Lech Poznan and Sunderland have been polar opposites this season.

The Polish side have lost both Europa League matches this campaign, and neither were close.

Round one finished 4-0 against Crystal Palace, and round two finished 4-0 against Bayer Leverkusen.

Domestically, Lech have performed better, and they come into this clash following a 6-1 win at the weekend.

Prior to that, they beat Slask Wroclaw 4-1, and Radomiak Radom 5-1.

Goals have been one to target when Lech are playing.

Sunderland haven’t quite been as expansive, but the Black Cats will be desperate to bounce back from their weekend loss.

Defensively, they have been poor, but they should be able to carve out chances against this leaky Lech backline.

Sunderland were massively hindered by an early red card to Kevin Danso in their last game, so they didn’t offer much going forward.

Excluding that game, however, the Black Cats have been effective at getting to the byline and racking up corners.

Regis Le Bris’ men are averaging 5.8 corners per game across all competitions this season, rising to 10.5 when playing in Europe.

They recorded 12 corners against AZ Alkmaar in round one, and nine against Torreense last week.

Meanwhile, Lech conceded six corners against Crystal Palace in their first Europa League match of the season, and this promises to be quite a similar matchup.

Noah Sadiki scored Sunderland’s winning goal against Torreense, firing home in stoppage time after combining with Enzo Le Fee and Granit Xhaka.

After having two off target shots beforehand, the midfielder made the all-important contribution late on.

Sadiki is only averaging 1.17 shots per 90 across all competitions this season, but this is a game which Sunderland should dominate.

That means Sadiki will again be allowed to venture forward more often, and pick up promising positions in the final third.

Based on his performance last week, there is no reason for the midfielder to hesitate when the space opens up, and the Black Cats should be able to carve out plenty of chances in Poland.

Sadiki has also been adept at drawing contact in midfield this season, and his average of 1.63 fouls drawn per 90 is amongst the highest in the Sunderland squad.

Enzo Le Fee ranks higher with 2.33 fouls drawn per 90, with Granit Xhaka is at 1.56 - those three are likely to make up Sunderland’s midfield on Thursday night, and they will occupy a similar zone of the field as Radoslaw Murawski. 

The Lech midfielder is averaging 2.29 fouls per 90 across all competitions this season, and he has landed this selection in eight of his last 10 starts.

He was shown two yellow cards against Crystal Palace in round one of the Europa League, causing him to miss out against Bayer Leverkusen last time out, but Murawski should return here.

That 4-0 scoreline against Crystal Palace doesn’t do Lech much justice - it was far from a one-sided affair.

The Polish side managed 17 shots and four big chances, more than the Eagles on both metrics, but were wasteful in the final third.

Luis Palma accounted for five of those efforts, of which three hit the target.

The Honduras international also started against Bayer Leverkusen, and he landed this selection with exactly two shots. 

Palma is averaging 2.37 shots per 90 across all competitions this season, and he has been regularly able to clear this line.

In fact, he has recorded multiple shots in five of his last six starts.