How are Lech Poznań and Jagiellonia Białystok adapting to the Europa League?
Three games in, and we know have a semblance of what the relative “step-up” has been for the two Polish clubs competing in Europe this autumn, Lech Poznań and Jagiellonia Białystok.
Both clubs have had success in the Conference League in the last few seasons, and have severely improved the standing of both themselves, the Ekstraklasa and Polish football in general over this period. However, there has been some understandable trepidation from certain quarters about this opportunity to play at the next rung up on the European ladder.
Up until last night, Lech hadn’t garnered so much as point, wilting terribly in their first game away to Crystal Palace and doing a similarly poor job in their second game against Bayer Leverkusen. Granted you look at that level of competition and certainly with the second one, it’s bordering on Champions League-level quality, but it was nice to see a bit more fight last night from Lech at home to Sunderland.
In truth, they were slightly fortunate to not be more than a goal down by the time Leo Bengtsson equalised, but Lech could easily have scored a second in the aftermath of that goal were it not for a great double save from Sunderland’s keeper Robin Roefs.
Looking at some of the other teams Lech will face between now and the end of the league phase, you would imagine they can pick up 6 or maybe even 7 points from these five matches. They could realistically scrape into the top 24, but I think the chances of them still being in this completion come springtime might be a bit beyond their ability at this moment in time.
Moving onto Jagiellonia, and they started the Europa League in slightly better form than Lech, considering they had a narrow defeat away to Olympiakos in the first game and then a 3-1 triumph against Ararat Armenia at home. Last night’s 3-0 defeat to Anderlecht was a bit of a reality check, although they remained in the game well until the second goal went in.
The fixtures now only get harder for Jaga, and I think it is realistic to assume that they might also only finish on 6 or 7 points. Unlike Lech, they have goal difference on their side, so the chance of making that top 24 is maybe more realistic. It’ll still be a hard task and you might end up counting on some of the more elite teams they have to face rotating a little bit.
What grates a little is that in some of these games for both Lech and Jagiellonia, they are making costly mistakes that you don’t see them make at the domestic level as often. I get that this is largely down to the increased level of opposition in some situations, but for example last night when you have Mateusz Lis in the Lech goal underhitting a simple pass under little to no pressure in the opening minutes, you’re constantly fighting an uphill battle.
It doesn’t help that you have Niels Frederiksen stating the obvious that the level of the Europa League is bordering on stratospheric compared to the Ekstraklasa, when I’m not sure this is as true as it once was. You’re seeing individual players who were in the Ekstraklasa as recently as last season now playing Champions League football, so it’s not like there is a blanket level of inability present in the Polish top flight.
You can easily see that some of the teams are well beyond the levels that the two Polish sides can reach, but I think we’ve seen enough in these six combined games that they are not completely embarrassing themselves, which I think when the draw was made some people thought was a possibility.
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