Poland 2-0 Malta: Three points, but another frustrating watch for fans of the Biało-Czerwoni

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

A brace from Karol Świderski meant that Poland took all three points against Malta on Monday evening in Warszawa. Poland were largely dominant, especially in the second half, but it was still a game which will have left many Polish supporters baffled by what to expect next time they see the national team play.

Coming into the game with high-profile names Robert Lewandowski and Matty Cash starting on the bench, it was a mildly rotated Poland team to get the game underway. The home side enjoyed plenty of dominance, and mostly limited Malta to shots from distance.

Świderski’s first was a well-worked one, with Jan Bednarek winning the ball high up the pitch before some nice interplay between Przemysław Frankowski and Krzysztof Piątek led to the latter laying a ball across the face of goal for a waiting Świderski to tap home.

His second was very similar in many ways, an interception from Sebastian Szymański, a good lay-off from Jakub Moder and Świderski struck a low drive into the corner of the Maltese goal from the edge of the box. 

You would have to say that the second half was encouraging from Poland in the sense that they created so many opportunities to add to their lead, but frustrating because they failed to take them. On another day it could’ve been four, five, or six. Sadly this was not the case and at least for me, leaves me worried for later in the qualifiers. 

Poland will not be able to get away with being profligate in front of goal, or with making the wrong decisions in and around the penalty area, playing against stronger opponents. This is stating a pretty obvious fact I’ll grant you, but I think this tempers any positivity after the improved second half performance. 

I’m also extremely disappointed by the lack of time on the pitch for Kacper Urbański either tonight or on Friday. A minor revelation for Poland last summer, he is now not even given a handful of minutes against weaker opponents because he is out of favour at both loan and parent club. This is a convenient excuse for Michał Probierz, especially when you consider Jakub Kiwior played 180 minutes across the two games and the Selekcjoner was taking some of the credit for Jakub Moder’s current career uptick on the basis he chose Moder whilst he was out of favour at Brighton, helping seal a move for the midfielder to Feyenoord where he has been thriving.

Players with the technical quality, married with self-confidence, of Urbański do not come along very often for Poland. The fact he is now being held back at both club and international level is unbelievably irritating when you think about how important he could be for the future of the national team. 

In any case, the next matches for Poland this summer will likely look different to these last two. The opponents are of a higher quality and hopefully the results (if not necessarily the performances) of this international break will go some way to repairing what was clearly fragile confidence due to the sorry way Poland’s Nations League campaign finished.

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