A preview of Legia and Jagiellonia’s Conference League quarter finals, and why the competition has been great for Polish clubs

Image via @Conf_League on Twitter

Nearly a month on from the achievement, I thought an article commemorating two of Poland’s clubs getting to the quarter finals of a European competition would be appropriate.

Why wait so long? Well, it’s a good time to preview the two games, as we have two very glamorous ties to look at, plus now we’re on the eve of the first legs we have a slightly better idea of form going into them.

It is absolutely a great achievement for both Legia Warszawa and Jagiellonia Białystok to have reached the quarter finals of the Conference League, a point hammered home by the fact that outside of the Top 5 European leagues, Poland is the only one which has two clubs in the quarter finals of a European competition.

There is an argument that it’s “only the Conference League”, which is very much the third ranking of Uefa’s competitions. However, ask fans of past winners Roma, West Ham or Olympiakos if they would refer to it as “only the Conference League”.

The Conference League has been a real boon for Polish clubs, if we think back to the second season of the competition’s existence we saw a fantastic run to the quarters by Lech Poznań, who very nearly pulled off an incredible comeback against eventual runners-up Fiorentina.

Last year we had Legia pull off a cracking group stage win over Aston Villa, but truth is they struggled in some of their other games and went out with a bit of a whimper in the Round of 16 to Molde.

This year however, both Legia and Jagiellonia have looked pretty strong for the most part, neatly encapsulated by both sides’ Round of 16 victories. Jagiellonia absolutely blew Cercle Brugge away in the home leg, before holding on with a mostly defensive showing in the second leg. Legia’s match-up against Molde was far more tense, eventually triumphing in extra time of the second leg and avenging last year’s performance.

Now we have two genuine glamour ties to look forward to tomorrow. Legia vs Chelsea, and Real Betis vs Jagiellonia. Neither of the Polish sides have been in the most sparkling of form since winning their last Conference League games, but the positive for Legia is that their opponents Chelsea look very much like they are running out of energy and ideas, at least domestically. Betis on the other hand have been very strong of late, so it will be an even harder task for Jagiellonia to try and overcome.

Realistically, we should not be kidding ourselves and thinking that either Legia or Jagiellonia will be booking a semi-final berth or even reaching the final in Wrocław. Rather, we should be appropriately celebrating the fact that both of these Polish teams have got to this stage of a European competition, now facing clubs whose wage bills and revenues are on a completely different level.

There should be no shame if Legia, Jagiellonia or both bow out of the Conference League after these quarter finals, but if I may exercise some cautious optimism: this competition was designed for unsung clubs who are not used to winning trophies or going deep on the European scene, and both Legia and Jagiellonia of recent years fit that bill. 

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