Image via @LaczyNasPilka via Twitter
Poland will be taking part in Euro 2024 this summer after Wojciech Szczęsny saved the crucial fifth Welsh penalty in Cardiff. After 120 goalless minutes, the only thing that could separate the two sides was a penalty shootout in which all five Polish takers scored.
Michał Probierz named an unchanged line-up from Thursday’s win against Estonia to start last night’s match, and the first half was a cagey affair with few chances of real quality falling to either side. Wales thought they had taken the lead on the stroke of half time through a Ben Davies header, but he was correctly judged to have been offside.
Wales came out particularly strong to start the second half, and Szczęsny had to be alert to keep out a Kieffer Moore header that was arcing into the top corner. Poland responded with a dominant period of their own but in the end neither team had any clear-cut chances in regular time.
Extra time was much of the same, as in the first half of the additional half hour there was one end-to-end moment which summed up the tie. Szczęsny adeptly palmed away a cutback and the ensuing counter resulted in an effort from range by Jakub Piotrowski which whistled narrowly wide of the post. The second half of extra time was dominated by the away side, who every time seemed to just be lacking that final ball.
So it went to penalties, taken at the end in front of the Welsh supporters. Robert Lewandowski, Sebastian Szymański, Przemysław Frankowski, Nicola Zalewski and Krzysztof Piątek all scored for Poland, and yet again Szczęsny came up with a big save to deny Daniel James.
It was a tense and nervous affair, but one which Michał Probierz more or less got spot on. There is no question that regardless of how Poland will do results-wise in Germany, Probierz has achieved something which was really starting to look doubtful when he took the job on and he has Poland progressing in terms of performance. Even when Poland have to somewhat suffer for a result like tonight, it’s incredibly watchable football even if it was nerve-wracking.
Poland will play the Netherlands, Austria and France at Euro 2024, and whilst it is one of the hardest possible groups, Poland are at least in the tournament.
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