Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
Poland beat Germany 1-0 last night thanks to a Jakub Kiwior header, in what was an emotional and entertaining friendly organised to bid farewell to Jakub Błaszczykowski.
Błaszczykowski started as captain for the first 16 minutes of the affair, and had one or two moments of quality on the ball. He certainly didn’t look out of place, and it was quite the moment to see him greeted by his family at the entrance to the tunnel when he departed the action.
Michał Skóraś was tasked with replacing the man to whom the match was dedicated, and he put in a very strong performance, matched on the other side of the pitch by Jakub Kamiński. Both young wingers demonstrated their dribbling ability and pace, with Kamiński in particular often getting in behind during the first half.
The goal arrived from a corner in the 30th minute, a great in-swinging corner from Sebastian Szymański found an unmarked Kiwior, who nodded the ball into the turf and the bounce helped elude Ter Stegen, who couldn’t keep it out.
Germany were mostly kept from presenting any real danger to the Polish goal in the first half, save for one or two opportunities which forced Szczęsny into decent saves. Tomasz Kędziora was very impressive slotting into the back line, and both Sebastian and Damian Szymański were industrious in midfield.
When half time came, Lewandowski and Sebastian Szymański were replaced by Arek Milik and Karol Linetty, and Germany ratcheted up the pressure. With a big game against Moldova on Tuesday, Fernando Santos sought to make plenty of changes to preserve player fitness.
As the game wore on, Szczęsny was forced into some truly world-class saves and Skóraś and Kamiński found more and more space to run into, but Poland struggled to have any real chances on goal.
At the end of the day, last night was all about giving a proper send-off to Błaszczykowski, but Poland played very well for the most part and it gives us plenty to be optimistic about ahead of Tuesday’s all important qualifier.
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