Eastern Europe Update - February

Kacper Buziuk prepares for the run-in in Poland, Hungary, and Czechia

POLAND - EKSTRAKLASA

Title Fight

Jagiellonia have finally pushed through the barrier that Wisla Plock and Gornik have been holding up all season, as they currently sit at the top of the table with a game in hand. It was only a matter of time, as in the past months I mentioned that this Jagiellonia squad is less likely to slip up than the other two contenders. Their squad has a lot more innate quality in it than most of the other teams, shown by their recent strong European efforts where they reached the quarter finals last year.

While Jagiellonia is the most likely candidate to win the league, one of the most bizarre things about this league this season is the (currently) 15 point difference between last and first place. The focus has been on Jagiellonia, Gornik and Plock but with every team dropping points, a team like Rakow in 6th may find a way to climb up to the top within a few weeks.

All it takes is one team to build some consistent form and they could challenge the leaders, Lechia Gdansk are currently unbeaten in their last 7 league matches, helped massively by league top scorer Tomas Bobcek’s 14 goals this season.

With inconsistency plaguing almost every team in the league and especially with Gornik losing Ousmane Sow meaning that they will most likely struggle to maintain the form they were on before Christmas, and Legia being in the relegation zone, any team including Lechia can propel themselves into the title race with a few good results. The form that these teams hit during this next month will be critical into how the rest of the season plays out, with all still to play for.