Christy Fagan, who opened the scoring for St.Pats.
SUMMARY
A clash between the Polish and Irish league champions saw St.Pats come minutes away from a famous victory against Legia Warsaw. In a game which looked like Legia were going to dominate from start to finish, St. Pats ended up creating the better chances in the first half. The visitors nearly took a spectacular lead on the half hour mark when the League Of Ireland player of the year, Killian Brennan, cut inside and fired a left footed drive towards the top left hand corner, only to see his effort acrobatically tipped over by Slovak keeper Dusan Kuciak. Liam Buckley’s men found the opening goal in the 38th minute when ex-Birmingham midfielder Keith Fahey threaded a wonderful through ball to left full back Ian Bermingham, who got in behind the Legia back line before squaring the ball across goal to Christy Fagan, who side footed it into the bottom left corner to score his 19th goal in 21 matches. St. Pats nearly went into the break with a 2 goal lead as some nice work from Brennan led to him sliding through Fagan, who saw his first time shot deflected of the legs of Kuciak before the goal bound ball was cleared off the line by Jakub Rzezniczak. There was controversy in first half stoppage time after Tomasz Jodlowiec played a through ball to Marek Saganowski, who knocked the ball past the onrushing Saints keeper Brendan Clarke before being wiped out by Clarke just outside the area, Clarke received only a yellow card despite it appearing to be a clear goalscoring opportunity. Legia nearly found the equaliser from the resulting free kick, as midfielder Helio Pinto rattled the bar with a curling effort. It wasn’t until the 79th minute of the game that the hosts were able to fashion a clear cut chance to score as Tomasz Brzyski drilled in a ball towards Saganowski who was denied by an excellent save by Clarke from 6 yards out. Henning Berg’s side were spared an embarrassing defeat in stoppage time as Ondrej Duda nutmegged a St Pats player to get the ball to Miroslav Radovic who drilled the ball through keeper Clarke’s legs to make the scoreline level going into the second leg in Dublin.
LINEUPS
Legia Warsaw
SUBS:
Duda (Kosecki 77′)
Jalocha (GK)
Lewczuk
Piech
Ryczkowski
Saganowski (Sa 16′)
Vrdoljak (Pinto 66′)
St. Pats
SUBS:
Chambers (Brennan 76′)
Fitzgerald
Foran
Gilmartin (GK)
Kavanagh
Lynch (Fagan 85′)
Quigley (Forrester 49′)
MATCH REPORT
Going into this match, Legia were clear favourites, after coming out on top in the Ekstraklasa last year, they had a lot of expectation coming into this match and from the get go, looked like they were going to dominate the game as chants from the Legia faithful rang around the stadium. The home side dominated the early goings but were limited to probing for an opening as they struggled to open up the St Pats defensive line, they fashioned their first half chance of the game as Lukasz Broz cut inside from the right flank and tried to lash one in with his left foot, but hit his shot from distance well wide. Henning Berg’s men continued to find it hard to break down the resilient defence of the Saints but at the same time were pressing the visitors whenever they had the ball, St Pats were struggling to get forward effectively and lacked composure in their build up play. Christy Fagan, who had scored 18 goals in 20 matches for the Dublin based side, was an isolated figure up against the defence of Legia. Berg was forced into making a change a mere 16 minutes into the match however as recently signed Portugese striker Orlando Sa had to be replaced by veteran Marek Saganowski after receiving a few heavy challenges.
St. Pats began to find their feet in the game from here on in, and in the 18th minute, Killian Brennan flighted a ball into the back post towards Fagan who was unable to generate any power on his header and could only direct it straight at the keeper. Despite this missed opportunity, the Irish champions were playing much better football and their passing out from the back was far more composed. They could and possibly should have fell behind in the 27th minute however as St Pats ‘keeper Brendan Clarke came rushing out to claim a Broz cross, but was beaten to it by Saganowski who couldn’t fully connect with his header and failed to open the scoring. Liam Buckley’s men nearly scored a spectacular opener just 2 minutes later however as Brennan cut inside from the right wing before striking a left footed shot towards the top left corner of the goal. Dusan Kuciak was not to be beaten however, producing a marvelous save, diving to his right and tipping the ball over the bar with his left hand.
The resulting corner led to an ambitious overhead kick by Chris Forrester from the edge of the box nestle in Kuciak’s hands. Legia were beginning to look a little rattled at this point and St Pats began believing that there was a genuine chance for them to get something out of this game. Legia kept applying pressure on the St Pats back line however, and Jakub Kosecki, the man titled by some as the ‘Polish Messi’ played a one-two with Helio Pinto before driving into the box down the left hand side but could only fire his left footed shot over the bar. Legia had to wait until the 35th minute of the game to get their first shot on target, as Kosecki jinked inside and hit a right footed shot safely into Clarke’s midrift. Three minutes later however, St. Pats were back on the attack and Forrester nearly opened the scoring from the best part of 45 yards when Kuciak came a long way out to clear the ball to safety. The Slovak managed to backtrack and palm the ball away, but a minute later the home fans were stunned into silence as Keith Fahey threaded a wonderful through ball to Ian Bermingham down the left side before the full back squared the ball to Fagan who slotted past a scrambling Kuciak to put the visitors 1-0 up. St Pats nearly extended their lead just two minutes later when Brennan caused more trouble down the middle for Legia before passing across the box to Fagan, whose shot hit the legs of Kuciak before being cleared off the line by Legia centre half Jakub Rzezniczak.
The Saints could have been reduced to 10 men just before half time, when a great pass from Tomasz Jodlowiec set Saganowski through behind the defence, the ex Southampton striker was clattered into by an onrushing Clarke, but the keeper escaped with a yellow card as the referee indicated that the strike was going away from goal. Wojskowi nearly found their equaliser from the resulting free kick, as Pinto struck the bar with a curling right footed effort.
HALF TIME: LEGIA WARSAW 0 – 1 ST. PATRICK’S ATHLETIC (Fagan 38′)
The second half was taking largely the same shape that the first half took, the home side continued probing and tried to unlock the door, but they were lacking that final killer pass to find the breakthrough. St Pats were much more reserved at the start of the half, seemingly intent on trying to keep their one goal advantage. It looked like Legia’s best chance might come from a set piece, and in the 54th minute, a free kick from the left hand side by Brzyski was headed over the bar by Rzezniczak. Legia continued to dominate proceedings, but the Irish side remained resolute and refused to allow their opponents any clear chances to score. The next chance of note came in the 59th minute, when Michal Zyro tried his luck from 25 yards with a free kick but his effort sailed well over Clarke’s crossbar. As the match went on, desperation was creeping into the play of Legia, and their home fans began to show signs of discontent with their team massively under performing, trailing in a match which they were expected to win relatively comfortably. St Pats had set up in the second half to frustrate Legia, sitting very deep and trying to keep hold of their lead, and it appeared to be working.
The visitors prospects for the second leg suffered a blow in the 75th minute as star man Brennan was forced off with a knee injury as he landed awkwardly when blocking a cross. This injury appeared to raise the energy levels of his team mates however as in the 78th minute, Fahey produced another lovely pass down the flank to Bermingham, who whipped a cross in, the ball eventually fell to Brennan’s replacement, James Chambers, but his touch was heavy and this allowed Kuciak to rush out and block the ball, the ball eventually rolled back outside the box to Fahey, who saw his shot deflect wide for a corner. Legia broke forward from the resulting set piece and Brzyski once again managed to drill a dangerous ball in towards Saganowski, but the striker saw his first time effort heroically saved by ‘keeper Clarke. The home side came forward again in the 82nd minute and Ondrej Duda found a cross from the byline, but Saganowski couldn’t make contact with the header as he was challenged by Ken Oman.
St Pats began defending almost on top of their keeper from this point, as Fagan again became an isolated player up front for the Irish side. Legionisci continued to press for an equaliser, as Duda missed wide, then high with long range shots within the space of two minutes. There was still time left for Legia to find an equaliser, however, as Duda managed to nutmeg a St Pats defender to get the ball to Miroslav Radovic, who fired a shot through the legs of Clarke in the first minute of injury time to deny the Saints a famous victory.
FULL TIME: LEGIA WARSAW 1 – 1 ST PATRICK’S ATHLETIC (Radovic 90+1′) – (Fagan 38′)
PLAYER RATINGS
Legia Warsaw
Kuciak – 6
Brzyski – 7
Rzezniczak – 6
Astiz – 5
Broz – 6
Jodlowiec – 6
Kosecki – 7
Pinto – 6
Zyro – 5
Radovic – 6
Sa – 6
Subs:
Duda – 7
Saganowski – 6
Vrdoljak – 6
St Patrick’s Athletic
Clarke – 6
O’Brien – 6
Browne – 6
Oman – 6
Bermingham – 7
Brennan – 7
Bolger – 6
Fahey – 8 (MoTM)
Forrester – 6
Fagan – 7
Byrne – 6
Subs:
Chambers – 6
Quigley – 6
Lynch – N/A
Under The Floodlights 