EUROPEAN PREVIEW - Ekstraliga

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

The format for the play-offs remains unchanged with the top six teams having qualified, which means the semis will be contested by the three aggregate winners, along with one ‘lucky loser’ who achieves the highest score in defeat in their quarter-final.

Zielona Gora have the toughest test but their main aim for the season has already been achieved as they retained their status in the league in their first year back.

They take on league leaders, defending champions and overwhelming favourites Lublin, although some encouragement for the home side is that their opponents have not been quite as dominant in recent weeks.
Lublin did secure a 47-43 win at Zielona Gora in regular league competition recently, and they will be strongly fancied to go through.

Also on Friday, Dan Bewley will be in action for Wroclaw who take on Grudziadz, the visitors having exceeded expectations by finishing top of the regular table.

The last clash between the sides at Wroclaw saw the home side 53-37, and they will continue to race without the injured Tai Woffinden – with Brady Kurtz now strongly linked with an Ekstraliga berth in their colours next season.

Perhaps the closest quarter-final on paper features Torun and Gorzow, who meet on Sunday with Robert Lambert naturally a key figure for the home side.

They will be desperate to avoid a repeat of a 40-50 defeat at home to the same opponents earlier in the season, and much could depend on the fitness of Emil Sayfutdinov who they have not officially ruled out of the meeting following his return to Poland after his big crash at Sheffield earlier this month.

The second legs of the Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga quarter-finals are all scheduled for this weekend, starting with Krosno’s trip to Rybnik.
The visitors edged to a narrow 46-44 win in the first leg but have now lost both Vaclav Milik and Jonas Seifert-Salk to injury, and as such are now outsiders for the tie.

League leaders Ostrow are expected to comfortably make it through against Lodz, after winning their away leg 48-42, which leaves the most intriguing tie of the round to take place at Bydgoszcz.
The home side finished second in the regular table but they suffered a 52-37 defeat in the first leg at Poznan, which gives them a major challenge to overturn the deficit.

When they met in mid-July it was 55-35 to Bydgoszcz so this tie really could be too close to call.

One of the National Speedway League finalists will be known this weekend, and the expectations are that it will be Tarnow, who lead Pila 52-38 going into the second leg of their semi-final, with the visitors further hampered by the continued injury absence of Adam Ellis.

Elsewhere this weekend, Round 3 of the Speedway Euro Championship takes place in Gustrow with a tight battle for the title developing.

Andzejs Lebedevs and Kacper Woryna are joint leaders of the series, just one point clear of Piotr Pawlicki, with the top six riders covered by just five points

Janusz Kolodziej has won at the German venue in the last two seasons, whilst Kevin Wolbert takes the Wild Card berth. The final round is at Chorzow next month.