Introducing opponents: Cracovia
Saturday, January 21, 2017
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On January 22, Shakhtar will hold their first friendly match as part of the winter training camp in 2017. The Pitmen will play Cracovia, Poland
The club representing the city of Kraków will mark their 111th anniversary this year. Cracovia are five-time Polish champion, with all that success dating back to the second part of the twentieth century.
Afterwards, the team had been absent from the Polish Premier League for a long time, returning to the highest domestic division occasionally. Their comeback after 20-year absence in 2004 was a momentous event for them, as Cracovia turned to be the second team representing the home city in Ekstraklasa, together with the club Wisła in their best days. In the 2015/2016 season, Cracovia claimed the fifth place in the regular part of the Polish Premier League, before rising a spot in the playoffs to finish fourth. Owing to that, the team under 55-year-old Jacek Zieliński qualified for the UEFA Europe League to lose to Shkendija, Macedonia on aggregate.
This season, Cracovia are currently fourteenth in the table. The team’s top scorers are midfielders Miroslaw Čovilo and Marcin Budziński, with 7 and 6 goals under the belt, accordingly. In attack, the head coach of the Striped will also pin his hopes on Mateusz Szczepaniak and the Slovak Erik Jendrišek, with the latter having gained great experience from playing in German Bundesliga.
The Shakhtar vs Cracovia friendly match kicks off at 11:00 (Kyiv time). Follow the online broadcast and news on shakhtar.com. Watch the game live on Futbol 1 TV channel.
Photo courtesy of cracovia.pl