Welcome to Ekstraklasa Exports

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter A late Viktor Gyökeres goal consigned Poland to defeat as Sweden advance to the World Cup in their place.  Earlier goals from Anthony Elanga and Gustaf Lagerbielke for the hosts were twice cancelled out by Nicola Zalewski and Karol Świderski.  Poland had nearly twice the number of passes, more shots and 67% possession, and yet ended up coming away the losing side. It’s incredibly deflating not just when you look at the statistics, but also

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter The time has come for what is essentially Poland’s most important game of football all year: the play-off final for World Cup qualification against Sweden, at the Strawberry Arena in Stockholm.  As far as I can make out in the lead-up to what is the typical “match for everything” that Polish football media often declares these sorts of games, much of it seems to be reacting to what we saw on Thursday night against Albania.  Poland were fort

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter Second half goals from Robert Lewandowski and Piotr Zieliński cancelled out a gift of a goal given to Albania by Jan Bednarek towards the end of the first 45 minutes.  It was a game made all the more tense by Bednarek’s mistake, something which is quite uncharacteristic of his form in the past two years, but will no doubt be leapt upon by his harshest critics.  Luckily, he was bailed out by not only the goals of his teammates but a much-imp

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter This evening, Poland face Albania at Stadion Narodowy in Warszawa for the first of what will hopefully be two matches to earn their place at this summer’s World Cup.  In the absence of the suspended Nicola Zalewski, there has been a lot of talk about who should come into the side in his stead. Many, myself included, were of the opinion that it should be Oskar Pietuszewski.  Regardless of the hype around such a young player, he’s clearly one