Image via @laczynaspilka on Twitter
Poland edged out Scotland away in Glasgow last night as one of two penalties won by Nicola Zalewski proved to be a 97th minute winner.
Sebastian Szymański’s effort from distance opened the scoring, before Scott McTominay saw a potential equaliser disallowed for handball. At the end of the half Nicola Zalewski took a kick to the ankle as he drove into the Scottish penalty area, and Robert Lewandowski converted the spot kick for his 84th international goal.
The second half saw Scotland immediately pull one back through Billy Gilmour, the shot not closed down properly by Paweł Dawidowicz and it passing through Marcin Bułka. Scotland proceeded to equalise in the 75th minute through McTominay, him having run straight past a freshly introduced Jakub Piotrowski to tap the ball into the net.
With the game turning end to end throughout the eight minutes of stoppage time, it was a final driving run from Zalewski that saw him clumsily bundled into by Grant Hanley. Stepping up to take the penalty he had won, Zalewski saw his shot somehow squirm through Angus Gunn’s hands for the winning goal.
There is no question this was by far the most attacking Poland line-up for a long time, with a midfield entirely made-up of creative players in Szymański, Piotr Zieliński and Kacper Urbański. Setting out to dominate the Scottish, Poland unfortunately suffered from many lapses in judgement and communication when trying to hold onto the ball, in my opinion due to certain players not featuring much for their club sides.
Most egregious of these rusty stars was Jakub Kiwior. Supposedly Poland’s best defender on paper, he was guilty of several errors which appeared to me to come down to not playing for Arsenal yet this season, and will likely only receive cup minutes for the London side. He was hooked at half-time for Sebastian Walukiewicz, who to his credit played well in the second half.
As for the other players singled out for criticism, Bułka did make two notable mistakes but I felt it was churlish to write him off immediately as some had. We’ve been a bit spoiled in terms of Poland’s goalkeeping situation, as for as far back as I can remember it seems that position is one of the strongest in the national side. Bułka may not have had a night to remember but it was by no means as bad as some were suggesting.
Likewise Przemysław Frankowski came in for many pelters; it’s true that thanks to the ongoing injury worries of Matty Cash, Frankowski has little competition for his place and perhaps that is leading to some complacency. According to Michał Probierz, Frankowski came into these internationals with a slight injury, and perhaps this explains his slightly below par performance. I’d like to see Jakub Kamiński replace him on Sunday against Croatia, as I thought might have been the case before the line-up was announced yesterday too.
Speaking in terms of those I personally felt weren’t great, Paweł Dawidowicz did not have a standout game and I must say his combative style can be good, but he too often finds himself picking up cheap bookings or charging out of position. There were moments as the second half wore on that I was counting down the minutes until Dawidowicz was going to pick up a second yellow, thankfully that did not come to pass.
I was also a little disappointed that Krzysztof Piątek could not replicate his club form, so uninvolved Poland’s strikers were for the most part last night, despite Lewandowski still notching a goal and an assist.
Moving onto the positives, and by far the biggest is Nicola Zalewski. Winner of two penalties, defensively okay last night and having the confidence to take on both his man and the pressure last-minute spot kick, he was the hero of the hour. There is no hyperbole when I say that Zalewski might just be the most important player for Poland under Michał Probierz.
Another great game also came from Kacper Urbański, a player who wasn’t even capped for Poland until three months ago. Now he looks virtually irreplaceable, and given his relative versatility in that role playing off the forwards I look forward to seeing him playing even more regularly for Poland.
Also worth mentioning was by far Poland’s best defender last night, Jan Bednarek. Much maligned ever since he started playing for the national side, some perceive him to be too slight and ‘not a real’ centre back. I’ve always thought him to be a quality player, and it seems like finally fans and pundits are giving him due praise.
Coming back to the tactics, Poland were shockingly open at times but they also played some good football, and they did have spells in control particularly nearer the start of the game. Even then, they looked really comfortable towards the end when they had the ball and as Scotland pushed for a winner Poland had two or three really good counter-attacks before they won the penalty.
Probierz was right to point out in his post-match comments that it was a very characterful performance from Poland, and I think in the end some of his decisions did backfire and could’ve cost the side more than they did. However, I’m confident Probierz will stick with this style given it has been good to watch and seemingly does pay off, although he will have to address how open Poland looked last night.
Croatia on Sunday will be a tougher test, and for that reason I expect we will see some changes, not least a more balanced midfield.
For more, follow @ekstraklasaexp on Twitter and @ekstraklasaexports on Instagram to know when new posts go live.
Comments