⚽ Polish League - Ekstraklasa Prediction & Discussion Thread ⚽

after the 24th matchday zagłębie is the new league leader after jagielonia's 0-3 defeat - the club won its away game at piast gliwice 3-1!
the relegation battle also remains exciting, with legia, arka and widzew's victories now bringing more clubs into this situation

at the start of the 25th matchday, the following results were recorded:
the duel between the two promoted teams bruk-bet termalica and motor lublin, the guests from lublin celebrated a 2-1 away victory
and in the match between radomiak and legia, the two clubs played to a 1-1 draw

Not the best results by the only two Polish teams that are still left in the competition in the Conference League cup.
In the first leg of the round of 16, Fiorentina defeated Raków Częstochowa 2-1 at home, while Lech Poznań was beaten 3-1 at home by Shakhtar Donetsk.

I think Raków still have a fighting chance, as it's only 1 goal disadvantage and they will play the rematch at home, but I think it's pretty much over for Lech. It's not only that Shakhtar scored more goals. According to the stats, they dominated in almost every aspect of the game, that's why I'm not very optimistic for Lech.

the race for the polish championship couldn't be any more exciting!
jagiellonia also suffered a surprising 1-2 home loss vs. piast gliwice, raków went down 1-3 in zabrze and the top match between zagłębie and lech ended with a 2-1 victory for the away team from poznań
at the bottom of the table, everything remains wide open... legia remains in a relegation spot even after this matchday!

the last remaining rescheduled match in the ekstraklasa took place yesterday
jagiellonia won their home game against gks katowice 2-1 and now sits in second place with 41 points (the same as zagłębie and lech)!

here are the results from yesterday's matches to kick off the 26th matchday:
piast gliwice defeated radomiak 3-1 at home and newly promoted motor lublin won 1-0 against zagłębie and slowly climbing toward the top of the table

lech poznań are the new league leaders following their 4-1 home win against bottom-of-the-table bruk-bet termalica on matchday 26.
none of their three closest rivals managed to win their matches...
and legia have climbed out of the relegation zone for the first time in a long while following a 1-1 draw against raków!

the polish ekstraklasa will implement semi-automatic offside technology
they will use hawk-eye technology, which is already used in the champions league, lal iiga, serie a etc.
it will come into effect next season and will be fully integrated with the var system/television broadcast. referees will also receive additional hawk-eye footage

matchday #27 is now complete and lech poznań managed to defend its top place in the top match against jagiellonia (0-0)
on matchday #25, zagłębie was still at the top of the table, but now, following a 1-3 away loss vs arka gdynia, the club sits in fourth place - that’s how quickly things can change.
the relegation zone also remains very exciting... bruk-bet termalica seems to be out of the running, but two more clubs are still in the mix to be relegated to the second division - will it be legia?! Shocked

here are the results from yesterday, the start of matchday #28:
wisła płock won its home game against lechia gdańsk 1-0 and the match between korona kielce and jagiellonia ended 1-1.
this friday was overshadowed by very sad news for polish soccer: Jacek Magiera, the assistant coach of the polish national team, passed away yesterday very unexpectedly at the age of 49 - rip!

I see Legia is hanging there just above the relegation zone with the same number of points as 16th Arka Gdynia.
Later today, Legia is playing against strong Górnik Zabrze, who are currently 3rd in the table but can jump into the 2nd place should they win against Legia.
It won't be easy for Górnik to grab a win in Warsaw, as, despite their low league position, Legia is undefeated in 7 league games, so that's some improvement in Legia's performance as compared to earlier stages of the season.

We had some sad news this weekend. A former Legia player, and former manager of Legia and Polish national junior teams, Jacek Magiera, died suddenly due to heart failure during his morning run, aged only 49.
He passed away on the 10th April, but, despite the very short notice, Legia fans put in an amazing effort to organise a match display to pay tribute to Jacek in the game against Górnik Zabrze on Saturday 11th. I have no idea how they managed to do that in such a short time, but it was very uplifting.
A very well done.

zagłębie is the only team from the top 4 to win its match on matchday #28...
as a result, newly promoted wisła płock (1-0 against lechia gdańsk) is now within striking distance of the important european spots.
actually, only 18th place is as good as locked up... otherwise, everything is still tightly packed at the top and the bottom, so anything is still possible.

the opening matches of the 29th matchday of the polish ekstraklasa saw both home teams secure home wins
gks katowice won 3-2 against motor lublin and legia celebrated a 1-0 victory against zagłębie

of the top four teams zagłębie was the only one club to lose its match on this matchday. all the others secured victories and remain in touch with lech poznań
legia (thanks to a 1-0 win over zagłębie) is slowly climbing out of the dangerous relegation zone

at the start of matchday #30, there were two very interesting results yesterday
in the first match, bottom-of-the-table newly promoted bruk-bet termalica pulled off a major upset by beating zagłębie 2-1, perhaps keeping their slim hopes of staying in the ekstraklasa alive - for zagłębie this home loss likely marks the end of their polish championship hopes
and in the top match between second-place jagiellonia and third-place górnik zabrze, the visitors prevailed 2-1 and are now the closest pursuers of league leaders lech poznań, who still have to play at home against legia on sunday...

with its convincing 4-0 victory over legia, lech poznań doesn't seem likely to be knocked off first place just yet!
but with four games remaining, the title race as well as the battle to stay in the polish ekstraklasa remains wide open...

at the start of matchday #31 yesterday the following two results were recorded...
korona kielce and piast gliwice drew 1-1 and in a crucial relegation battle, legia celebrated a 1-0 home win against widzew łódź - the winning goal was scored in the 90+7th minute!

since the polish cup final between górnik zabrze and raków also took place last weekend, there were two fewer matches on matchday #31
the league leaders from poznań won their away match against motor lublin 1-0 and bruk-bet termalica have now been confirmed as the first team to be relegated after losing 1-5 vs. gks katowice

btw górnik won the cup final 2-0 and bringing the trophy back to zabrze for the first time since 1972!

here are the results from yesterday's 32nd matchday:
raków won their home game against korona kielce 2-0, while lech poznań dropped two points in their home match against arka gdynia, drawing 1-1!
this means that górnik zabrze can close the gap on the league leaders today and still has a game in hand...