Chris the Cat Saves Lech

24th July 2010

© Klapi, wikipedia.org Super keeper Kotorowski saved the day Share:

Lech Poznan went to the edge of the abyss of elimination from European competitions this Wednesday only to be dragged back from the brink by their 33-year-old keeper Krzysztof Kotorowski who performed heroics in a nerve-wracking penalty shoot-out. Following a 1-0 away win over Inter Baku last week, the return match was supposed to be a mere formality, but a walk in the park turned into nightmare of missed passes and slip-ups.

Inter Baku, Champions of Azerbaijan won a pretty dire game of football 1-0 in 90 minutes, remaining compact and disciplined, occasionally trying to break dynamically. Lech were more dysfunctional, dominating the game to little effect and committing numerous blunders in sensitive areas. Particularly at fault was the Serb midfielder Djurdjevic who barely managed a completed pass all night, frequently giving the ball away close to the Lech goal. But the ring rustiness was apparent throughout the team.

There are also problems with the squad, which was shown to be imbalanced and lacking in quality. In the 78th minute the ageing attacker Wichniarek was substituted leaving Lech without a recognised hit man. This was compounded when Inter scored in the 84th minute through Karlsons, following a series of errors in defence.

Extra-time was relatively incident free, Lech attacking determinedly, but lacking any sort of cutting edge.

The penalty shoot-out supplied the emotions that had been missing throughout the match, swinging one way, then the other. At first both keepers seemed agonisingly close to each kick, then the takers gained the upper hand. All ten outfield players having taken their turns, it fell to the keepers to settle the match. Kotorowski stepped up and nervelessly slotted his penalty home, then saved his opposite number Lomaia’s weak kick, which almost wriggled under him, but he snaffled it at the second attempt.

The delight at winning soon evaporated in a heated press conference, Lech manager Jacek Zielinski losing his cool with reporters. When asked if he considered the game a success, because Lech qualified, or a failure, because the match went to penalties, he exclaimed, “What do you want from me? To commit hara-kiri?”

The win does guarantee that Lech will play either in the Champions or Europa League, depending on the result of the next tie against Sparta Prague. Disgrace was avoided by the skin of their teeth, now glory could be 180 minutes away.

---

Readers Comments

---

Comments are now closed for this article