Before the match, a minute of silence was observed for Franciszek Smuda, who passed away on Sunday. He is a very important figure in the history of Widzew. For this meeting, the Łódź club organized a campaign under the slogan “Red Army of Frank Smuda” and put up for sale, among other things, souvenir T-shirts of the coach.
But the players had to do their job. Especially a week ago they lost in Szczecin with Pogo 0: 2 in a bad style. And Radomiak saw in all this an opportunity to deepen the crisis of the red-white-red team.
– I expect a difficult match, because there are only such matches in this league. Practically anyone can beat anyone. When you watch Radomiak’s last match, you can see that they are not playing badly at all. They have many situations where the result blurs the picture of the game. I don’t think they are playing badly, but now they are going through a difficult and delicate moment. It will depend on us whether we will give oxygen to Radomiak or play the ball ourselves. “I hope we will dominate and play on our terms,” Widzew defender Mateusz Schiro said at the pre-match press conference.
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The home side were the more active from the start of this encounter. Already in the fourth minute, Jakub Łukowski forced Maciej Kekulski into action. The Radom goalkeeper had difficulty keeping out the home midfielder’s shot from outside the penalty area. Two minutes later, he had to save his team again after a header from Jakub Siebeck, and then Kamil Cibulski’s shot went over the bar.
Daniel Mysliwicz’s side sealed their lead with a goal in the 18th minute. Imad Rundić made a brilliant vertical pass to the escaping Fran Alvarez, who kept the offside line until the end (although it looked like he was on the edge of the box) and put the ball past Radomiak.
The visitors recovered after just a few minutes, but after a corner kick in the 25th minute they should have been happy with the goal. However, at the last moment Luis da Silva intervened. But it was one of the few attacks the visitors made.
In the 41st minute, referee Patrik Grykiewicz awarded a penalty kick to Widzew for a foul by Rahil Mukhamedov on Imad Rundic. The Bosnian went to the XI himself and used it, increasing Lodz’s lead.
But before the break came, coach Bruno Baltazar’s players scored. A cross from a free kick to the 11th meter, to the head of Luis Rocha, the ball dribbled straight past Rafael Gikiewicz, the Widzew goalkeeper got confused and put it into his own net.
This result meant that after the break, the visitors moved more boldly in search of an equaliser. In the 52nd minute, Sebec had to return to defence and receive the ball from Luis Rocha. A few minutes later, the Widzew midfielder was aiming the ball towards the running Rondić, but the perfect synchronisation was just a few centimetres away. In the 67th minute, Silva’s header went just over the bar.
RTS struck hard in the 75th minute from a free kick, but not directly. The cross was blocked inside the Radom penalty area, but the second ball went to Marcel Krajewski who shot goalwards from long range, Mateusz Zero deflecting the ball and his name and surname being the one the fans chanted in celebration. The goal made the score 3-1.
Less than two minutes later, Radomiak reduced the deficit to one goal again. A cross from the right side of the pitch was sent straight to Ze Ouattara, and the Ivorian did not miss such an opportunity and made it 3-2. After a while, it should have been a draw, because Rocha came face to face with Rafael Gikiewicz. But this time the Widzew goalkeeper won the duel.
But in the 83rd minute, he lost his mind again, because both Damian Jakubec, who was alone with him, and Rocha, a moment later, were in an offside position. The latter even hit this post. The tense atmosphere that surrounded this match continued until the end, but in the end the result did not change.
Widzew won their third win of the season and are at the top of the table for at least a few hours. Radomiak, on the other hand, is still in the relegation zone. This is the fourth defeat for this team in the current competition. Next week, Lodz will play Jagiellonia in Bialystok on Sunday at 8:15 pm, and Radomiak will play Cracovia the day before.
From Lodz – Krzysztof Szydzicki, WP SportoweFakty
Widzew Lodz – Radomiak Radom 3:2 (2:1)
1:0 – Fran Alvarez 18′ 2:0 – Imad Rondic 42′ 2:1 – Luis Rocha 45+4′ 3:1 – Matheus Cheiro 75′ 3:2 – Ze Ouattara 77′
Structures:
Widzio: Rafael Gikiewicz – Marcel Krajewski, Matheus Cerro, Juan Ibiza, Luis da Silva – Fran Alvarez, Marek Hanousek (80′ Julian Shehu), Jakub Lukowski (70′ Sebastian Kirk) – Jakub Sibek (60′ Antoni Klimek), Kamil Cibulski (60′ Hilary Jung) – Imad Rundic (72′ Hubert Sobol).
Radomiak: Maciej Kekulski – Damian Jakubek, Rahel Mamadou (Radoslav Selemici 88), Rafael Rossi, Ze Ouattara – Christos Donis, Roberto Alves (46′ Michel Caput) – Joao Bigelow, Leandro, Guilherme Zimowski (65′ Raphael Wolski), Leonardo Rocha.
The verdict: Patrick Grykevich (Torun).
Yellow cards: Ibiza, Kirk (Widzew) – Mamadou, Zimowski, Rossi, Leandro, Cabot (Radomiak).
Red card: Rossi (Radomiak) – for the second yellow.
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