Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
A concerning late collapse in Porto saw Poland end up on the wrong end of a 5-1 scoreline with Dominik Marczuk scoring a late consolation on his debut.
Despite a strong first half performance from the away side, enforced changes and a stronger Portuguese showing made for a tough second half in which Poland looked completely lost following a fairly harsh penalty with twenty minutes to go.
That last twenty minutes proved to be disastrous, with the game turning completely end-to-end, and the clinical nature of Portugal’s attacking combined with the repeated defensive breakdowns from Poland meant the scoreline quickly got away from the visitors.
It wasn’t all bad - there was a period of about 20 minutes in the first half when Poland could’ve scored two or three - and it took Portugal until the second half to register a shot on target. Said shot on target was actually the opening goal sadly, but nevertheless.
There were good performances too, especially in that first half. Unfortunately, the level of defeat and that last period has really impacted any objective analysis.
As I said in the headline, it was a far more level game than the scoreline would suggest. Obviously I’m not going to suggest that 5-1 means that Poland should’ve taken something from the match, but the margin of defeat feels slightly disproportionate.
Goes without saying that some things patently needed improvement, but there has been a level of overreaction. Jan Bednarek’s leadership skills were sorely missed in the second half, and realistically it would’ve been better to introduce someone who had more energy than Taras Romanczuk as he was flagging even before the turning point in the 70th minute.
I don’t think scrapping everything and starting again will help, but Michał Probierz is on far thinner ice than anyone expected him to be at this stage. Anything other than a win against Scotland and I genuinely believe his job will be at risk. It’d be a shame, but such is the nature of a few bad results.
Even more unfortunate was the administrative error which led to an aborted introduction for Karol Świderski, which Probierz explained was down to human error. It is a pretty damning lack of preparation, but these things do sometimes happen. Just another thing which added to the negative atmosphere of the second half and the immediate fallout.
Who knows what the squad will look like on Monday evening against Scotland, given it will now be necessary for additional players to get called-up such is the extent of the injury crisis. One thing is for sure - rightly or wrongly, anything other than a win for Poland will be viewed as failure.
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