Coaching duo: #POLWIS

Tuesday evening at Konwiktorska 6 saw the winner of the Polish Cup Round of 16 decide. Polonia Warszawa advanced to the next round, defeating Wisła Kraków 3-2.

Mariusz Jop - Wisla Kraków

"The first half was good for us. We created a lot of chances, capitalized on two, and the players who started showed they could be counted on. This is valuable information for me as a coach. However, some of them believed the match was already won too quickly, and we conceded those two goals too easily. The first half was a bit of a fluke, as the ball, deflected by Anton, our goalkeeper, went straight to Durmus, who scored with one touch. However, the second half was the result of our mistakes, simple errors. Later, we had our chances – in extra time, in regulation time. A penalty, a header from Kiss. ​​We had our moments. Of course, our opponents had their chances too, but it was the kind of match where the scales could have tipped either way. This time, unfortunately, we're leaving as losers. We have to accept that and prepare for Friday's match," began coach Mariusz Jop. "There was too much nervousness. My philosophy is that even if there's only one or two minutes left to play, I'd rather prepare one move than just kick the ball forward, because we see that it has absolutely no effect. It has the opposite effect. We definitely played too nervously in extra time when we were losing. We have to keep learning this to keep our composure, and even when we're losing, and maybe even when we're losing, we have to be patient in our play, and not look for solutions that aren't practiced, that we don't want in the match. This is another lesson for us," he added.

The next match against Polonia Warsaw is on Friday. This time, the two teams will face off in the Betclic 1 League. "We'll be working in groups. Those players who played the entire match on Tuesday will definitely need two days of recovery. But there are also a few who didn't play at all, so on Wednesday they'll be with the group that played less, having a training unit in preparation for Friday's match. We'll be working in groups until Friday," he said.

Mariusz Pawlak - Polonia Warsaw

"I think this is a celebration for everyone. First of all, I want to congratulate my players, staff, and also the fans, because I think we were let down by the unfavorable result in the first half. The result was unfavorable, although we created four good chances in the first half, but our execution wasn't good. I saw in the locker room that no one was down, that we could create chances, that Wisła is also a team that makes mistakes. That's why I'm very happy that we came out very strong against our opponent and tried not only to score one or two goals, but even when we were leading 3-2, we could have scored more and finished it calmly. The most important result, however, is that we're still playing in the Polish Cup in the spring, and that's nice, it's a fantastic journey for my team, and it's great that we won't just be preparing for the league, but also for the Polish Cup. Congratulations again to all of us," he said.