Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
A retaken Robert Lewandowski penalty cancelled out Kylian Mbappe’s earlier spot-kick to ensure that Poland would depart Euro 2024 and Group D without remaining pointless.
On an incredibly sun-soaked afternoon in Dortmund, Michał Probierz’s men fought to maintain the record that Poland had never lost all of their group games at a major tournament. Facing what ahead of the tournament had been deemed their hardest task, they rose to the challenge admirably, with Probierz naming what many would perceive to be his most technically gifted midfield in the starting line-up.
During that first half, it was one of those midfielders making the most exciting things happen for Poland. Kacper Urbański has made an incredibly big impact in a short space of time, and playing today just behind Lewandowski he was constantly looking to take on French players. Łukasz Skorupski, finally getting his chance over the soon-departing (or so we thought) Wojciech Szczęsny was in fine form throughout, afterwards correctly being named as UEFA’s official player of the match.
There was little he could do when Mbappe stepped up to slot a penalty early in the second half however; a dumb decision by Jakub Kiwior led to an equally poor challenge on Ousmane Dembele. This was probably Kiwior’s worst game yet for Poland, although later on he recovered his composure well and finished the game without any more glaring errors. Defensively speaking it was Jan Bednarek who looked by far the most composed, don’t get me wrong there were occasions he was well-beaten like Kiwior and Paweł Dawidowicz beside him, but Bednarek was less rash in diving in than the other two central defenders.
As often happens with France at international tournaments, after taking the lead a level of complacency crept into their performance, and with Probierz turning to his bench and introducing Karol Świderski and Michał Skóraś Poland started to believe a little more in attack. It was Świderski who won the Polish penalty as Dayot Upamecano kicked his heel, initially not given but then awarded after video assistance. Lewandowski’s stop-start technique failed him on the first attempt, but much like against the same opponent 18 months ago at the World Cup, the goalkeeper was off his line and it needed to be retaken. No mistake was made on the follow-up.
In the aftermath of this, there has been quite a lot of disgruntlement over Lewandowski’s penalty technique, more specifically the stuttering nature of the run-up. Mike Maignan himself took to social media to post a screenshot of the laws around penalty taking, and one or two Polish pundits felt magnanimous enough to agree it’s not fair on the goalkeeper in those situations. Similarly the English press went into overdrive, always keen to think of themselves as custodians of the “spirit of the game”. I don’t think that it’s the most nefarious act of gamesmanship, but I would still define it as such. Personally I don’t like Lewandowski’s penalty technique, but only because it makes it more difficult for the taker as well as the goalkeeper. I also think it would be wise for Maignan and those in England to take a moment to remember that some of his teammates and plenty of Premier League players have similar stop-start run-ups, and they don’t complain about it when it is working in their favour.
Regardless, much was made in the aftermath that Poland were playing for pride alone, given their Euro 2024 fate was already sealed. I think it was more a match to show what Poland might do in the future than the here-and-now explanation of pride, although both things can be true. There is no doubt we should feel pride from a lot of Poland’s performances at Euro 2024, as well as excitement for the upcoming Nations League and World Cup qualifiers. Probierz finally threw caution to the wind today in terms of not having a true defensive midfield player, and look how well it turned out. I do think there is an argument to playing with a back four instead of the back five, but we’ll save that discussion for another time.
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