Poland 1-0 Albania: Świderski goal the difference as Santos claims first win

Image via @EURO2024 on Twitter

Karol Świderski scored the only goal of the game as Poland grabbed their first win of the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign and the first victory under new Selekcjoner Fernando Santos.

The Stadion Narodowy was treated to a fairly lifeless spectacle for much of the 90 minutes, with Santos making dour changes from the team that lost 3-1 in Prague on Friday night.

Poland started well, dominating possession for large swathes of the first half, continually ratcheting up the pressure although often being halted by the referee’s whistle. Albania were awarded twice as many fouls as the home team, and this led to much of the match having a very disjointed and broken-up feel.

With five minutes remaining in the first half, the ball was worked well around the edge of the Albanian box, and Jakub Kamiński struck a speculative effort off the far post, which rebounded to Świderski. After a loose swing with his right foot failed to connect, he poked the ball with his left boot underneath Thomas Strakosha for the home side to take the lead.

The second half saw good chances for both teams, with Przemysław Frankowski’s tame effort finding Strakosha and Wojciech Szczęsny forced into two good saves. Robert Lewandowski juggled the ball over several defenders before lobbing Strakosha, just to see the ball cleared off the line, and Jakub Kiwior went close with a header from a corner.

However, the finest chance of the second half fell to Myrto Uzuni, who missed a point blank attempt from six yards out with mere minutes of normal time remaining. It was a glorious chance for the visitors to equalise, and Zuni failed to even direct his shot on target.

A game that will only live long in the memory of a few, there were nonetheless some notable positives. There are clearly the building blocks of a definite play style that moves towards a possession-based approach, and when Poland did have to sit behind the ball for the four added minutes at the end they didn’t look wholly comfortable. In my opinion, this will be a good thing in the long run as the early signs are there that Santos can mould these players into playing with the ball, as opposed to the staid counter-attack model of the last Selekcjoner.

Karol Linetty was impressive in midfield, making up for his poor performance against Czechia just by being sharper in the tackle and more careful with his passing, and Bartosz Salamon displayed that there is still room in the national team for a centre-back who keeps things simple even as Santos moves towards a more ball-playing model.

Lewandowski and Frankowski came in for criticism from some pundits, but in truth they were far from awful and there was no lack of effort, which could not be said for some of the poorer players on Friday.

Santos hasn’t fixed all the problems which arose in the Czech Republic match; he did provide Lewandowski with a better supporting cast in the attacking areas but the full-backs still seemed particularly exposed at times in the match, and both offensively and defensively there were still frequent breakdowns.

This being said, what really mattered was that Poland bounced back with a victory, and although not the most convincing of performances it did show that there is a new style being adopted by the players, and one that gets us off our seats at that.

Poland’s next match in their Euro 2024 qualifying campaign is away to Moldova in June.

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