CZESTOCHOWA, Poland. May 18 (PSN) – Rakow Czestochowa and LKS Lodz have been promoted to play in the LOTTO Ekstraklasa for the 2019-2020 season.
While the two will move on, their final round in the Fortuna 1 Liga didn’t go quite as planned.
Rakow Czestochowa, who finished first in the league standings with 70 points in 34 games, ended up falling 1:2 at home to Wigry Suwalki. What was supposed to be an easy match for Rakow and one last ‘hurrah’ before their official promotion, resulted in a bitter sweet defeat in front of a packed stadium. Wigry started the scoring first with a goal in the first ten minutes of the game, and then ended it with a last minute strike in injury time.
Despite the loss, Rakow fans still had plenty to celebrate as their team dominated the 1 Liga and even had a decent run in the Puchar Polski this season, having made it to the tournament semi-finals only to lose 0:1 to Lechia Gdansk. Their presence in the LOTTO Ekstraklasa next season will be an intriguing one, but the club will first be forced to make the necessary renovations to its stadium in order to meet league requirements. This includes installing flood lights for night matches. If Rakow fail to meet these requirements, they may be forced to play out from another stadium like Sandecja Nowy Sacz did in a previous season.
LKS Lodz will also join Rakow in the LOTTO Ekstraklasa next season, having finished second place with 69 points in 34 games. They too also didn’t have the most ideal final game of the season, having instead drawn Odra Opole 3:3 in an away trip.
The Lodz club for most of the season had contended with the likes of Stal Mielec for second place in the standings, having only breaking away from the race with them in the last few rounds.
Miedz Legnica and Zaglebie Sosnoiwec will take Rakow and LKS’ places in the 1 Liga next season, after the two were relegated from the LOTTO Ekstraklasa. Meanwhile, Garbarnia Krakow, GKS Katowice and Bytovia Bytow have been relegated from the 1 Liga.
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