Widzew and Wisła Share Points in Ekstraklasa Thriller
Widzew Łódź and Wisła Kraków played out a 2:2 draw in the Ekstraklasa regular season, round nine, at the Widzew stadium on Friday evening. The hosts took an early lead through an own goal before Lucas Piazón equalised for the visitors. Mario García Alvear restored Widzew's advantage, but Antonio Milic headed home a late equaliser and Wisła finished the match with ten men after Željko Kopić received a red card in stoppage time.And here's the thing about the opening exchanges — Widzew caught Wisła napping. Antonio Milic turned against his own side in the nineteenth minute, sending the ball into his net from a situation that looked like a simple defensive mix-up. The home crowd roared, and for a while it seemed Widzew would cruise. But to be fair, Wisła responded with purpose. Piazón, wearing number twelve for the visitors, finished calmly in the thirty-seventh minute after a move that cut through the middle. He picked his spot and didn't hesitate.
By then the tempo had shifted. Piazón collected a yellow card in the forty-seventh minute, a booking that suggested how aggressively he was involved. Djermanovic for Wisła went off the same way in the fifty-fourth. Widzew brought on Karol Świderski and Fran Alvarez in the sixty-third, looking for fresh legs in attack. Wisła matched them with José Antonio de la Rosa Garrido and Kamil Pestka. The substitutions were tactical, not desperate — both managers knew what they wanted.
Mario García Alvear, Widzew's number forty, didn't wait long to make his mark. Sixty-five minutes in and he found the net, powering a shot past the goalkeeper to put the home side ahead for the first time in the match. For a while it looked like Widzew might string together a victory after those shaky early moments. Then Milic struck again, eighty minutes on. A header, well-timed, unmarked. The stadium fell quiet for a second before the visitors' supporters found their voices. He had rescued a point for his team with one moment of precision.
The statistics tell a story of dominance without control. Widzew registered eighty-three attacks to Wisła's sixty-three, with eight corners against three. They completed 396 passes to the visitors' 407, possession split evenly at fifty percent each. But shots tell a different tale — Widzew fired fourteen attempts, five on target, while Wisła managed ten shots with five hitting the target. Three big chances created for the visitors against one for the hosts. Many shots with two goals means chances went begging on both sides.
Widzew Łódź sit eleventh with eight points from eight matches, one win, five draws, two defeats. Wisła Kraków occupy seventeenth place with four points from seven games, one victory, one draw, five losses. The result ended Widzew's run of draws — they had drawn their last three league fixtures against Legia, Radomiak and Korona. Wisła's poor form continues, having lost five of their seven league games this season. The table gap between them remains eight points, and that difference feels heavier than the result suggests.
