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Writer's pictureBruce Davis

Czechia 3-1 Poland: Work to do, but not as terrible as you’d be led to believe


Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter


Poland started their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign rather dismally as they fell to a 3-1 defeat away in Prague. A goal inside the first 30 seconds from Ladislav Krejci was added to less to than two minutes later by Tomas Cvancara, with Jan Kuckta adding a third in the 64th minute. Damian Szymański grabbed a consolation for the visitors in the last five minutes of normal time.


Rather than a classic match report, I thought I’d try to dispel some of the negativity spurred on by this result, given that the hyperbole has been nothing short of stunning. Some Polish commentators described it as “the worst match Poland have played in the 21st century”, which is patently nonsense.


This is not to say Poland were great; defensively a shambles at times, Jakub Kiwior looked like a player who had not had regular time on the pitch for two months, and he was arguably the most at fault for the second and third goals. Plenty of blame was heaped on Robert Lewandowski as usual, presumably for not scoring a hat-trick or magically winning Poland the game on his own, something Barcelona fans seem to be ragging on him for recently as well. In truth there were occasions when his touch let him down, but that was true of all of the team. Matty Cash picked up an injury and we’re yet to find out the extent of it, but even if he had remained on the pitch beyond the first ten minutes it’s hard to say how Poland would’ve responded to those two early goals.


It was always going to be a struggle having conceded so early, but Poland’s performance was very disjointed, albeit with some rays of light coming through the incredibly dark clouds pundits were forecasting. Piotr Zieliński was his usual, classy self on the ball and Michał Skóraś is starting to look more and more accomplished at higher levels of the game.


To me, it looked very much like a group of players adapting into a new way of playing, which of course it was. Fernando Santos should not go blameless here, I think his initial line-up left the full-backs very exposed, not to mention the usual problem of an isolated Lewandowski. It was very reminiscent of some of the bad games under Paulo Sousa, nice football but with a more clinical opponent punishing Poland.


Poland had the same number of shots on target as Czechia, and 59% of possession against the home team’s 41%, so it was far from the absolute disaster that everyone is claiming it to be. On another night it could easily have been a 1-1 or similar, but such is football.


What is there to work on before Albania on Monday? Defensively things can certainly be tightened up, and a little more care taken with the ball would be things to work on in terms of the players’ side of things, although as I said this is a way of playing they are not yet 100% comfortable with so it is understandable (if very frustrating). As for Santos, protecting his full-backs and getting Lewandowski a little more support would be the quick fixes.


Like I said, it was disappointing to see such a result given the high hopes we all had, including myself, but the truth is that Poland have probably just played their hardest game of the qualifiers and come out of it slightly embarrassed. However, Poland are still in a group they should be getting to the tournament from and I imagine that the reverse fixture in November will be a very different story, once they have learned to play with the ball as a team rather than individually.


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