The first forty-five minutes were disappointing, especially when it came to the Polish champion’s performance. Although Wisła did indeed dominate the field during the match’s initial moments, the game evened out as time went by. The White Star’s players were plagued with a host of errors. Wisła’s players were unable to maintain possession of the ball in even the simplest situations, however, the opposing team failed to capitalize on this fact. A few of Wisła’s plays were worth noting, but this was not enough for the team to celebrate the scoring of their first spring season goal. In the 6th minute of the match Cleber powered off a nice shot from beyond the 16-meter mark after receiving a pass from Junior Diaz. Polonia’s keeper, Michal Pesković, cleared the ball for a corner kick. Four minutes later Diaz himself took a shot on Polonia’s goal, but Pesković once again defended the shot by deflecting the ball over the crossbar. Diaz had another good opportunity to score in the 27th minute of the first half, but the Costa Rican was blocked in the penalty area.

The Bytom side failed to create any sure-fire opportunities to take the lead, although Hubert Jaromin was close to scoring in the 37th minute of the match when Mariusz Pawełek cleared the ball straight to the Polonia midfielder. The home team’s player made an attempt on the empty goal in such a way that the ball ended up going out of bounds.

Coach Maciej Skorża made one substitution during half time – Tomas Jirsak was replaced by Marek Zieńczuk, who noticeably enlivened his team’s performance. The left midfielder initiated virtually every one of Wisła’s offensive plays – and there were several such plays. The White Star dominated the pitch until the 70th minute, successfully preventing their opponents from unfurling their wings. Paweł Brożek took a shot on Pesković’s goal in the 51st minute following a pass from Zieńczuk. Several minutes later Zieńczuk passed the ball to Patryk Małecki, who relayed it on to Rafał Boguski, who completely missed the target from just a few meters away.

Wasted opportunities come back to take their revenge, which is why the score was 1:0 for Polonia in the 70th minute. Michał Zieliński, who had just been substituted in, defeated Mariusz Pawełek with a crafty shot at close range. The White Star didn’t break down from the loss of a goal and just three minutes later the score was evened to 1:1. Rafał Boguski took advantage of a mistake by one of Polonia’s defenders, positioned himself in a one-on-one situation against Pesković, and scored his first goal of the spring season.

Wisła’s players failed to score a winning goal despite trying hard to do so. The home team could have tipped the scales to their advantage in extra time, but were likewise unable to change the outcome of the match by defeating Mariusz Pawełek. The Kraków team thus begins the spring season not by scoring a point, but by losing two points.

Polonia Bytom - Wisła Kraków 1:1 (0:0)
1:0 Zieliński 70'
1:1 Boguski 73'

Polonia Bytom: Pesković - Hricko, Killar, Broniewicz, Surowiak - Grzyb, Bazik, Trzeciak, Jaromin (59' Radzewicz) - Podstawek (67' Zieliński), Jugović

Wisła Kraków: Pawełek - Singlar, Głowacki, Cleber, Piotr Brożek - Małecki (65' Ćwielong), Sobolewski, Jirsak (46' Zieńczuk), Diaz (86' Beto) - Paweł Brożek, Boguski

Yellow cards: Bazik (Polonia) - Głowacki (Wisła)
Referee: Dawid Piasecki

Photo. Grzegorz Czop
Wisła Kraków SA Press Office