“Playing the group stage of the Europa League would be great. I hope to do it with Lech Poznan.” They are words of Dani Ramirez last February, when the railway club paid 500,000 euros to LKS Lodz for his transfer. The Spanish midfielder trained in the Real Madrid quarry has only taken eight months to reach one of the goals that led him to Poznan. And, after overcoming four previous rounds, Lech Poznan reached a group stage of the Europa League in which they will face Benfica, Rangers and Standard de Liege. “I'm on a cloud. I was watching the draw and couldn't believe my team was there. Four years ago I was about to leave football and now I am going to play the second most important club competition in Europe. It's spectacular, “he confesses euphoric.
“When we started the preliminary phase Pedro Tiba told me: 'Don't get your hopes up because the normal thing is that he ends up throwing us a big team'. But little by little we were believing it. We scored three against Valmiera, we beat Hammarby 0-3 on an artificial turf field, we beat Apollon 0-5 and we took on the current leader of the Belgian league, which is a more prestigious competition than the Polish one “, Ramírez details , who confesses to having suffered against Charleroi: “With one less it was normal. They met the stick twice and our goalkeeper made two impressive saves, but we ended up winning because we were 0-2. I think we are the team that has done the best in the previous one. 15 goals in favor, only one against … We have played very well and nobody can say that we do not deserve to be in the Europa League. “Against Charleroi, it was the Spaniard who opened the can:” It is not the most beautiful goal, but the most important of my career. I am happy. Looking forward to the matches to see the Europa League patch on my shoulder“.
“We are the Cinderella of the group, but maybe we will surprise”
Dani Ramírez, Lech Poznan player
The Dani Ramírez-Lech Poznan partnership worked from the start. Last year he was just three points away from winning the Ekstraklasa (Polish First Division) and the good feelings extended to the previous phase of the Europa League, where the railway club ended four years without Polish representatives in Europe. “Cyprus cannot get more teams in Europe than Poland, which is a giant country and should be obliged to have at least one club in the Champions League and another in the Europa League every year “, Ramírez values. The Spaniard believes that Polish teams go to Europe” believing that they are going to have a bad time against anyone. They go from victims. Like Atleti in the Champions League finals against Madrid: it seems that whatever happens, they are going to lose. “Lech, however, overcame four previous rounds based on” bravado “:” There is plenty of fear and lack of ambition. You have to be humble, but think: 'It's football, why are you going to be better than me?'
Dani Ramírez was clear that going to Lech was going to take a giant step forward in his career. “I got it into my head that I wanted to come here and I didn't want to listen to anyone else,” recalls Lech's '10', who took advantage of the first opportunity he had to play in Europe: “And we're not here on vacation, we want to win games “, warns. “We are the Cinderella of the group, but maybe we will surprise”, insists the Spaniard, who was close to hanging up his boots when he played in Spain and in the coming months will visit Lisbon, Glasgow and Liege to play in the Da Luz, Ibrox and Maurice Dufrasne stadiums. “The Lech Poznan project is ambitious, how could it be otherwise. It has an incredible stadium and a fans of 10, If we go game by game, with confidence and bravado we can make Poland proud of us,” he says.