Jagiellonia had triumphed in six of their previous nine matches at home by two-goal margins, and it nearly took the hosts only four minutes to continue that streak as Pululu forced a fine save from Johannes Kreidl.
It was then Taras Romanczuk’s turn to try and break the deadlock shortly after the quarter-hour mark, but like Pululu, his rebounded effort missed the target. Adrian Siemieniec’s side’s one-way traffic towards Kreidl’s goal only continued as the first half progressed.
Firstly, Dimitris Rallis’ effort from range was well-gathered by the Kuopio’s keeper before Norbert Wojtuszek’s mesmerising solo run looked like it would result in a contender for one of the goals of this matchday. To the Polish full-back’s frustration, however, Kreidl expertly kept the game goalless heading into HT.
Jagiellonia’s pressure finally paid off six minutes after the restart, as the cameras continuously kept their eyes on Pululu as his deflected strike found its way through the defence and then a visibly annoyed Kreidl.
It took a bit of a while, close to half an hour, for Jagiellonia to try and put the game to bed, but Bartlomiej Wdowik could fire only straight into the arms of Kreidl.
Nonetheless, no shots on target throughout the 90 minutes from an ineffective KuPS attack allowed Jaga to mark a relatively relaxed routine win next to their name.
Jagiellonia’s impressive UECL continues, with the win leaving the former Polish champions outside of the automatic Round of 16 qualification positions on only goal difference.
Meanwhile, KuPS’s first defeat in this season’s competition (W1, D2) still leaves the Yellow-Black in the play-off positions. However, the reigning and defending domestic title-holders of Finland in their own right will not want to take the risk of losing any of their remaining four league phase matches.
