Lech Poznan's Europa League Journey Complicated by Fog
Lech Poznan’s Europa League second leg away to KÍ Klaksvík is hanging in the balance – and not because of anything that happened on the pitch.
Poland’s champions, 1-0 up from the first leg thanks to a late strike from Yannick Agnero in Poznan, are locked in a battle with the weather just to make it to the Faroe Islands in time for Thursday’s 6.30pm local kick-off.
Two days, no landing
For two straight days Lech have tried to reach Vágar, the Faroe Islands’ only airport. Both attempts have run into the same immovable opponent: thick, stubborn fog that has made a safe landing impossible.
On Wednesday the squad spent hours in limbo, waiting for clearance that never truly came. Tension rose. Head coach Niels Frederiksen, increasingly exasperated, was caught addressing his players with a blunt assessment: they could not “just postpone, postpone, and postpone” their departure forever. At some point, a decision had to be made.
He tried to keep a sliver of normality in the chaos. “If we fly tomorrow morning and play tomorrow then we will have to leave quite early, so we still have the possibility to rest,” he told the squad, clinging to a semblance of a matchday plan.
Cleared for takeoff… then diverted
Thursday morning brought fresh hope. Lech’s players boarded again, the club’s social media channels celebrating that the team had been “cleared for takeoff”. For a moment, it looked as if the worst of the drama was over.
It wasn’t. After getting airborne, the plane was forced into a holding pattern off the west coast of Norway, circling for around 40 minutes as the fog over the Faroes refused to lift. The flight then diverted to Bergen, turning what should have been a straightforward journey into a drawn-out saga.
As the drama unfolded in the skies, thousands of Lech supporters followed every twist. For a time, their charter became the most-watched flight on Flightradar, fans glued to their screens as their team traced loops over the North Atlantic.
Uefa talks and local warnings
With the clock ticking towards kick-off, Lech opened talks with Uefa over whether the fixture could realistically go ahead as planned or needed to be pushed back to allow more time for the team to reach the islands.
None of this comes as a surprise to the locals. KÍ Klaksvík routinely advise visiting clubs to arrive two days before a game, precisely to guard against this kind of disruption. They also recommend flying with Atlantic Airways, the Faroese national carrier, whose pilots are well-versed in handling the islands’ treacherous conditions.
That experience showed on Thursday morning. Three Atlantic Airways planes managed to land at Vágar before the weather deteriorated again and closed the window.
Lech had opted for a private charter with Comlux instead. On paper, it offered control and comfort. In Faroese weather, it has delivered uncertainty.
A familiar Faroese storyline
The Faroe Islands’ climate has long been a wild card in European competition. Visiting sides know the risk, yet every summer someone gets caught.
This year alone, two opponents of NSÍ Runavík in the Conference League suffered significant travel delays, forced into late arrivals on matchday. The pattern is clear enough that clubs now build their plans around the forecast – or ignore it at their peril.
FC Lugano chose the safer route. They arrived on Tuesday ahead of their tie against NSÍ Runavík, scheduled for this afternoon, avoiding the worst of the disruption that has trapped Lech on the wrong side of the sea.
Now the Polish champions wait: for a break in the fog, for a ruling from Uefa, and for clarity on whether their Europa League campaign continues on the pitch – or gets defined by the weather.
