410 kilometres – that is the distance that exactly separates the stadium at 1 Solskiego Street in Mielec from the “Tarczyński Arena” in Wrocław, where WKS Śląsk Wrocław play their matches. However, in the PKO BP Ekstraklasa table, the distance between the teams is negligible, as the team from the capital of Lower Silesia is our direct ‘neighbour’ and is currently ranked 11th. Both Adam Majewski’s team and the team coached by Ivan Djurdjevic have scored the same number of points so far. Both teams currently have 29 points in the ongoing 2022/2023 season.

Śląsk Wrocław started the spring round of PKO BP Ekstraklasa with a prestigious match – a derby of Lower Silesia with the team of Zagłębie Lubin. However, the team from Wrocław would like to forget about this meeting as soon as possible. In the 33rd minute of the meeting, Kacper Chodyra “opened” the result, and the next goal for the club from Lubin was scored by Sasa Ziviec. Śląsk Wrocław had a chance to score a contact goal, but Patrick Olsen failed to take advantage of a penalty kick for playing Mateusz Martolewski’s hand. In added time, Tomasz Pienko set the match’s score and thus the WKS team had to come to terms with losing to their derby rival.

For the next meeting within the 19th PKO BP Ekstraklasa queue, the team from Wrocław travelled to Szczecin, where they faced Jens Gustafsson’s team. Pogoń were the favourites for this meeting, and that is how the encounter played out. the 21 goal situations of the Szczecin team, and 73 per cent ball possession – that shows how much of an advantage the “Portowcy” had in their meeting with Śląsk Wrocław. However, in the most important statistic – goals scored – it was the WKS team that prevailed. Erik Exposito scored for Slask in the 48th minute, and John Yeboah scored from the penalty spot five minutes before the final whistle.

As part of the 20th PKO BP Ekstraklasa round, the Śląsk Wrocław team took on Korona Kielce at their home stadium. Despite more goal-scoring situations by the team from Kielce, it was the WKS fans who could rejoice at the goal scored. Silesia’s midfielder John Yeboah entered the scoring list in the 68th minute of the match, beating Marcel Askowski. Kamil Kuzera- coach of Korona Kielce reacted immediately to the lost goal, making a double change, and two more changes in the 84th minute of the match. When it seemed that the team from Wrocław would be able to add another three points to their tally, the match referee – Paweł Raczkowski dictated a penalty kick for the team from Kielce, which was converted into a goal by Jakub Łukowski. The match ended with the score 1-1.

The next meeting of the team from the capital of Lower Silesia was an away match to Łódź, where WKS’s players had to face Widzew, a team led by Janusz Niedźwiedz, who is well-known from the football fields of Podkarpacie. Despite greater possession of the ball by the Widzew Łódź team, both teams waged an even fight for the final victory. After 90 minutes of regulation time, the score was 0-0, but in the third minute of added time, it was the Lodz fans who could enjoy the goal, with Kristoffer Hansen scoring the winning goal. Thus, Ivan Djurdjevic’s players returned to Wrocław without any points.

In the next match, Śląsk Wrocław took on Lech Poznań at their home stadium. In the 29th minute of the match, after a pass from Patrick Olsen, John Yeboah found himself in a one-on-one situation with the Lech goalkeeper, but was fouled by the captain of the Poznan team, Radoslaw Murawski. The match referee, Bartosz Frankowski, initially gave the Lech player a yellow card, but after a VAR analysis changed his decision and Radosław Murawski was forced to leave the pitch after receiving a red card. From the 33rd minute of the match, Śląsk Wrocław therefore played with a one-player advantage. The Wrocław players resumed the game from a free kick, and it was Erik Exposito who decided to take it and hit directly towards Dominik Holc’s goal. The ball, hit on the ground with his left foot by the Slask player, passed the Lech Poznan wall and found its way into the visitors’ goal. In the 57th minute, Georgiy Tsitaishvili fatally played the ball, after his pass, John Yeboah took over and beat the Lech Poznan goalkeeper. A quarter of an hour later, Victor Garcia fouled Michal Skóraś and the match referee punished him with a second yellow card, forcing the Slask player to leave the pitch. The team from Wrocław could have increased their lead further, but Nahuel Leiva touched the ball with his hand before scoring, so Bartosz Frankowski cancelled out the third goal for WKS. In the 88th minute of the match, a goal for the Lech team was scored by Michal Skóraś, but it was the only goal for the Poznan team in this match and it was the players of Slask who could enjoy the win.

Śląsk Wrocław’s next opponent was KKS Kalisz, who they faced in the quarter-finals of the Polish Cup. Śląsk were the clear favourites for this encounter, but it was the eWinner 2 league team from Kalisz that held onto the ball more often from the start and created goal-scoring opportunities. The first goal of the game came as early as the 20th minute, scored by 19-year-old Kasjan Lipkowski. Slask’s players had not yet recovered from the lost goal, and the score was already 2-0. In the 21st minute of the match, Michał Borecki scored after a pass from Piotr Giel. Erik Exposito had a chance to score in the 41st minute, but his free kick hit the crossbar of Maciej Krakowiak’s goal. in the 44th minute of the match, Adrian Luszkiewicz had a fantastic run into the penalty area and passed the ball to Mateusz Gawlik, who scored another goal for KKS Kalisz. The second half of the meeting did not bring any change in the result, despite the fact that from the 68th minute of the meeting Śląsk Wrocław played with the advantage of one player after Mateusz Gawlik received a yellow card. Thus, it was the team from Kalisz that could celebrate their promotion to the semi-finals of the Polish Cup.

on 5 March, the team from Wrocław played an away match against Cracovia. In the 9th minute of the match, John Yeboah entered coach Jacek Zieliński’s team’s penalty area with the ball, and the fatally intervening Ghita Virgil passed the ball directly to Łukasz Bejger. The Slask player beat Cracovia’s goalkeeper with a confident shot and it was the Wrocław players who could enjoy taking the lead in the match of the 23rd PKO BP Ekstraklasa queue. In the 35th minute of the match, the WKS players came out with a counter-attack, but Erik Exposito did not decide to pass to one of his three colleagues, but struck the ball himself at Cracovia’s goal. This shot, however, was off target and, despite a convenient situation, the Wrocław players failed to score the second goal of the game. The equalising goal for the Cracovia team was scored by Mateusz Bochnak after a pass from Otar Kakabadze. David Jablonsky could have given the team from Cracovia an increase in the score, but the ball after his head strike hit only the post. Both teams created several more opportunities to score the winning goal, but ultimately the meeting ended in a 1-1 draw.

In the 24th round of PKO BP Ekstraklasa, the team of Śląsk Wrocław faced the current Ekstraklasa leader Rakow Częstochowa. From the first minutes, it was the team from Częstochowa who created goal situations. In the 36th minute of the match a very good pass from Bartosz Nowak was used by Vladyslav Kochergin and the hosts could enjoy taking the lead in this meeting. Four minutes into the second half, Ivi Lopez also enjoyed the goal, although initially line judge Tomasz Listkiewicz indicated that the Rakov player was in a burned position. VAR analysis showed, however, that the goal was scored correctly and the score was 2:0. Already 6 minutes later, Marek Papszun’s team had another goal on their account, as Jean Carlos’ pass was turned into a goal by Bartosz Nowak. In the 62nd minute of the match, another goal for the team from Częstochowa was scored by Ivi Lopez, thus notching his seventh hit in the current PKO BP Ekstraklasa season. The only goal for Śląsk Wrocław in this game was scored by John Yeboah, and the match ended with a score of 4:1.

The Śląsk Wrocław team are currently unable to stabilise their form, and after matches in which they bring joy to their fans, there come encounters where it is the opponents who create more situations and beat the team from Wrocław. By far the most outstanding player of Śląsk is John Yeboah and it is him that the players of PGE FKS Stali Mielec must pay special attention to.