The wrongs of Spring

18th February 2012

The curse of Spring half-raised it’s ugly head yet again this week, as both Legia Warszawa and Wisla Krakow suffered mildly discouraging, but not disastrous, home results at the restart of the Europa League.

First up were Legia, who earned a disappointing 2-2 draw against Sporting Lisbon, giving them a distinct disadvantage for the second leg. Twice the Warsaw side took the lead, only to find it pegged back each time.

Early on, Legia fans nearly managed to get the match abandoned, pelting the visiting players with snowballs. Only at the second time of asking, as the Maltese ref threatened to call the game off, did the rabble in the stands desist.

On the pitch, Sporting began the better of the two teams, dominating possession, but gradually Legia worked their way into the game. Then towards halftime, Legia took the lead. Wawrzyniak prodding home from close range.

Legia held the lead until the break, but Sporting made two early changes to try to force matters. On the hour, lax defending allowed the diminutive Carrico to equalise with a header following a free kick out wide.

Then delight again, as Wolski beat the offside trap and squared the ball for the fortuitously surnamed Janusz Gol to slide home. At 2-1 Legia would have been happy enough with the night’s work, but with two minutes to go Andre Santos placed an exquisite shot into the top corner, evading the outstretched Kuciak, to earn the Portuguese a draw that must make them favourites for the tie.

Then came Wisla, facing Standard Liege. Wisla began much the brighter, playing neat, passing football and twice going close, Gargula shooting inches wide in the early stages, and hitting the crossbar from a free kick earned by the mercurial Melikson. Then the Israeli himself missed a golden opportunity only to see Liege go up the pitch and sting Pareiko’s hands before he smothered the rebound.

Then on 25 minutes disaster struck. Czekaj conceded a penalty and collected a red card after Wisla messed around with the ball outside their own penalty area. Cyriac chipped the penalty nonchalantly home for Liege to compound the home side’s misery.

Wisla mostly carried the game to Liege throughout the second half, but the missing player always told. Until the 87th minute, when Genkov scored from a free kick after a fabulous delivery from Melikson. In extra time, they should have even won it, as Kirm then Iliev faffed around instead of shooting. But the 10 men of Wisla could hold their heads high.