UEFA Europa League: Legia Warsaw 3-1 (0-0) FC Rapid București

n the group stage match (UEFA Europa League) between Legia and FC Rapid, the team from Warsaw managed to defeat 3-1 its Romanian opponents. In the first half of the game footballers of both Polish and Romanian clubs were very active on the field. Nevertheless, these were FC Rapid’s players who were controlling the game until the 26th minute when Dan Alexa was punished with the second yellow card (automatically changed into the red one) by the referee from Sweden and had to leave the pitch.

Due to this situation, footballers from Bucharest lost themselves a little bit and this could result in goals for Legia. It could because eventually it didn’t. After a stupid mistake of FC Rapid’s goalkeeper Virgil Drăghia, Legia’s Danijel Ljuboja wasn’t able to shoot properly practically on an empty goal. So, the first half of the game finished with a goalless draw.
Nonetheless, it was only more interesting after the break. Situations which should have finished with goals were wasted by Vrdoljak and Radović. Fortunately, the first goal for Warsaw team was struck by Miroslav Radović in the 54th minute of the game. Legia’s midfielder finished Artur Jędrzejczyk’s situation who hit the goal post with the header.
The marvellous Legia’s goalkeeper Dušan Kuciak, thanks to whom Warsaw club didn’t lose lots of goals, had his hands full because rivals began their concentrated attacks. The prelude of those attacks was shown by Vladimir Božović who hit the crossbar in the 63rd minute. The away team equalised two minutes later – Kuciak was defeated by Filipe Teixeira.
However, players from the capital of Poland decided not to give up and only three minutes later they were leading again. The second goal during this match (and the seventh in the European games) scored Miroslav Radović. The footballer became game’s hero.
Ten minutes before match’s injury time Legia’s Janusz Gol, who was playing on the pitch for only sixteen minutes, had to leave the pitch. He was punished with the second yellow card by the referee because he had touched the ball with his hand. It meant that both teams appeared with ten men on the field for the last ten minutes.
Fortunately, this was the club from Warsaw which struck the third goal – Michał Kucharczyk who replaced Maciej Rybus in the 86th minute took advantage of a phenomenal pass of Rafał Wolski and defeated Romanian goalkeeper.
Finally, Legia won 3-1 the game. Moreover, Warsaw footballers won the promotion to the 1/16 final of the UEFA Europa League. Everything due to the result of the match in Eindhoven where PSV drew 3-3 with Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club.

We induce you to see two photo reports from the game:
- the first one prepared by Woytek
- and the second one by GeoS.

UEFA Europa League: Legia Warsaw 3-1 (0-0) FC Rapid București
1-0 54’ Miroslav Radović
1-1 65’ Filipe Teixeira
2-1 68’ Miroslav Radović
3-1 90+4’ Michał Kucharczyk

yellow cards: Jędrzejczyk, Vrdoljak, Gol (x2) [Legia] – Duarte, Bozović, Alexa (x2) [FC Rapid]
red cards: Gol (as a result of two yellow cards) [Legia] – Alexa (as a result of two yellow cards) [FC Rapid]
referee: Stefan Johannesson (Sweden)
attendance: 30.786

To check whole match report, please visit this page.