So far, Raków Częstochowa has been quite solid in the new season of the Ekstraklasa. After Marek Papszun returned to the coaching bench, the team has lost only one match – 0:1 to Cracovia in the second round. In addition, it has won against three newcomers – Motor Lublin, GKS Katowice and Lechia Gdańsk, while it has drawn goalless in matches against the Ekstraklasa leaders – Górnik Zabrze and Lech Poznań.
Raków loses at home! Michael Ameyaw is the hero of Piast
Words of praise should be given to Piast, who, like Raków, lost only one match after six rounds (0:2 away to Stal Mielec). Apart from this setback, the Gliwice team presented themselves really impressively, which was reflected in the table. On Friday, August 30, they played against the Polish champions of the 2022/2023 season from the position of sixth strength in the league.
The first whistle in Częstochowa blew exactly at 6:00 p.m. Neither the hosts nor the guests were particularly eager to go on the offensive. This is evidenced by the fact that after the first half, the expected goal ratio in both teams did not even exceed 0.20. The match was quite clumsy, with Raków and Piast focusing primarily on breaking up the opponent's attacks. Journalists ironically commented on the boredom of Friday's match on social media. And it's no wonder. – It can't be that the team can't put together a coherent attack that ends with a shot on goal – the Canal + Sport commentators said directly.
Unfortunately, not much changed in the second half. At times, Raków tried to increase the pressing a bit, but in practice it did not bring many benefits. Even after the theoretically creative Ben Lederman came on, the play of Papszun's team still did not look the best. – Maybe something will move. Maybe something will move – the commentators practically begged. It seems that the biggest event in this match was… the fireworks show of the Częstochowa fans in the 74th minute, after which the referee ordered a short break in the game.
In the 82nd minute, after a good counterattack, Gustav Berggren took a powerful shot, but the well-positioned Piast goalkeeper had no major problems with it. It seemed that no more goals would be scored until the end of the match, although Patryk Dziczek came close to changing that state of affairs. The referee awarded Piast a penalty kick after one of the actions, in which Czerwiński was pulled by his shirt in the penalty area. The aforementioned two-time Polish representative approached the ball, but he was unable to convert the penalty kick into a goal.
Despite this, Piast finally got his way! In the eighth minute of added time, Michael Ameyaw, around whom there has been a lot of noise lately, scored a goal. The 23-year-old took advantage of the crowd under the hosts' goal and successfully closed the action on the far post after a corner kick. The match lasted well over 100 minutes and ended with a 1-0 victory for Piast Gliwice. After the victory, Aleksander Vukovic's team with 14 points on their account, at least until the match between Lech and Stal (Friday at 8:30 p.m.) jumped to the leader's seat in the Ekstraklasa! Meanwhile, Raków currently with 11 points is in sixth place.