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Lech Poznań crashed out of qualifying for the Champions League in spectacular fashion last night in Baku thanks to a mauling from home side Qarabag.
The visitors took the lead after 19 seconds, as winger Kristoffer Velde smacked home a delightful finish off the crossbar. However, the Azerbaijani champions dominated thereafter, with Kady scoring from just inside the box after a quarter of an hour.
Qarabag managed to keep possession and press with real intensity, sort of like an Azerbaijani version of Man City. Even though I’m not the most impartial observer, it did seem that one or two of these challenges overstepped the mark, although English referee Andy Madley clearly felt they didn’t warrant punishment. Lech had a decent penalty appeal waved away at the half hour mark, with the pace of the goalscorer Velde one of Lech’s best weapons in the first half. The Norwegian was clearly pulled back by the opposition defender, but it was a fairly inconsistent performance from the officials from the off.
The home side took the lead just before half-time, with the Lech defence able to stop the first shot, only to see the the pull-back from the rebound find a Qarabag player who put the ball into an empty net.
A third goal came shortly after half-time. A Qarabag free-kick was struck low and hard at the Poznań goal, which was parried into the path of two attackers who managed to get the ball in the net between them. Replays showed that at least one of the two Qarabag players who got to the ball first were offside, but the goal stood.
Despite the positive substitutions for Lech, they capitulated after conceding the fourth, a lovely goal from Kady weaving his way through the box slotting it between the legs of Artur Rudko. The on-loan Ukrainian goalkeeper made a number of errors this evening and probably has to take the majority of the blame, although none of the Lech team played as well as last week, except Velde.
Perhaps Lech were unlucky that players who could have made an impact tonight sustained injuries in Saturday’s Superpuchar Polski loss to Raków, but it is unlikely that it would’ve made too much difference.
So another season passes and there will be no Polish team in the Champions League, or even Europa League. Lech now drop into Conference League qualifiying alongside compatriots Raków Częstochowa, Pogoń Szczecin and Lechia Gdańsk.
Lech will start their Ekstraklasa campaign on Saturday afternoon against Stal Mielec, and they will be hoping to retain their title thus getting back to this point next year.
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