Poland 1-1 Moldova: more disappointment for Poland as automatic qualification out of their hands

Poland were held to a 1-1 draw against Moldova in Warszawa last night, with Ion Nicolaescu’s opener cancelled out by a second-half strike from Karol Świderski. Poland had more chances to score but each one was defended well or horribly missed, and now automatic qualification for Euro 2024 is out of their hands.

The home side were palpably nervous from the off, and despite being the more experienced and supposedly higher quality players, both Tomasz Kędziora and Jakub Kiwior made mistakes which allowed Moldova’s belief to flourish.

Set-pieces have been a big problem for Poland in these qualifiers, and yet again they conceded from one as Nicolaescu swept in to score the opening goal of the evening. Poland took a while to react, and it took right until the end of the half as Paweł Wszołek, Arkadiusz Milik and Świderski all went close, with Milik’s point-blank chances being the most glaring misses.

Milik managed to redeem himself with a wonderful dummy in the lead-up to Świderski’s equaliser, which was a fantastic move and gave Poland yet more belief that they could overcome their own nerves and succeed. Unfortunately, despite more great chances for Jakub Kamiński and Adam Buksa, Moldova held on to draw.

For the most part you would have to argue that Probierz is without huge amounts of blame, given all but one of his substitutions worked out quite well in terms of positive impact. I don’t really get why Kamiński was introduced instead of Matty Cash, given he is far more of a player in form.

Of course, the main theme of these qualifiers for Poland has been sheer disappointment, and last night was no different. With automatic qualification now out of Poland’s control, they are relying on results elsewhere in the group to go their way and to beat Czechia at home next month. The play-off path at the moment looks incredibly tough for Poland, so they will be hoping that a minor miracle can be achieved in the next international break.

For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.