#PENALTY

After a two-month break players of the Polish Ekstraklasa resumed their football rivalry. Warsaw team went to Lubin to play a match against local Zagłębie on Friday.

In the second leg of the second qualifying round (UEFA Europa League) Legia defeated 3-0 Botoșani in Romania on Thursday evening and won the promotion to the third qualifying round of the tournament.

In the first leg of the Polish Cup semifinal, which took place on Wednesday evening in Bielsko-Biała, Legia Warsaw outclassed 4-1 Podbeskidzie. The first goal was struck in the 24th minute by Michał Masłowski. Legia’s player decided to take a shot at rivals’ goal and scored the goal, indeed. Podbeskidzie’s goalkeeper made a terrible mistake. The football had glanced off in front of him and seeped through his hands.

Legia drew 2-2 with Wisła in a fortunate way at Łazienkowska. In the 16th minute Wisła’s Łukasz Burliga scored the first goal for his team. He adroitly outrunned Legia’s goalkeeper and put the football in Legia’s net.

Legia defeated 3-0 Podbeskidzie Bielsko-Biała. The first goal was struck in the 12th minute by Adam Ryczkowski. Orlando Sa passed the ball to Tomasz Jodłowiec, who competitively got into Podbeskidzie’s penalty area. There he noticed Adam Ryczkowski, who defeated rivals’ goalkeeper. Legia’s fans had to wait for the next goals until the second half.

Although Warsaw team’s coach Henning Berg had decided to modify Legia’s line-up for this game, this turned out to be a successful football experiment because Warsaw footballers coped with Ruch Chorzów winning 2-1 at Łazienkowska.

In the 1/8 final of the Polish Cup Legia defeated 3-1 Pogoń Szczecin at Łazienkowska. It may seem that it was an easy game for Warsaw club but it wasn’t. Legia needed extra time to win because after 90 minutes there was a 1-1 draw.

In the game (UEFA Europa League) that took place in Kiev Legia Warsaw defeated 1-0 FC Metalist Kharkiv. The Ukrainian club couldn’t play in its own city due to the situation in the eastern region of the country.

In the second leg of the UEFA Europa League play-off round Legia’s players defeated 2-0 FK Aktobe’s footballers at Łazienkowska on Thursday evening. Thanks to 1-0 victory over the team from Kazakhstan a week earlier, Warsaw club won 3-0 on aggregate and promoted to the group stage of this European tournament.

Warsaw players demolished their rivals from Łęczna after winning 5-0 at Łazienkowska on Saturday evening. Nevertheless, the first half of the game which ended with 0-0 draw didn’t presage such a nice finish. Although Legia was trying to find the way to its rivals’ net, its attacks were ineffective because Górnik’s players defended their goal quite well. Sometimes Górnik’s goal resembled a real barricade – so many footballers from Łęczna were present in their own penalty area.

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!

Legia Warsaw defeated 3-1 Cracovia in Cracow on Saturday evening. The match didn’t start well for the team from the capital of Poland because in the fourth minute they lost their first (as it turned out later the only) goal. Cracovia’s Dawid Nowak took advantage of a through ball and defeated Dušan Kuciak.

In the game which took place on Saturday evening Legia’s players managed to defeat 2-0 Zagłębie’s footballers. Although the team from Lubin wanted to predominate over Legia during first minutes of the match trying to score a goal, they didn’t manage it. Instead of Zagłębie’s goal we were able to see Warsaw club’s players scoring one. Helio Pinto struck it in the 38th minute of the game.

In the game between two teams whose fans are friends Legia Warsaw defeated 3-1 Pogoń at Łazienkowska on Saturday evening. Nevertheless, these were footballers from Szczecin who were leading 1-0 after the first half of the match thanks to Bartosz Ława’s shot.

Legia Warsaw only drew 1-1 with its local rival Polonia on Friday evening. Both goals were struck in the first half. The first one was scored by Legia’s opponents in the 29th minute of the match. Daniel Łukasik lost the ball in the central part of the field and after a very fast attack Polonia’s Wladimir Dwaliszwili defeated Legia’s goalkeeper.

In the first match of the new season 2012/2013 Legia’s footballers outclassed 4-0 their rivals from Kielce. Moreover, Danijel Ljuboja managed to score his first hat trick being Warsaw club’s player (one of those goals was a penalty kick), and Korona’s Pavol Staňo defeated his team’s goalkeeper scoring an own goal for Legia.

In the first leg of the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round Legia Warsaw was defeated 2-1 in Austrian town Ried im Innkreis by footballers of the local team SV. In the first half of the game nothing interesting happened on the pitch. For several minutes Warsaw players seemed to have optical predominance on the field but systematically these were Austrian footballers who started playing better and better. Fairly, first 45 minutes finished with a 0-0 draw.

In the last friendly game of Legia’s Austrian summer preparatory camp the club from Warsaw was defeated 2-1 by Bulgarian PFC Lokomotiv Plovdiv (Bulgarian: ПФК Локомотив Пловдив). Until the end of the first half players from Bulgaria were leading 1-0. The only goal was scored by Elidiano Marques in the 41st minute of the game.

In the third friendly game of the preparatory camp in Austria AC Sparta Prague (Czech: AC Sparta Praha) outclassed 4-0 Legia Warsaw on Tuesday evening. Although the match seemed to be a tug-of-war situation, these were Czech footballers who managed to strike four goals for their team, not losing even a single one. We induce you to see 39 photos from the game taken by turi.

Warsaw footballers won their last friendly match in Cyprus on Wednesday. They defeated 3-1 the hardest opponents of their preparatory camp – Aris Limassol’s players. After the end of the first half these were Cypriot footballers who were leading 1-0. One of their players was fouled in the penalty area in the 21st minute of the game and Łukasz Sosin turned this foul into a goal a minute later. We encourage you to see 45 photos from the match taken by turi.

In the first friendly game of the preparatory camp which took place in Cyprus on Saturday Legia’s footballers defeated 3-0 young Ajax Amsterdam’s players. We induce you to see 55 photos from the game taken by turi.

UEFA’s committee made a decision that Legia has to pay a fine of ten thousand Euros for banners which hung in the stands during the game against Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C. The punishment isn’t as high as it was foretold by some media. UEFA’s delegate Edward Potok was even of the opinion that Warsaw team could have been excluded from the tournament. Yet, the whole situation finished only with a financial penalty.

Legia’s footballers coped with their rivals from Łódź and defeated them 3-1 in Bełchatów on Monday. The first goal was scored by Ivica Vrdoljak in the 13th minute of the game – Legia’s player properly executed a penalty which was result of the situation when Jakub Wawrzyniak had been pulled by his T-shirt in the penalty area by one of ŁKS’s midfielders a minute earlier.

Similarly to their senior colleagues, Young Legia’s footballers managed to win their match against Young Wisła’s players (Młoda Ekstraklasa). The third and the most important goal was struck by Dominik Furman, who properly executed the penalty. Young Wisła had to finish the game with only ten men on the field.

Legia’s footballers managed to defeat 2-0 the new Polish football champion Wisła Cracow. There were more than 19.000 people in the stands. Warsaw team’s supporters protested throughout the game against the policy of the government and its decisions of closing stadiums and not letting Polish supporters travel to other cities to see their team’s games. To deride Polish politicians, they invited well known Krzysztof Kononowicz, who is trying to become a famous and important politician and who was presenting his election programme during the game.

Footballers of Young Legia defeated 4-1 its young rivals from Białystok (Młoda Ekstraklasa). The referee showed two red cards during the game.

After a few defeats in a row Legia managed not to lose its match. The team from Warsaw drew 2-2 with Zagłębie Lubin on Saturday. The first goal was scored by the team from Lower Silesia after a tremendous shot of Abwo. Just before the break Legia equalised thanks to a penalty which was executed by Vrdoljak. Maciej Skorża’s footballers predominated over their rivals most of the time but they suffered from the lack of efficacy.

Footballers of Young Legia lost 1-2 their match with Young Ruch in Chorzów (Młoda Ekstraklasa). All three goals were struck in the second half of the game. Young Ruch’s Bartosz Flis scored two goals within only two minutes. The face-saving goal for Legia’s young players was struck from a penalty by Mateusz Rosłoń. In spite of this defeat, Young Legia still occupies the first place in the league table.

Footballers of Young Legia managed to defeat 3-2 (in contradiction to their senior colleagues) their young opponents from Bełchatów (Młoda Ekstraklasa), although these were GKS’s footballers who were leading 1-0 at first. Young Legia’s Michał Żyro made use of two penalties which were dictated by the referee in both halves of the match. We induce you to see Hagi’s 39 photographs from the game.

After a very poor game Legia was defeated 2-0 by GKS in Bełchatów on Sunday. Legia’s Ivica Vrdoljak wasn’t able to score a goal from a penalty which was dictated by the referee in the first half of the match. Both goals for Bełchatów were struck by Marcin Żewłakow and Maciej Małkowski. We encourage you to see 81 photographs from the game taken by Mishka.