You can joke that in recent weeks Piast has become a knockout team. Because while he has problems in the league and not only did he not win the game, but also did not score a goal, he is doing quite well outside the league and he has three victories in three matches. On Thursday, the team from Gliwice, after defeating Resovia in the Polish Cup (4: 0) and in the 1st round of the Europa League qualifying rounds, Dinam Minsk (2: 0), added success in the 2nd qualifying phase. TSV Hartberg from Austria, who made his debut in this competition, did not make it to the team from Silesia.
Piast’s promotion was not even hindered by the lack of a coach, Waldemar Fornalik, on the bench. The trainer had positive results of the tests for the presence of coronavirus in the body, so he is in home isolation, and his brother Tomasz led the team instead. The gentlemen were supposed to be in touch and taking into account the course of the meeting, the phone was probably made at least during the break.
The heroes of the team from Gliwice were Martin Konczkowski, Patryk Sokołowski and Michał Żyro. The former was the best player of the locals, he perfectly found himself in the tactics that the training staff devised for the opponent from Austria. Piast attacked with 3-5-2, while he was defending in 5-4-1 and Konczkowski was brilliant as a right winger. First, he scored after a nice individual action that ended with a strike between the legs of goalkeeper Rene Swete. Then he could have two assistants, but Piotr Parzyszek and Kristopher Vida were wrong. Finally, substitute Żyro took pity on him, he used his friend’s cross and scored the winning goal. 3: 2 and the Fornalik team in the next round will face Danish FC Copenhagen.
In fact, the hosts seemed to be in control of their own stadium for most of the competition and their rivals were only doing what they were allowed to do. But these were only appearances and twice the locals lost the lead in seemingly simple situations. Tomaš Huk made a 1: 1 blunder. The Slovak shot blindly, right at the feet of Tobias Heinz, who surprised František Plach with an accurate shot from a distance. Piotr Malarczyk apparently did not want Huk to feel lonely and also collapsed. The Pole seemed to have forgotten about Lukas Ried and it was 2: 2. Fortunately, Konczkowski was still on the pitch for the third team of the previous season, PKO BP Ekstrklasy, and the players from Gliwice did not let go of the promotion.
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