Ekstraliga - Round 17 - First Final and 3rd/4th Playoff go to plan

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Ekstraliga - Round 17 - First Final and 3rd/4th Playoff go to plan

#WROLES

On Friday nearly 14,000 people saw BETARD SPARTA Wroclaw's last home match of the season and they took on visiting FOGO UNIA Leszno in the first final of the 2019 season.

Leszno walked this game when the two teams last met in Wroclaw in Round 14 three weeks ago but the home team were not ready to let the visitors have it so easy this time. Instead Wroclaw had worked up a narrow four point lead with 5:1 and 4:2 heat wins in Heats 4 and 5 as the pairings of Maksym Drabik/ Maciej Janowski and Max Fricke/ Gleb Chugunov delighted the home fans in the early stages.

But Leszno are a team that has only lost one game all season and were keen not to let Wroclaw think they were there for the taking. They took three heat victories in a row in Heats 7-9 to take back the lead as Piotr Pawlicki, Emil Sayfutdinov and Janusz Kolodziej won for the visitors. Uncharacteristically, British triple world champion, Tai Woffinden, was on the receiving end with two last places in a in a row in Heats 7 and 9 as the visitors took a grip on the match, 25-29.

And those four points would be the difference between the two teams as the match finished 43-47 in favour of last year's champions, Leszno.

Kolodziej would finish with a perfect 15 for the visitors and Sayfutdinov with 13+1. For Wroclaw it was Drabik who would lead the team with an impressive 13, whilst Woffinden was out of sorts complaining about electrical problems with the bike and scored just 5+2.

Few expect Leszno to lose this match when they meet again for the final match of the season next week.

#CZEZIE

When these two teams met in the league in back to back meetings in June they won a home match each. But it was forBET WLOKNIARZ Czestochowa who won the bonus point by just two single points (92-88) because of a solid display at home when they collected 51 points.

So it was perhaps no surprise that on Sunday evening when they met in the 3rd/4th playoff match in Czestochowa that the home team were looking to dominate proceedings from the get go.

After Heat 5 visiting STELMET FALUBAZ Zielona Gora where already behind by 10 points as the home duo of Adrian Miedzinski and Fredrik Lindgren (pictured) won a 5:1 and 4:2 together in Heats 3 and 5 against no less opposition than SGP riders Martin Vaculik (9+1) and Michael Jepsen Jensen (7+1).

The Polish/Swedish pairing would strike again with another 5:1 victory in Heat 10 this time is was Zielona's Patryk Dudek (11) that would be found wanting by the unstoppable duo.

Leon Madsen did not put a foot wrong either for the hosts and scored a 15 maximum before the match was over. That would include 5:1 wins in Heats 13 and 15 with none other than Lindgren as his partner in crime. The Swede finished with a paid maximum of 12+3 on the night. Miedzinski and Matej Zagar would also score double figures on the perfect evening for Czestochowa who take an enormous 57:33 lead into next week's match in Zielona.

If Lindgren and Miedzinski can ride that well together for Eskilstuna Smederna when they meet Dackarna in the Swedish Elitserien final next week, it could be a third championship in a row for them too. Back in Poland, Zielona must come up with something special if they do not want to finish fourth this year.