Coach Skorża fielded his strongest lineup, emphasizing the point that for him this would be the most important sparring match the team would face during the training camp. This time around Marcelo appeared as a defensive midfielder, while Piotr Brożek and Patryk Małecki appeared on the wings.

The Ukrainians proved Skorża right by making things very difficult for Wisła on the pitch. The Donetsk team applied aggressive zonal pressing and just ten minutes into the match created an excellent opportunity to score – a penalty shot. Seleznov confidently placed the ball into the net, thus leaving Wisła’s players with an even more daunting task ahead of them. The loss of a goal, however, did not leave the White Star’s players discouraged, but mobilized the team to rapidly even the score. Junior Diaz defeated Pyatov with a powerful shot just seven minutes after the Ukrainians took the lead.

Less than half an hour into the match the Ukrainians once again took the lead. Mariusz Pawełek committed a major mistake whilst attempting to catch Srna’s cross into the penalty area by deflecting the ball off his chest, as a result of which the ball landed inside the goal. The White Star once again rushed to cut their losses, but was forced to wait a bit longer for their second goal. In the 43rd minute of the match Pyatov failed to defend a shot by Paweł Brożek following a pass from Beto. The Shakhtar goalie allowed the ball to sail between his hands, and the match was tied up once again.

At the beginning of the second half Wisła demanded the referee award them a penalty shot on two separate occasions. First they claimed to have noticed one of Shakhtar’s defenders touch the ball with his hand following a corner kick, while the second time around Beto was knocked down in the penalty area. The Brazilian was relentlessly knocked around by the opposing team throughout the duration of the match. Shakhtar’s defenders came to the conclusion that the best way of stopping the Wisła forward was to foul him, resulting in numerous violations being committed against the Brazilian.

The aforementioned two occasions, when the White Star’s players demanded penalty shots, came about as a result of the team’s good performance at the start of the second half. Wisła nonetheless failed to take advantage of their opportunities and it was Shakhtar that subsequently took control of the situation on the pitch. The Kraków team was also unable to take advantage of a few excellent goal-scoring opportunities towards the end of the match. First off, a free kick by Zieńczuk bounced off the wall of Ukrainian defenders, while moments later, following a pass from “Zienia,” Baszczyński shot the ball over the crossbar.

Three draws in three matches – this is how the White Star’s sparring match record in Spain presents itself. It should be noted, however, that each successive draw is more valuable as Wisła’s opponents have gotten consecutively stronger.

Wisła Kraków – Shakhtar Donetsk 2:2 (2:2)
1:0 Seleznov 11'
1:1 Diaz 18'
2:1 Srna 29'
2:2 Paweł Brożek 43'

Wisła: Pawełek -Singlar (46' Baszczyński), Głowacki, Cleber, Diaz - Małecki (76' Dawidowski), Marcelo, Jirsak (46' Cantoro), Piotr Brożek (46' Zieńczuk) –Beto, Paweł Brożek (65' Łobodziński)

Shakhtar: Pyatov (46' Khudzhamov) - Shevchuk (46' Willian), Lewandowski (46' Chychov), Chygrynskyy, Ishchenko (46' Rat) - Fernandinho (46' Duljaj, 59' Polyanskyy), Gai (46' Hübschman), Kravchenko (46' Ilson Pereira Dias), Srna (69' Fedetskyy) - Seleznov (37' Gladkyy), Adriano (46' Castilio)

Photo. Maks Michalczak
Wisła Kraków SA Press Office