Lech Poznań – Lechia Gdańsk 1:1 pen. 3:4

The Wednesday match will be remembered for a long time, however, not for good reasons. Lech Poznań faced Lechia Gdańsk at home in the semifinal clash of the Polish Cup. Of course, the objective was to advance to the final. Hence, starting from the first whistle, the Lech’s fans observed a very determined team that managed to created goal-scoring opportunities regularly. Still, it was Lechia that seemed to cause more problems to their opponent’s defensive line. Pietrzak and Gajos together successfully penetrated Lech’s defence early in the match but Paixao’s shot was off target.

10 minutes later we witnessed a great attempt from the hosts. Gytkjaer’s heel pass to Kamiński set the youngster up with a good chance to shoot, however, the Academy player made the mistake of trying to pass the ball to another teammate. A moment later the Danish striker led a counterattack all the way from the middle line but he also was overly hesitant before firing a shot at the goal which enabled Lechia’s defenders to catch up and stop him. In the following offensive attempt, Jóźwiak tried surprising the keeper but his shot was just slightly off target. The same player received a great cross from Butko shortly afterwards, however, this time the Academy midfielder significantly missed the target.

The second half kicked off with a controversy when Ze Gomes pulled Puchacz by the shirt inside Lechia’s box, however, the referee decided against a penalty kick. Despite Lech’s indisputable advantage on the pitch, it was the team from Gdańsk that scored in the 62^nd minute. Paixao converted a precise, perfectly-timed pass from the flank into a goal. Lech replied in the best possible way, that is by getting an equalizer. Ramirez was the one who scored for Lech with a surprising shot from outside the box. Moder played a key role in Lech’s offensive line throughout the match and his trademark, strong shots from a distance caused lots of trouble to Lechia’s keeper. However, he failed to convert those into a goal. In the last few minutes of the second half, the referee awarded Lech with a penalty kick but after consulting the VAR, he took back his decision.

Lechia gave Lech a serious warning at the beginning of the extra time when Paixao fired a dangerous shot at the hosts’ goal, but luckily for Lech, the attempt was off target. Gytkjaer came close to scoring a few minutes later, however, his flat shot was easily stopped by the goalkeeper. Van der Hart also saved Lech from conceding a goal when he stopped Gajos from scoring from outside the box. In the second half of extra time, for the majority of the time Lech was trying to penetrate Lechia’s defensive line but since the score remained unchanged, the match proceeded to a penalty shootout.

Lechia began with a confident shot from Kubicki and Gytkjaer replied with a perfect penalty kick. In the second round, van der Hart stopped Pietrzak’s attempt which gave Lech an advantage since Moder successfully placed the ball in the net. The Dutch keeper dislocated his shoulder during the save, however, he refused to be taken off and stayed in the goal. Zwoliński beat van der Hart effortlessly and Šatka did the same in the clash with Lechia’s keeper. In the following round, van der Hart – despite clearly being in a lot of pain – was once again the hero when he stopped Kryeziu from scoring. Just when it seemed that Lech was going to advance to the final, Ramirez and Marchwiński both failed to place the ball in the net as their shots were saved by the keeper. Paixao and Gajos were more successful with their attempts which meant that Jóźwiak’s penalty kick would be the decisive one. However, the youngster sent the ball flying high above the crossbar, therefore it was Lechia that celebrated going into the Polish Cup final.

Lech Poznań – Lechia Gdańsk 1:1 (0:0, 1:1, 1:1, 1:1) pen. 3:4

Goals: Dani Ramirez (65.) – Flavio Paixao (62.)

Penalty shootout: 0-1 Jarosław Kubicki, 1-1 Christian Gytkaer, (1-1 Rafał Pietrzak - saved), 2-1 Jakub Moder, 2-2 Łukasz Zwoliński, 3-2 Lubomir Šatka, (3-2 Egzon Kryeziu - saved), (3-2 Filip Marchwiński - saved), 3-3 Flavio Paixao, (3-3 Dani Ramirez - saved), 3-4 Maciej Gajos, (3-4 Kamil Jóźwiak – off target)

Yellow cards: Egzon Kryeziu

Lech Poznań: Mickey van der Hart - Bohdan Butko, Lubomir Šatka, Djordje Crnomarković, Tymoteusz Puchacz (100. Volodymyr Kostevych) - Jakub Kamiński (73. Juliusz Letniowski), Jakub Moder, Pedro Tiba (109. Filip Marchwiński), Dani Ramirez, Kamil Jóźwiak - Christian Gytkjaer

Lechia Gdańsk: Zlatan Alomerović - Karol Fila (114. Rafał Kobryń), Michał Nalepa, Mario Maloča, Rafał Pietrzak - Jaroslav Mihalik (81. Łukasz Zwoliński), Jarosław Kubicki, Tomasz Makowski (105. Egzon Kryeziu), Maciej Gajos, Ze Gomes (74. Conrado) - Flavio Paixao

Attendance: 7192