Karol Czubak entered the last half hour of the match, but it was enough for him to decide the outcome of the competition in favor of Arka. Goals in the 80th and 86th minute gave the yellow and blue team a 2-0 victory and extended their series of victories in the Betclic 1 Liga to four. The match was played in a Kashubian setting, which was another event of this type during the matches of Arka, which proudly identifies itself with its region.
11th round – Betclic 1 league
Arka Gdynia – Chrobry Głogów 2:0 (0:0)
Goals: Czubak 80′, 86′
Back: Węglarz – Stolc, Hermoso, Marcjanik, Gojny – Gaprindaszwili (70′ Navarro), Sidibe (88′ Rzuchowski), Kocaba, Vitalucci (60′ Czubak), Oliveira (70′ Skóra) – Sobczak
Intrepid: Arndt – Szwedzik (76′ Ozimek), Zarówny, Bougaidis, Malczuk, Hanc (66′ Kuzdra), Tabiś, Mandrysz, Boniecki (76′ Mucha), Bartlewicz (84′ Biel), Lewandowski (84′ Lebedyński)
Yellow cards: Beautiful, Sidibe – Both, Kuzdra
Judge: Piotr Rzucidło (Warsaw) VAR: Paweł Pskit (Łódź)
Viewers: 7786
The first round of the Polish Cup brought a rich harvest of teams playing at the highest levels of the competition. Fortunately, Arka did not share the fate of Lechia, Lech or Raków, which advanced to the next round after a dramatic match in Stalowa Wola. However, nothing comes for free – we paid for our promotion with 120 minutes played and it was clear that not everyone would be ready to play 100% in the match against Chrobry.
This time there was one striker in the first team – Szymon Sobczak. Behind him were two offensive-minded midfielders – Vitalucci and Sidibe, and when we added Oliveira and Gaprindashvili on the wings, the attitude of coach Grzegorczyk’s team was obvious to everyone. In the visiting team from Głogów, the main attention should be paid to Mateusz Lewandowski, a striker borrowed from Wisła Płock, who scored a hat-trick in his debut in Pruszków, so with Arka he certainly wanted to confirm that this performance was not accidental.
Ark’s team could have opened the match’s scoring as early as Friday’s minute. Then Sidibe served Sobczak’s pass, who took the ball brilliantly into the penalty area and then passed the ball to OIliveira in front of the goal. The Swiss player got ahead of the defender, but was unable to take a shot on target – the ball slightly missed the goal. The guests responded after Węglarz’s poor restart of the game. The ball went to the Głogów team in front of the penalty area, who quickly exchanged passes and gave Mandrysz an opportunity to shoot. Fortunately, Węglarz was positioned perfectly and intervened effectively.
In the 10th minute, for the second time, Sobczak served a very good pass to Oliveira in the penalty area, and Joao, when taking a shot, was blocked by a generously intervening defender. 5 minutes later, the same player shot from the air from approximately 14 meters, but did not hit the ball perfectly.
In the 21st minute, Sobczak once again played the role of a passer. This time, Szymon passed the ball to Vitalucci, who was running behind the defenders, but the Japanese did not win the duel with Malczuk. A few moments later, the ball fell at Hide’s feet approximately 15 meters from the goal, but our midfielder’s shot was blocked. In the 25th minute, Sobczak took a free kick from 22 meters, but sent the ball high over the crossbar of the goal guarded by Arndt.
In the 27th minute, Gaprindashvili intercepted a good pass from Oliveira, and after reaching the 18-meter line, the Georgian kicked the ball too lightly to surprise the Chrobry goalkeeper. In the 29th minute, losing the ball in our own half could have turned out to be very costly, because Mandrysz’s shot from outside the penalty area had a ricochet, after which the ball passed Węglarz’s goal post at a very short distance.
To our rivals’ credit, their game, especially in the defensive phase, was very well organized. The two weeks that the Głogów team had to prepare for this match (their match last week was canceled) were well spent. The yellow and blue team did not have much space in the middle of the field to play the ball precisely, but the opponents’ side zones were also quickly closed and our attacking actions were very limited. We had to count on the fact that during the break our coaches would find a way to deceive the opponent and give their players the right instructions.
We started the second half with good action from Oliveira – Vitalucci. The former headed the ball well to the Japanese in the penalty area, but Hide’s shot went just over the crossbar. In the 52nd minute, Arndt received a cross from the right side of Gaprindashvili, but the ball was taken over by Vitalucci, but he was unable to control it well enough to beat the Chrobry goalkeeper. The guests responded with a dangerous attempt to launch Zarówny, but Węglarz’s long run prevented the creation of a goal opportunity.
Good action on the left wing by Oliveira and Vitalucci gave an opportunity to cross the ball into the middle of the sixteenth position for Chrobry, but Stolc, who had the opportunity to shoot directly, did not hit the ball cleanly. This was the last opportunity for the Japanese in this match, because in the 60th minute he was replaced by Karol Czubak. Meanwhile, the players from Głogów were also looking for a chance to score a goal and were close to it in the 62nd minute, when on the 16-metre line the ball fell at Mandrysz’s feet and he shot without thinking, but very badly.
In the 70th minute, coach Grzegorczyk decided to replace his wingers. Gaprindashvili was replaced by Skóra and Oliveira by Navarro. It was the Spaniard who, a few minutes after entering, played a very good pass to Sidibe, who was running into the penalty area, but alert defenders blocked the Ivorian’s shot from the first ball.
However, Chrobry’s very well-functioning defense was broken in the 80th minute. One of many crosses into the visitors’ penalty area finally did not fall on the defenders’ heads, but at the feet of Karol Czubak. Our striker did not waste the opportunity – after controlling the ball, he dropped it near the post and the stands exploded!
In the 86th minute, Czubak finished the job. First, Skóra won a free kick on the left side of the penalty area. Navarro took the free kick perfectly because he shot the ball hard and Czubak attacked it at the first post and shot it into the net from 3 meters! This is Karol’s 58th goal in the yellow and blue colors, and he is only five goals behind the all-time leader, Marcus da Silva.
In added time, Czubak scored a free kick two meters from the penalty area line. This time, Gojny took the set piece, but only hit the wall. A moment later, the ball was shot into the penalty area, where Czubak nudged it with his head, and Sobczak, rushing into the penalty area, kicked the ball over the crossbar.
Three points remained in Gdynia, but it was a really hard-fought achievement. Chrobry put up effective resistance for a long time, he had an idea to stop our offensive, but everything changed when Karol Czubak entered the field. Half an hour was enough for Arka’s striker to defeat Arndt twice and decide the fate of the competition in favor of the Gdynia team. Coach Grzegorczyk’s excellent streak continues and his team is moving up the table – now we need to follow suit in the away match, in which Arka will go to Opole to play the Odra River.
Arkadiusz Skubek
Arka Gdynia – Chrobry Głogów
Goals
2
0
Shots
165
Accurate
6
2
Corner kicks
8
4
Attacks
79
69
Dangerous attacks
54
28
Ball possession
61%
39%
Yellow cards
2
2
Red cards
0
0
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