Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
With the last international break of 2023 in the books, Poland find themselves in a spot that at the start of the year seemed unlikely. They’ve been through three Selekcjoner’s in the last 12 months, and have failed to directly qualify for Euro 2024 in Germany next summer, saved by their Nations League performances with a chance of qualifying through the play-offs.
This last international break was a mixed bag; failing to directly qualify thanks to the 1-1 draw at home to Czechia, and then a morale-boosting victory in a friendly against Latvia. Some performances were good, some less good, and plenty of discussion around the personnel and tactics Michał Probierz elected to use.
I already wrote about the disappointment of the game with Czechia in the last article, so I’ll try and take a view of the international break more broadly.
There’s little debate about who the best player for Poland has been in the two games. Nicola Zalewski has been facing tough times in his career recently, first seeing his playing time at Roma and with the national team diminish, as well as being falsely implicated in a betting scandal. It was great to see Zalewski really impact the two games in such a positive way, considering he is still one of the youngest players in the side, and had question marks over his national team future as recently as the last set of internationals.
It would be churlish to single anyone out as being bad, although fingers are being pointed at Robert Lewandowski, but I still think this is by sheer dint of the fact we expect so much more from him.
When it comes to Michał Probierz, we’ve had four games to assess him now and I think it’s fair to say it’s been more entertaining, more promising and marginally better results-wise than Fernando Santos’ first four. However, there are still problems. The inability to deal with set-pieces is something that stretches back to the start of the calendar year and Probierz has not yet managed to successfully address this problem. Also, quite correctly, there has been some consternation over his decision not to start Sebastian Szymański in the game against Czechia.
All this considered, I actually think Probierz is probably the most progressive Selekcjoner Poland have had since Paulo Sousa. The similarities are striking: playing good football, bringing through a whole raft of new young players, not always getting the result, but dominating games against so-called weaker opposition.
Yesterday it became formal that Poland are facing Estonia in Warszawa for the play-off semi-final, and should they progress they will travel to face either Wales or Finland in the play-off final. Poland are certainly favourites for their match against Estonia, but were they to face Wales they would have to be considered slight underdogs given the great form and home advantage that the Welsh enjoy. That being said, Poland beat Wales twice both home and away last year in the Nations League, so there are still plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
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