Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
A largely dominant Poland side ran out comfortable 3-1 winners against Ukraine in the first of their two pre-Euro 2024 friendlies at Stadion Narodowy. Goals from Sebastian Walukiewicz, Piotr Zieliński and Taras Romanczuk saw Poland ease into a first half lead that they never looked like giving away, despite Artem Dovbyk managing to pull one back a few minutes before half time.
Some personal background to the match, if I may: myself and my girlfriend woke up very early to catch a flight over to Warszawa, as a long weekend which could involve watching both of Poland’s friendly matches sounded like a lot of fun. Writing this as I am having not really slept for many hours, you’d have thought fun would be the last word I’d be using. On the contrary; not only have I had a very enjoyable summer’s day in the Polish capital, but it was topped off with watching some of the best football Poland have played in quite some time.
Usually, the natural reaction to those kind of comments is usually “ah, but it’s only a friendly”, a phrase you never hear if the side has lost. Indeed, that first half hour Poland played reminded me of a well-drilled club side, which is usually a pretty good sign when said about a national team.
Of course, it would be remiss of me not to mention the negatives, mostly in the shape of injuries. Barely 90 seconds into the contest and Arkadiusz Milik looked to have done himself serious damage, and it has now been confirmed he will be missing the tournament and who knows how much longer. Taras Romanczuk, Nicola Zalewski and Jakub Kiwior all also looked to have picked up knocks of some kind, but have been named in the final Euro squad regardless. Michał Skóraś was also below par in the first half, having to adjust to carrying out more defensive work than usual, but improved steadily after the break.
As for the positives, there were 8/10 performances across the board. Piotr Zieliński and Kacper Urbański absolutely ran the show whilst they were on the pitch, an encouraging sign for the upcoming tournament. Sebastian Walukiewicz, a player I didn’t expect to make Michał Probierz’s final squad, performed well if occasionally erratically and even scored a goal. Walukiewicz is included instead of Paweł Bochniewicz as one of the back-up central defenders, and really after tonight there can be no complaints. Milik misses out through injury, and emergency call-up Jakub Kałuziński was also understandably not selected, despite making his senior debut tonight.
Another note on which to start drawing to a close; this was by no means the strongest side Ukraine could have put out, and this will be used by some to denigrate the Polish performance. Here’s the thing though: it was not Poland’s strongest side either, and yet that first half an hour was played in such a manner that you felt the game could really get away from the away side. I could keep on gushing about that first 30 minutes, but I’m very tired.
The three things you really want from pre-tournament friendlies are a good team performance, no injuries and a positive result, in that order. Poland managed to navigate tonight with two of them, let’s see what Monday evening’s friendly against Turkey brings.
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