2024-07-22 15:52:00
The club, founded 104 years ago, has been competing in the top league of its country without interruption since the 2007-2008 season. During that time, “Jaga” was second twice and once enjoyed 3rd place. Last season was fantastic – the team from Białystok sensationally triumphed with 63 points, beating the players of “Śląsk” Wrocław due to a better difference in goals scored and conceded.
The fate of the title was decided in the last round: the future opponents of “Panevėžys” needed a victory at home and they did so by beating “Warta” Poznań. In the previous two seasons, the “Ekstraklasa” team based closest to Lithuania took the 12th and 14th places, respectively.
The young 32-year-old specialist Adrianas Siemienecs, who previously worked with the club’s doubles, led the people from Bialystok to a historic triumph. Specialists from Poland are usually at the helm of the Jagiellonia team, although in 1998, one of the rare foreigners in the technical area was the Lithuanian Algimantas Liubinskas.
“Jaga” and another team based in Palenque Voivodeship – Suwalki “Wigry” – are the Polish clubs with the most connections to Lithuania. About a couple of dozen Lithuanians competed in the Białystok team, among whom Andrius Skerla stood out the most, scoring the winning goal in the cup final, as well as Arvydas Novikovas and Fedor Černychas.
“Jagiellonia” played control matches against Lithuanian teams several times and once met a representative of “TOPsport A league” in international competitions. In 2015, in the selection of the European League, the team from Białystok beat Pakruoj “Kruoja” 1:0 and 8:0, respectively, whose honor was defended by several players who later represented Panevėžius. True, “Kruoja” ended its existence after a little more than a month, in turn, the Polish team has never beaten more than one opponent in international competitions.
Compared to last season, the opponents of “Panevėžys” retained a significant part of the team’s core. Goalkeeper Zlatan Alomerovičius, who moved to Cyprus, said goodbye to the club, Bartlomiejs Wdowik, who played a great season, was bought by Braga club. In the club, it is necessary to single out two players – Taras Romanchuk, who competed in the European Championship in the summer, started the 11th consecutive season and played the most matches in the team, and Jesus Imaz, the most productive player of all time from Białystok, Spain.
Double confrontations – the price is high. The winner of the pair will advance to the third qualifying round of the Champions League and secure participation in at least the Conference League group stage.
The first meeting of the Lithuanian and Polish champions will take place on July 23, Tuesday. The start of the match at the “Aukštaitija” stadium is at 6:30 p.m.
2024-07-22 15:52:00