Champions League: Legia 4-1 Celtic Football Club
After an unbelievable and simultaneously tremendous evening Legia’s players thrashed 4-1 Celtic’s footballers in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round (first leg) at Łazienkowska on Wednesday. Moreover, the club from the capital of Poland could have won at least 6-1 but its captain Ivica Vrdoljak missed two penalties!
The beginning of the game didn’t presage such a nice finish for Warsaw club because these where Scotsmen who struck the first goal. In the 8th minute Callum McGregor made use of Legia’s defence indecisiveness and defeated Dušan Kuciak with a nice and powerful shot. However, Celtic’s joy didn’t last too long. Not more than two minutes later Michał Żyro passed the ball to Miroslav Radović, who entered the penalty area and equalised with a very nice kick. From this moment Legia was permanently putting pressure upon its rivals. In the 37th minute Miroslav Radović became hero of the day. He intercepted the ownerless ball metres before Celtic’s goal and after a turmoil in the penalty area he scored his second goal in this match.
In the 44th minute Celtic’s player Efe Ambrose was shown a red card after his foul on Michał Kucharczyk and left the pitch. The club from Glasgow had to finish the game with only ten men on the pitch.
The first half ended with Legia’s 2-1 leading. Nearly ten minutes after the break Legia should have been leading 3-1. Miroslav Radović seized the ball and passed it to Michał Kucharczyk, who unfortunately lost the “duel” against Celtic’s goalkeeper Fraser Forster. Three minutes later Ondrej Duda was fouled in the penalty area. Legia’s captain decided to execute the penalty. However, he missed it. The ball was sent in the stands. There was still 2-1 for Warsaw footballers. Six minutes before the end of the game Legia struck its third goal. The man of the match Miroslav Radović centred the ball from the right wing into the penalty area. Michał Żyro jumped out of the crowd and struck a nice header. A moment later Legia could have been leading more but Ivica Vrdoljak missed his second penalty in this game. Everyone seemed to be furious at Legia’s captain poor attitude. Nevertheless, Jakub Kosecki raised everyone’s spirits in the injury time when he defeated Celtic’s goalkeeper for the fourth time in the match after Łukasz Broź’s pass.
Eventually, Legia won 4-1 and totally outclassed Celtic Football Club.
We induce you to see four photo reports from the game prepared by: Mishka, Kamil Marciniak, GeoS and Hagi.
The 2nd leg match takes place on 6th August at 9.45 p.m. local time in Edinburgh.
Champions League (third qualifying round, first leg): Legia Warsaw 4-1 (2-1) Celtic Football Club
0-1 8’ Callum McGregor
1-1 10’ Miroslav Radović
2-1 37’ Miroslav Radović
3-1 84’ Michał Żyro
4-1 90+1’ Jakub Kosecki
Legia Warsaw: 12. Dušan Kuciak - 28. Łukasz Broź, 25. Jakub Rzeźniczak, 15. Iñaki Astiz, 17. Tomasz Brzyski - 33. Michał Żyro (87', 9. Marek Saganowski), 3. Tomasz Jodłowiec, 21. Ivica Vrdoljak, 18. Michał Kucharczyk (75’, 20. Jakub Kosecki), 8. Ondrej Duda - 32. Miroslav Radović.
Celtic Football Club: 1. Fraser Forster - 23. Mikael Lustig, 4. Efe Ambrose, 5. Virgil Van Dijk, 2. Adam Matthews - 20. Teemu Pukki (46’, 33. Beram Kayal), 25. Stefan Johansen, 21. Charlie Mulgrew, 42. Callum McGregor, 16. Ingo Jo Berget (63’, 3. Emilio Izaguirre) - 15. Chris Commons (75’, 28. Leigh Griffiths).
yellow cards: Kosecki, Astiz (Legia) - Mulgrew, Griffiths (Celtic)
red card: Ambrose (as a result of a foul)
referee: Pol van Boekel (the Netherlands)
attendance: 23.000