Mariusz Jop after #CHRWIS: Credit to the team - another clean sheet!

It’s another victory for Mariusz Jop’s team! The league leaders strengthened their position at the top of the table after a win in Głogów, with Ángel Rodado’s goal deciding the outcome.

“The usual congratulations to the team for winning on very difficult ground. I think that today, apart from showing our quality, we also demonstrated strong organization, determination, and ambition, qualities that are very important. We know that the foundation of our game is our defensive play, and we’re doing it well. Today we were very effective defending set pieces - and there were quite a few of them. The opponent took control in the second half, and of course, we lacked a bit more composure on the ball and failed to make the most of the transition moments that could have sealed the match earlier. Credit to the team, another match without conceding. Huge congratulations and thank you,” said coach Jop after the match in Głogów.

Wisła didn’t score a second goal in the second half, which brought some tension. “Of course, some of the set-piece situations could have been avoided. As I said,  when the opponent pushes forward with a lot of players and plays in our half, we have to take advantage of transition moments, and we had those. Duarte had a great chance - that has to be finished. It’s a pity, because that would have boosted his confidence. That’s what I missed, sometimes we’ll deliberately sit a bit deeper to exploit the space behind the defense. Playing positional football isn’t easy, and that’s what we tried to do here. It didn’t work in the second half, but we still held on for a very important win on tough ground. Let’s remember that Chrobry were on a four-match winning streak, that’s no coincidence. They’re in good form, both as a team and individually, physically and tactically. You can see their progress, and it will be difficult for anyone to take points here,” explained the Wisła boss.

Chrobry didn’t create any clear-cut chances. “Apart from set pieces and shots from distance, I can’t recall a single situation that truly threatened us. Everything was more or less under control. Of course, every set piece is dangerous, but today we defended them very well. I told the team after the match that consistent results come from solid defending - that’s the foundation of our play. We have attacking quality, but we also function well as a unit defensively. Both Rodado and Julius, and the players higher up the pitch, work extremely hard for the team, and that helps the defenders and the goalkeeper. We’re a collective, and that’s crucial,” said Jop.

When asked about his substitutions, the coach pointed to game context. “Of course, the timing of the match is a very important factor when making changes. When a match is tight and there are many individual duels, we want to avoid situations where a tired player has to commit a foul to recover. That was the main reason for the changes. Also, bringing on ‘Krzyżu’ gave us additional height for defending set pieces. If we hadn’t made that change, Strózik would probably have been marked by James or Duarte, that would’ve been a big aerial disadvantage. With Krzyżu, we could handle that threat better,” concluded coach Mariusz Jop.