The Europa Conference League group stage begins in Poland for Aston Villa on Thursday night.
Legia Warszawa lie in wait as Unai Emery’s team kick-off their six Group E fixtures.
Ahead of the game, get to know more about the history, players and head coach of Legia…
History
Legia are the most successful club in Poland, having won 15 league titles, 20 Polish Cups and five Super Cups since their formation in 1916.
Nine of their 15 league titles have been secured since the turn of the century, last winning the competition in 2021.
Head coach Kosta Runjaić delivered his first trophy for the club when they captured the Polish Cup in May, following it up with the Super Cup in July.
On the European stage, Legia have been regulars in various competitions since their first appearance in the European Cup in 1956.
Their best performance remains reaching the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1970, while more recently they got to the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 1996.
Legia came up against Leicester City on their last appearance in Europe in 2021/22 when they were drawn alongside the Foxes in the Europa League group stage.
Players
Matty Cash will be familiar with Bartosz Slisz and Pawel Wszolek, who joined him in Poland’s squad for their latest round of Euro 2024 qualifiers earlier this month.
Both players are mainstays of Legia’s midfield, with Slisz often deployed in a defensive central midfield role while Wszolek, who played for QPR from 2016 to 2019, operates on the right-hand side.
The team are captained by Portuguese international Josué, who counts Porto and Galatasaray among his former clubs. Usually found in an attacking midfield role, Josué is his team’s chief creator, looking to provide chances for top scorer Tomas Pekhart.
Pekhart, who came through the ranks at Tottenham Hotspur, has thrived at Legia, scoring goals regularly before and after a short stint in Turkey with Gaziantep. Overall, Pekhart has 53 goals in 119 games for the club, including eight strikes this term.
Young homegrown goalkeeper Kacper Tobiasz, 20, has plenty of experience in front of him, with 35-year-old Artur Jedrzejczyk, Rafal Augustyniak and Yuri Ribeiro often forming a back three.
Head coach
Kosta Runjaić is the man in charge, having taken over in July 2022 after the club had finished a lowly 10th in the Ekstraklasa. The Austrian managed in Germany for 10 years, most notably with FC Kaiserslautern and 1860 Munich, before moving to Poland with Pogo Szczecin.
His first full season at the club saw Legia finish runners-up in the league and win the Polish Cup. Runjaić utilised a 4-3-3 formation in the first few months of his reign but has since alternated between a 3-4-2-1 or 3-5-2 set-up.
Legia have lined up in a 3-4-2-1 in six Europa Conference League qualifying games this season, seeing off Ordabasy, Austria Vienna and FC Midtjylland.
Stadium
Legia play their games at the Marshall Józef Piłsudski's Municipal Stadium of Legia Warsaw.
The ground, which has a capacity of 30,780, is located a short distance away from the city centre and is situated a stone’s throw from the Vistula river, with home fans often unveiling displays before kick-off.
