Lech ran out clear winners against the much-fancied “Yellow Submarine” squad thanks to an impressive counter-attacking display in front of more than 30,000 fans at the City Stadium in Poznań, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
After withstanding early pressure from last season's Champions League semi-finalists Villarreal, the Polish champions took the lead in the 27th minute through Kristoffer Velde.
The Norwegian winger scored from close range after Filip Marchwiński’s header from Mikael Ishak’s cross was cleared off the line.
Shortly after the break, Lech produced another deadly counter-attack, with Velde setting up fellow winger Michał Skóraś to make it 2-0 on 51 minutes.
Skóraś, who made his Poland debut in September, then scored his second and Lech’s third with another close-range finish on 77 minutes, following another defence-splitting pass from Swedish forward Ishak.
Skóraś has been named in Poland’s extended 47-man squad for the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, the meczyki.pl website noted.
Lech advance to Europa Conference League knockout stages
Thanks to Thursday’s result, Lech finished second in Europa Conference League Group C, behind Villarreal, booking their spot in the knockout stages of the competition next spring.
They will now play in the so-called knockout round play-off against one of eight teams transferring from the UEFA Europa League having finished third in their groups.
The draw for the Europa Conference League knockout round play-offs will be made on Monday, November 7, with Lech’s potential opponents including Lazio of Italy, Portugal’s Braga and Trabzonspor of Turkey.
The winners of the play-offs will progress to the last 16 of the competition.
Meanwhile, Lech has earned EUR 500,000 from the European football governing body UEFA for beating Villarreal and a further EUR 325,000 for snatching second place in their Europa Conference League group, the PAP news agency reported.
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Source: PAP, uefa.com, meczyki.pl