Image via @LegiaWarszawa on Twitter
Last night saw yet another fantastic evening in the Europa Conference League for a Polish club, with Legia Warszawa beating Aston Villa 3-2 in an action-packed game at a sold-out Łazienkowska.
The trend of Legia’s qualifying for this competition, which was reliant on outscoring their opponent, was evident yet again in what must go straight into the top ten of games which Polish clubs have played in European competition, given the difference in financial strength and individual quality the two clubs have.
Paweł Wszołek’s goal after just 3 minutes was an indication that Legia were not afraid of taking the game to their opponent. So often we have seen Polish teams afraid of stronger opposition, and retreating into increasing defensive play. By no means was Legia’s performance all-out attack, but there was a real appetite to go and outscore Villa.
Indeed, after the visitors had first equalised, Legia very quickly went down the other end and retook the lead through Ernest Muci, after yet another good run from Wszołek. Unfortunately, just prior to half time Wszołek was the recipient of misfortune as a Lucas Digne strike deflected off him and wrong-footed the otherwise superb Kacper Tobiasz.
Indeed, having conceded two relatively unfortunate goals, one might have expected Legia to come out more timid in the second half, but the opposite was true. A wonderful counter-attack saw Ernest Muci wander straight past the Aston Villa defence, and finish off the post despite Emi Martinez getting a glove to it.
Muci will undoubtedly go for big money (relative to Ekstraklasa standards) in one of the next two transfer windows, make no mistake. There was interest this summer from clubs in the Spanish top flight and considering the way he has started this season he won’t be a Legia player much longer. For now, however, Legia are lucky to have him.
Aston Villa responded by bringing reinforcements off the bench, including Polish international Matty Cash, but for the most part Legia held firm, occasionally threatening on the counter.
Last season, we saw Lech Poznań defy expectations and come incredibly close to making it to the last four of the Conference League, and there is no reason why Legia cannot do the same. Legia’s group is much harder than Lech’s was, no doubt, but given the two underdogs in the group are currently sitting on three points this group is no longer the formality many pundits were expecting.
Whether Legia get out of this group will strongly depend on their home form, you would imagine. It is perhaps a cliche but Polish teams are very much boosted by home atmospheres like the one at Ł3 last night, and that is obviously a factor in why Legia were victorious last night. If Legia do advance to the knockout stages, it’s quite possible they will be without Muci assuming a club in a top league comes in for him in January, which is looking more than likely.
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