams with the same number of points, the first tiebreaker would be direct results (better points balance) between the two teams in question, which means Raków would be the champion.

Here are the highlights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHqo600g1_k

In the next round, we're going to see the two biggest rivals in the Ekstraklasa clashing against each other. Legia will be hosting Lech in Warsaw in a high-security risk game. Although Legia no longer have any chance of winning the league, they're still in a fight for the top 3 (Europa Conference League qualifiers), so both teams will be extra motivated.