Wladyslaw Koczerhin started in the first half, Ivi Lopez added two goals in the second, and Bartosz Nowak added one. John Yeboah scored an honorable goal for the guests from Wrocław. Friday’s match of the 24th round of the Ekstraklasa was an absolute show of Raków Częstochowa, which is confidently heading for the title, which dominated Silesia from the first minute, played with panache and scored more goals after nice team actions.
Marek Papszun’s team won the fourth league victory in a row and the fifth one, including the Polish Cup, which only confirms that a minor jam at the beginning, especially in terms of attack, is already behind the Polish runners-up. But I guess Papszun himself expected this, looking at how he reacted on the bench to the first goal by Kocherhin.
In the 21st century, only the strongest Wisła Kraków scored better
Raków Częstochowa is driving for the Polish championship like a bulldozer, destroying everything it encounters on its way. Marek Papszun’s team has by far the best offensive, as well as the best defense in the league this season.
Not only that, for 15 years there has not been a team in the Ekstraklasa that would score as well as the current vice-champion of Poland. Raków scored 58 points in 24 rounds, which gives an impressive average of 2.42 points per game. In the entire 21st century, only two champions could boast a better result, and these were the teams of Wisła Kraków, which even destroyed the Ekstraklasa in their time. Maciej Skorża’s team in the 2007/08 season scored 2.57 points per game, and Henryk Kasperczak’s team in the 2003/04 season (without Uche and Kosowski) 2.50 points per game. The mere fact that Raków can be compared with these teams is a great achievement of the inhabitants of Częstochowa.
For comparison, last season Lech Poznań won the championship title with an average of 2.18, which was still the best result in recent years.
Talking about the great scoring of Raków, one should mention the excellent game of the Polish runners-up at their own facility. Although the facility in Częstochowa cannot in any way compare to the stadiums of Lech Poznań or Legia Warszawa, Raków won 11 out of 12 league matches there this season! As the only point, Jagiellonia Białystok won from Częstochowa, which drew 2:2 there at the beginning of the season, despite the fact that after a quarter of the game they were losing 0:2.
For the title without a super scorer, but Ivi Lopez broke through
20 goals and 7 assists were scored last season by Spaniard Ivi Lopez, who became the top scorer of the Ekstraklasa and the best player of the entire competition. And although Raków is doing fantastic in the 2022/23 games, its leader is not so much. He finally broke with Śląsk – he scored his first goals in the Ekstraklasa since October, but his achievements are still far from last season. The 28-year-old has 7 goals and 5 assists to his credit.
Even more surprising, however, is that even with such numbers, Lopez, together with Bartosz Nowak, again became the top scorer of his team. Raków scored by far the most goals in the entire league (47 against 36 of the second in this respect, Pogoń), although there is no player in Papszun’s team who would stand out in terms of his achievements on the league scale.
Lopez and Nowak have seven goals each, Gutkovskis have six, Koczerhin and Piasecki have five, and twelve Częstochowa players have scored in total this season.
Six goals conceded in half a year. There is a wall in front of Raków’s goal
The real strength of Raków in the spring, however, is the defense. In 24 rounds, the inhabitants of Częstochowa scored as many as 13 matches without losing a goal, and this result could have been even more impressive. We remember that in Bialystok they lost their only goal after an accidental center shot by Jesus Imaz, and against Śląsk Vladan Kovacevic had to capitulate only at 4:0.
Raków has lost only 15 goals this season, mainly at the beginning of the season, when Papszun’s team combined playing in the league with competition in the Europa League qualifiers.
Until the first September break for the national team, Raków’s defense allowed to lose 9 goals in 7 games, only twice playing at “zero at the back”. From that moment, and precisely from the last defeat with Cracovia 0:3 in the first days of September, the “defense of Częstochowa” is a real wall.
11 clean sheets and only 6 goals conceded in 17 games, never more than one goal conceded in any game – that’s how you win the Polish championship and Raków are on their way to prove it.
Legion against the wall. And soon a hit at Łazienkowska
The real unlucky of this season is Legia Warszawa. Now, with one match played less, the team from Warsaw is already 12 points behind the leader and has to defend itself against not taking the leader at Łazienkowska Street on April 1 without a real chance of winning the championship title.
On Sunday, Legia will host Stal Mielec and even without the suspended Josue, he cannot afford to stumble. Later, before the break for the national team, she will go to Radom for the match with Radomiak. Raków at this time will play at home again, this time with a very uncomfortable Cracovia. It was Jacek Zieliński’s team that was the last to defeat Częstochowa in the league, and at the end of last season they ruined Raków’s efforts for the championship by drawing 1:1 in Częstochowa.
The aforementioned Legia Warszawa can talk about a lot of bad luck, because in the face of Raków’s great attitude, little is said about how the capital’s team rose under the leadership of Kosta Runjaic. Legia currently scores with an average of 2 points per game, which gave the championship in six of the last eight league seasons, and now has an illusory chance of catching up with the leader from Częstochowa.
