Lech Poznań players, having been eliminated from the Champions League qualifiers by Red Star Belgrade, dropped to the Europa League playoffs, where a challenge awaited Niels Frederiksen’s squad; if the Polish Champions were to play in the Europa League, first they needed to beat KRC Genk. Lech quickly learned about the strength of the Belgian side, as they lost the first match 1:5.
Coach Niels Frederiksen’s players were fairly unlucky in the draw – they were forced to face a demanding Belgian team that didn’t need long to showcase their potential in the first leg of the clash, which took place at Bułgarska Street. In the 10th minute, Genk found the back of the net for the first time thanks to Patrik Hrošovský. However, Lech didn’t give up, and Filip Jagiełło’s low shot from the edge of the box, which turned the score to 1:1, gave hope to the fans gathered in Poznań.
Soon after, Genk scored again - once more through Hrošovský, who capitalised on a brilliant through ball from deep midfield. The guests didn’t stop there and netted two more goals in quick succession. They could have scored even more, but Mrozek saved a penalty. However, the Polish goalkeeper had no chance against shots from Bryan Heynen and Hyeon-gyu Oh.
In the second half, fans saw only one goal - and it was Michał Gurgul’s own goal. The left-back, shortly after coming on, accidentally redirected the ball into his own net. In the remaining minutes, Lech tried to reduce the margin of defeat but were unable to beat Tobias Lawal for the second time, leaving them in a challenging position ahead of the return leg.
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