Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
Poland were humbled in their European qualifier against Moldova last night, with Poland collapsing to a shock 3-2 defeat against the hosts. Goals from Arkadiusz Milik and Robert Lewandowski were cancelled out by a clinical second half brace from Ion Niculaescu and defender Vladislav Baboglo scored a late goal to secure what might well go down as the greatest game in the history of the Moldavian national side.
For Poland, it raises grave questions and leaves qualifying for Euro 2024 firmly in the balance, given that any further slip-ups would make qualification very tough indeed.
However, the game started very well. Poland were dominant and created chances aplenty in the first half, with Milik tucking away from very close range after good work from Tomasz Kędziora and Lewandowski, and great interplay between Milik and Lewandowski led to the latter blasting a low drive from the edge of the box to score Poland’s 1500th goal in the national team’s history.
Indeed, Poland could and should have added to this tally prior to the break. A golden chance for Milik to tap in was wasted, as was a great move involving Milik, Piotr Zieliński and Lewandowski, which saw the Polish captain just fire wide.
Hoping for the second half to be as easy as the first, Poland started calmly, but a loose touch from Zieliński allowed Niculaescu to pick up the ball and run at the Polish defence. The striker scored a long range effort which nestled past Wojciech Szczęsny and reduced the deficit. Moments later the ball was in the back of the Polish net again, but was ruled out for a foul on Damian Szymański.
Poland responded well, still creating chances but not taking them. The most glorious of which came after Lewandowski played through Jakub Kamiński, who cut inside to beat his man and presented an open goal to Sebastian Szymański, who decided to cut back rather than use his weaker right foot, blowing the opportunity.
This would prove to be costly, as with ten minutes of normal time remaining, Kędziora played a loose pass which Niculaescu seized upon to run straight into the Polish box and fire a great strike past Szczęsny. With the heads of the Polish players completely gone, Szczęsny then attempted to claim a cross from a set-piece, which he failed to do and Baboglo headed into a half-empty net.
Szczęsny made comments in the pre-match press conference on Monday about not wanting to play attacking football right now, given when Poland have done so it doesn’t yield positive results, and how sometimes it is better to suffer. I think this is a poor attitude to have given how well Poland are capable of playing, but I worry that this attitude will now become more prevalent after this result.
After the final whistle, there was already a huge amount of understandable overreaction to the result, and whilst it was a horrible second half and almost certainly Poland’s worst result this century, to me it’s not all as bad as it seems.
Optimism is something that generally comes easy to football fans, which is exactly what I’ll be looking to provide here. Whilst a shocking result and a terrible second half, Poland should still qualify for Euro 2024, although it will be under a far more pressurised atmosphere than it should’ve been.
There are a few big issues for Santos to deal with, and some things that can’t be explained. You can’t explain why Moldova were so much more clinical than Poland were, other than perhaps the fact that after such a strong first half performance Poland probably thought the game was won, something which Jan Bednarek alluded to in a post-match interview. That might well explain the switching off, which certainly was an issue with the first two goals for Moldova, and perhaps even the third. All these were a case primarily of individual mistakes, but it is worth remembering Santos has to coach an element of mental strength so the players don’t collapse again in these situations. We saw a similar issue in the first game against Czechia, and it can’t happen again if Poland are to be successful in their qualification efforts.
There is now obviously a lot of journalists clamouring for Glik, Grosicki and Krychowiak to return to the national team, which to me is absolutely unfathomable. Yes, experience may well have helped in this specific situation in this specific match but it’s not like that trio of experienced players would help Poland in the long run, given that Glik has hardly been tremendous in Serie B this season and Krychowiak is disappearing without trace since the World Cup. Grosicki has been solid this season, but would he have done more than a player like Kamiński or Michał Skóraś in a situation like this? I’m not so sure.
Now we get to the other irritant of this match, which is a sense of revisionism over Czesław Michniewicz’s 12 months in charge of Poland. Suggesting that the national team was better under him is forgetting how after the dynamic methods of Paulo Sousa, who was really modernising the Polish national side, Michniewicz saw that Poland went back to the stale, hoofing of the ball that we saw for the majority of his time as coach.
Going back to those comments by Szczęsny, I’m struck by how often Poland has suffered for a result and still not achieved it, particularly in recent memory under Michniewicz. Of course the result is the most important thing but for the most part Santos has coached a responsible defensive unit, and the football has been pleasant.
It struck me how Santos found the result inexplicable in the post-match press conference, and I think perhaps that is more the attitude we should be looking to take. It’s an embarrassing result and a leaves Poland with lots of work to qualify, but it’s no more than that. The goals conceded were reliant on individual mistakes, which isn’t the coach’s fault. It would be prudent if we all took a moment to view this match in a vacuum, as it was evident the players were both physically and mentally exhausted in the second half after the longest football season in living memory. This isn’t looking to excuse the complete collapse, but it does provide some explanation.
Poland should be looking to bounce back in their next qualifier, which will be at home in early September against the Faroe Islands.
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