Coaching duo: #ZSOWIS

After Monday's match in the 31st round of the Fortuna 1 Liga, in which Wisła Kraków competed against Zagłębie Sosnowiec, coaches Albert Rude and Marek Saganowski met with journalists as part of the post-match press conference.

Albert Rudé – Wisla Kraków

At the beginning, the White Star coach summed up the course of the match: "I'll be brief. This time, all that mattered in this match was efficiency and capitalizing on opportunities in the opponent's penalty area. In matches like this, sometimes someone can score a goal like that, a real rocket from distance, but we have to deal with it and maintain our efficiency in the opponent's penalty area."

After a brief analysis, it was time for questions from the press. The first concerned Wisła forward Szymon Sobczak's penalty kick: "Yes, Sobczak was selected first. Why? Because of the numbers. Because he had the highest penalty-kick rate of the entire team. This time he made a mistake."

Wisła still lacks effectiveness. What's the reason? "Like I said, sometimes it can happen that we concede a goal like we did here, but we have to deal with it. On the other hand, we had a lot of different chances. From crosses, from attacking the half-spaces, from shots, corners, free kicks. They defended compactly, staying well with five defenders. Especially when they played with ten, there were even fewer spaces because they dropped back even more." - he added.

"However, we were able to find spaces to reach the penalty area. What can I say after a match like that? It was frustrating that we didn't take advantage of those opportunities. We did everything we could. We started playing with three strikers. We even moved Alan up front. We had a lot of players in the penalty area. The only thing we can do now is accept this result. Try to improve and score more goals." " - he replied.

During the break in the #ZSOWIS match, there was one change for the Krakow team. Igor Sapała came on to replace Marc Carbó. Why was this change made? "There were two reasons for this change. One was the workload. We knew we had to spare him, because 45 minutes was enough for him. The second reason was that we were bringing on Sapala, who we knew could give us great quality in terms of the final pass and long-range shots." - emphasized the Wisła coach.

Dejvi Bregu was missing from the matchday squad. Is his absence due to injury or a loss of position on the pitch due to competition? "There's competition in the team. There wasn't any problem. Some players are playing better than him right now, and we're trying to pick the players who are best for us at the moment." - he said.

In the opening minutes of the match, Rodado put the ball into the net, but the referee ruled it offside. How did the coach assess the situation? "I can't comment on that because I didn't have a chance to see it clearly from my position and I haven't seen the replays yet." - he concluded.

Marek Saganowski - Zagłębie Sosnowiec

"I knew Wisła would push us hard in defense. I knew we would suffer. I just didn't expect it to be so long and so much. Today we were very lucky. The luck we didn't have in previous matches smiled on us today. That good fortune was closer to us. Of course, the second yellow card and, consequently, the red card for "Polar" somewhat spoiled our plan for the second half. I think we could have created a surprise, offered the fans something here. We came out with good counterattacks. We knew Wisła would discover themselves over time. We wanted to rely on quick players, come out on the wide areas. We had a few good counterattacks. We were reaching the area we wanted to reach, but then we lacked a bit of quality, a bit of skill on our players' part. Overall, I can say I'm happy with this result. I wanted to thank the fans right away for cheering us on until the very end. A missed penalty also reflects the entire team's determination not to let themselves score. Today, from what I saw from the statistics, Wisła had 27 shots, ours 7. A big difference in attack. Before this match, we changed our formation to a 3-5-2. We wanted to cover the wide areas. We weren't able to do that, especially in the first half. Then, after making some minor adjustments in the locker room, I thought we'd be able to control the match more and for longer in the second half. As I said, the yellow card was a sign that we'd have to defend strongly in a low-lying position." - he summed up the match.

In the second half of regular time, Polarus received a second yellow card. "I don't know. I didn't see the exact situation. For me, it's a strange situation because the player is moving backwards. He seems to have no control over his movement because he can't see what's behind him. He kicks our player, hits our player, and it's a second yellow card. These decisions are... Today we saw the beginning. I don't know what the referees are looking for, more of an excuse. Because if it's a situation from the first minutes, whether there's a goal or not, I understand... We can watch a replay for a minute, but I don't know if they're looking for something else. Some other situation. It lasted... This is the first time I've seen something like this, lasting five or more minutes. That's also something to think about. These people also have to take responsibility for it. I don't know why or how it works abroad, but I watch matches in foreign leagues almost every day, and VAR reacts faster there. The red card was awarded, but at the end, luck was on our side, because a penalty was missed, and there's no doubt that Wisła today... Above all, the quality of these players up front is beyond this league." And everyone knows that. You don't need to be an expert in football. Just look at these players. How they handle the ball, how they can create an advantage. That's why today I'm very grateful to my players, who really "worked hard," gave their hearts, gave from the heart. Just to leave a point here. As I told the boys before the match, Wisła won the Polish Cup, and congratulations, of course, but this is the league, and the conditions in the league are different." - he said.

The last minutes of the match saw an equalizing goal for Wisła and a penalty kick for the White Star. "With such pressure from the opponent, it's easy to make a mistake. Especially since we were down a single player from the 58th minute. We made a few changes. We waited because the defensive block, especially in the low defense, in those sectors – as I said, it looked much better after the break. But when you lose a player, with the attacking style that Wisła Kraków currently has, it wasn't just us who had problems with it, but in the Polish Cup, top-league teams also had major problems with it." - he assessed the end of the match.