⚽ Polish League - Ekstraklasa Prediction & Discussion Thread ⚽

to kick off matchday #12, both games yesterday ended in draws...
motor lublin drew 2-2 at home against zagłębie, and the classic matchup between widzew łódź and górnik zabrze ended 1-1.
this means that lech poznań can climb to first place tomorrow with a win in the top match against legia!

as expected, there was a change at the top of the standings on matchday #12
thanks to lech poznań’s 2-1 away win at legia, the polish champions have jumped back into first place and have even played one fewer game than górnik zabrze.
the highest-scoring game took place in szczecin, where the hosts defeated radomiak 4-3!

We had some action yesterday and today in the STS Polish Cup round of 32.
The results are:

Matches played on 27 October:
Piast Gliwice 0 - 0 Górnik Zabrze (Górnik won 3–1 on penalties)
Motor Lublin 1 - 1 Raków Częstochowa (Raków won 3–1 on penalties)
Górnik Łęczna 1 - 0 GKS Katowice
Olimpia Grudziądz 0 - 1 Bruk-Bet Termalica Nieciecza

Matches played on 28 October:
Lechia Gdańsk 0 - 6 Jagiellonia Białystok
Polonia Środa Wlkp. 3 - 1 Śląsk II Wrocław
GKS Tychy 4 - 2 Pogoń Siedlce
Znicz Pruszków 0 - 1 Ruch Chorzów
Puszcza Niepołomice 1 - 2 Wisła Płock
Sokół Kleczew 2 - 1 Podhale Nowy Targ
Siarka Tarnobrzeg 1 - 0 Lech Poznań

The biggest upset is, of course, Lech losing to Siarka. I'm not sure if Lech took this game seriously and whether they played with their strongest squad, or whether they took a loose approach, as they might want to prioritise the league and Europa League.
There are 5 more games to be played tomorrow.

Quote from: pawel7777 on October 28, 2026, 11:12:56 PM

The biggest upset is, of course, Lech losing to Siarka. I'm not sure if Lech took this game seriously and whether they played with their strongest squad, or whether they took a loose approach, as they might want to prioritise the league and Europa League.
There are 5 more games to be played tomorrow.

No chance that they too game seriously, I can't find any other explanation for losingagainst amateur 4th division team. And offcourse that they didn't let main squad - mainly just their defence line was regular 90 minutes players. But it's not an excuse. Anyway, such upsets is reason why we love cup tournaments.
P.S. Explain me how reserve teams can play in cup tournament? I see Śląsk II Wrocław there. Very strange that reserve teams is allowed to play there.

Quote from: LTU_btc on October 29, 2026, 04:52:56 PM

(...)
P.S. Explain me how reserve teams can play in cup tournament? I see Śląsk II Wrocław there. Very strange that reserve teams is allowed to play there.

I believe it's possible if a reserve team is officially registered as a separate club, rather than just being part of the main club's squad.
So from the legal perspective, it's almost like they are independent clubs, but I believe there are caveats that prevent such clubs from getting promoted to the same level of competition as their parent club. That's at least how I understand it.
I believe some leagues would not allow that, e.g. I don't think Premier League clubs would be allowed to have reserve team clubs entering official competition, but they do have separate competitions i.e. Premier League 2 for U21 teams.

Quote from: pawel7777 on October 29, 2026, 11:16:51 PM

✂️
I believe some leagues would not allow that, e.g. I don't think Premier League clubs would be allowed to have reserve team clubs entering official competition, but they do have separate competitions i.e. Premier League 2 for U21 teams.

in germany, the reserve teams (u21) of professional clubs have been officially barred from participating in the dfb-cup since the 2008/09 season

to kick off matchday #13, here are the two results from yesterday...
cracovia was unable to win its home game against motor lublin and losing 1-2. the top match between górnik zabrze and legia ended in a scoreless 0-0 draw yesterday.
this gives lech poznań (playing at home today against wisła kraków) another chance to create some distance between itself and its pursuers!

Quote from: pawel7777 on October 29, 2026, 11:16:51 PM

I asked AI about this thing and what I got:

Quote

Reserve teams are allowed to participate in the Polish Cup (Puchar Polski) primarily due to the tournament's open, inclusive structure, which gives it the famous nickname "The Cup of a Thousand Teams" (Puchar Tysiąca Drużyn).
The Polish Cup is designed as an all-inclusive national knock-out competition. Any club registered under the Polish Football Association (PZPN) is eligible to enter, regardless of what division they play in—from the top-tier Ekstraklasa down to regional lower leagues, reserve teams, and even amateur/veteran sides. Reserve teams begin their journey in the regional qualifying rounds organized by the Voivodeship Football Associations (regional branches of PZPN). If a reserve team wins its regional cup competition, it earns a spot in the main central draw of the national Polish Cup.

Still, I think it's flawed thing and very few countries have reserve teams in cup. I think I save same thing in Finland cup. Though, not sure that there was cases when main and reserve team were drawn into same pair.

at the end of matchday #13, raków finally climbed out of last place with a 3-1 home win over pogoń szczecin,
and polish champion lech poznań is slowly pulling away from the competition... thanks to its 3-1 victory over the strong promoted team wisła kraków and the fact that lech still has one fewer game played, things are slowly but surely becoming a sure thing.

Quote from: cygan on November 03, 2026, 08:47:15 AM

Wasn't Wisla Krakow one of the strongest teams of Ekstraklasa not so long ago or I am mistaking it for some other team. I remember some years ago in 2007 which is a lot of years ago actually and in that time I remember betting to them and winning a lot of bets back then. I know now though Lech Poznan and Legia Warsaw are teams who are dominating this league although I have seen other teams winning this league lately.

Today's Europa League results for both of the participating Ekstraklasa clubs:

Benfica 3-1 Lech
Levski Sofia 1-0 Jagiellonia

It was naive to expect Lech could be successful against a top Portuguese club, which had before today won all of their 3 Europa League games, and today made it 4. So not much of a surprise here. I haven't watched the game, but looking at the stats and the timing of goals, it looks like Lech put up a decent fight.
I was hoping for at least a point for Jagiellonia, as Levski are probably on a similar level, but it wasn't meant to be. It was a close game, but the Bulgarian team clinched the win after scoring a late goal.

After today's round, both Polish clubs are sitting in distant table positions: Jagiellonia are 29th while Lech are 35th.

at the start of matchday #14 in the polish ekstraklasa, yesterday's results were as follows...
motor lublin won its home game against wisła płock 3-2, and the newly promoted team decided the derby between wisła kraków and cracovia with a 2-1 home victory!

on matchday #14, there were two unexpected results...
legia suffered a very surprising 2-4 home loss to raków, who can now celebrate their second straight win and are slowly beginning to climb out of the relegation zone
and league-leading lech poznań could only manage a 2-2 draw at home against zagłębie

Quote from: cygan on November 09, 2026, 10:58:25 AM

I couldn't believe that Legia Warszawa lost to Rakov who is around the relegation area but this is football anyway, sometimes we also see shocking results too. That of Zaglebie Lubin playing draw against Lech Poznań was understandable because Zaglebie Lubin isn't doing badly. Lech Poznań was even lucky to get a draw in that match because if not that Zaglebie Lubin received a red card i don't think they would have had the opportunity to equalize the score. Lech Poznań still has a match in hand which if they win it they will extend their lead against Górnik Zabrze by 4 points.

Quote from: Judith87403 on November 09, 2026, 11:22:12 AM

I couldn't believe that Legia Warszawa lost to Rakov who is around the relegation area but this is football anyway, sometimes we also see shocking results too.(...)

That was probably the biggest surprise of the round, but maybe it shouldn't be. Raków Częstochowa were a very solid team. They even won the league in 2022-23 season and finished second two seasons ago. So, as painful as it was for Legia, maybe it's a sign of Raków finally waking up and starting the bounce-back to the top of the table.
For Legia, an occasional loss is not their biggest problem. Them drawing way too often is more of an issue. They are second only to Widzew when it comes to the number of league draws (Legia: 6, Widzew: 8 ) and this is the primary reason for them bleeding away points. It's better to lose one game and win another than to draw two games.