A fair amount of Polish players in action last night, and there were a number of notable performances.
Fiorentina 2-3 Lech Poznań (6-4 aggregate)
Image via @LechPoznan on Twitter
As a whole, we weren’t expecting much from Lech in the second leg in Florence last night. The battering dished out in the first leg meant Lech were pretty much dead and buried heading into last night’s match.
Or so we thought. An early, well-worked goal by Lech resulted in Fiorentina, the players, crowd and coaching staff all losing perspective and blaming the referee entirely for their complacency.
This complacency from the home side was a theme of the game, and when substitute left-back Terzić fouled Michał Skóraś in the box partway through the second half, Kristoffer Velde stepped up to take and score the penalty that Lech had been awarded after a VAR review.
Lech had the wind in their sails and they proceeded to increase the pressure. A quick throw-in from Skóraś led to Jesper Karlstrom getting goal-side of his marker and put it on a plate for Artur Sobiech at the near post. The three goal deficit wiped out, Lech had twenty minutes to hold on and force extra time.
Indeed, had they not calmed themselves down Lech might’ve won before the ninety minutes was up. Instead, Fiorentina threw on their first team attackers and it paid off, with a soft free-kick leading to a Fiorentina goal. Lech themselves added on their attacking substitutions but it never really happened, and they were caught again whilst chasing the game.
Hopefully next season Polish clubs can attack European competitions with the vigour and success that Lech have this season. When I predicted Lech to surprise us in the Conference League, I didn’t expect to be this pleasantly surprised. The Kolejorz performances in Europe have also led to Poland shooting up the UEFA coefficient from 28 to 24. Small steps, but if Lech or another team can replicate this in following seasons, this could be even more of a big thing for Polish football.
Kamil Piątkowski - West Ham 4-1 Gent (5-2 aggregate)
Image via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
Piątkowski had a really strong performance in the first leg of this tie, and a good first half in this game as well (as did Gent overall). However, a set-piece led to West Ham equalising late in the first half and an early second half penalty for the Hammers led to quite the capitulation from Gent, with Piątkowski and his team-mates out of position as they chased the game.
Sebastian Szymański, Nicola Zalewski - Roma 4-1 Feyenoord A.E.T (4-2 aggregate)
Images via Mikolaj Barbanell/Shutterstock
Neither Szymański nor Zalewski had lots of the ball in the first half, with Szymański forcing two good saves from both close and long range from Rui Patricio. Zalewski got more of the ball at the start of the second half and nearly grabbed an assist, but otherwise did very little and he was substituted with twenty minutes left as Roma chased a second goal in what was a close game.
With ten minutes left, Szymański whipped in a brilliant cross which Paixao flicked into the net, and Feyenoord had equalised and were heading through on aggregate. However, with just one minute of regular time remaining Paulo Dybala scored for Roma and they had all the momentum. Szymański was substituted before extra time began, and Feyenoord were out on their feet as they just couldn’t compete as well as they had for the previous 180 minutes of the tie, succumbing to another two goals. Roma will play Leverkusen in the semi-final.
Wojciech Szczęsny, Arkadiusz Milik - Sporting Lisbon 1-1 Juventus (1-2 aggregate)
Images via @juventusfcen on Twitter
Just prior to the line-ups being announced for this match, news filtered through that Juventus’ 15-point penalty in Serie A had been overturned, moving them up to third place. However, European success was the aim this evening for Szczęsny and Milik. Szczęsny recovered from the health issues he suffered in the reverse fixture last week to start this game away in Portugal, with Milik on the bench. Szczęsny was not needed as Juventus took the lead through Adrien Rabiot, but Sporting equalised after a penalty was awarded an Szczęsny was sent the wrong way by Marcus Edwards.
Sporting were very much the team with the upper hand for much of this tie, and Szczęsny was forced into action several times in the second half as well. A fairly tough night for Juventus’ attacking players saw Milik introduced with twenty minutes to go so as to provide an outlet. That idea didn’t really work, and although Milik had a penalty claim right at the death, Juventus managed to navigate the tie successfully over the two legs. Juve will play Sevilla in the semi-final.
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