Górnik Zabrze had a false start in the first two rounds of the PKO Ekstraklasa, because that is how we should call the disastrous and lost match in Poznań with Lech (0:2) and the draw with Puszcza Niepołomice (2:2). Nevertheless, on Friday evening Jan Urban's team returned to their own stadium and in Zabrze hosted Pogoń Szczecin, which in the two opening matches with Korona Kielce (3:0) and Zagłębie Lubin (2:2) could have easily tried to get full points, but ultimately had to settle for four “points”.
Górnik's first victory. Luka Zahovic's beautiful goal ruined the “Portowcy”
The match in Zabrze had barely started, and after about 15 seconds Górnik created their first chance to open the score. After a quick play of the ball, Lukas Ambros made a flat shot from a dozen or so meters, but he made a slight mistake. A moment later, in another action by Górnik, the same player was stopped at the last moment by Leonardo Koutris.
When it seemed that after a strong start the match would only start to heat up, in reality it completely slowed down. After fifteen minutes, two good but inaccurate shots from distance were taken by the visiting players – Kacper Łukasiak and Wahan Biczachczjan, which were the only offensive accents of the “Portowcy” before the break.
In the 27th minute the match had to be interrupted for a few minutes due to smoke on the pitch after the Górnik fans' performance, and when it was resumed, nothing particularly interesting happened. So it was 0:0 at half-time, and in an interview with Canal+, Pogoń captain Kamil Grosicki delivered a solid tirade about his team's performance.
– We play as if we were playing an exhibition match – before or after the season. (…) We are all free, there is no energy. It starts with me and we can go on and on – the former Polish national team player blurted out.
But in the second half it didn't change much at all and Górnik was clearly the better team. Zabrze started the second half strongly, but first Valentin Cojocaru made two interventions, defending, among others, a shot by Lukas Ambros. Aleksander Buksa also had a good header over the crossbar.
Pogoń responded in the 74th minute with a header after a corner kick by Linus Wahlqvist, but Michał Szromnik was alert and dealt with it.
The Zabrze team had a 16 to 4 advantage in shots throughout the match, dominating their opponent. And in the 83rd minute they scored the winning goal, when after a perpendicular pass from Valentin Cojocaru, the former Pogoń player Luka Zahović took advantage of a bad exit from the goal. The Slovenian perfectly lobbed his former club colleague from the side of the penalty area and opened the score of the match. Celebrating the goal, Zahović eloquently “silenced” the Szczecin bench.
After conceding a goal, Górnik-dominated Pogoń came close to equalising only once, when in the 88th minute a powerful free kick by Wahan Biczachczajan was saved by Michał Szromnik.
Górnik Zabrze returned to their home stadium with a well-deserved 1-0 victory over Pogoń Szczecin, which means that after three rounds both teams will have four points.