Injuries hit Poland’s squad, Lewandowski scores a hat-trick before flying to New York and why are Legia so bad? A round-up of talking points as we begin the international break

Images via @LaczyNasPilka, @FCBarcelona and @LegiaWarszawa on Twitter

A fairly entertaining weekend for Polish football as we head into the last international break of 2025, with both good and bad occurring within the context of the national team and Polish football as a whole. 

By far the things which will most affect the two games Poland play against Holland and Malta are the two injuries which have struck down two members of the squad you assume would be nailed-on starters, namely Łukasz Skorupski and Jan Bednarek. Add into that Krzysztof Piątek is also having to pull out through injury and reports that Karol Świderski is struggling with a muscle problem, it doesn’t look great. 

This is before we even get into the fact that Bartosz Slisz and Przemysław Wiśniewski are set to miss the game against Holland through suspension. Wiśniewski’s absence seemed more manageable before Bednarek’s injury, which is apparently a non-serious knee problem, but now Jan Urban faces the prospect of changing two members of his back three. 

Who is getting called up in these players’ place? Well there has been a statement this evening, but even before that we knew that goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski arrived and was brought in today. Considering he has played solidly in the Champions League for Qarabag, Kochalski will be a good second or third choice option in the goalkeeping department. This is under the pretty straightforward assumption that Kamil Grabara will be taking the number one spot in these next two games for Poland. 

As for who may be coming into the squad in place of Bednarek, I have to say I was shocked to see the name Bartosz Bereszyński appear. Yes, he has a wealth of experience, but if we see him play in either of these games for Poland I would be very surprised and not in a good way. 

Moving on, there has been some consternation over Robert Lewandowski’s “extra-curricular” activities. First however, let us speak about his performance on the football pitch, with his hat-trick for Barcelona against Celta Vigo. 

In truth, Lewandowski’s hat-trick was not the highest in terms of quality, as better goalkeepers would’ve thwarted the efforts. Nevertheless Lewy took the goals with relative aplomb, particularly the header to seal his hat-trick, a wonderful glancing flick which went in off the far post. 

However, it seems like everyone has decided to be far more up in arms over Lewandowski taking a trip to New York for Poland’s National Independence Day tomorrow, when he will take part in a ceremony to switch on the lights of the Empire State Building to the colours of the Polish flag. 

Quite frankly it’s easy to see both sides of this. Yes, Lewandowski does not need the extra ten hours of time on an aeroplane before he reports to the national team, but it’s a special event and realistically those ten hours won’t really have any effect on an athlete at the highest level, especially considering it’s not like he’s going in economy class across the Atlantic. 

Personally I find the double standards Lewandowski held to quite amusing, in a way. We all want Poland to have a footballer capable of commanding such media attention thanks to their talents, and at times we have to accept that media and other such public events can at times complicate matters. 

To be honest, I think most people are frustrated not so much by the actual event or even the travelling for it that Lewandowski has to undertake, but more the fact that there has been very little notification in advance of this towards the public. I also disagree with certain other journalists wishing to cast Lewandowski as dishonest, I think that the PZPN, Jan Urban and even the hierarchy at Barcelona will have been aware of this trip well in advance. Really it boils down to the exact same argument we had around Kamil Grosicki’s farewell back in June, and we now all see that for the storm in a teacup it was. 

Finally, I’d like to address the situation at Legia Warszawa, as they have been frankly awful since the end of September and arguably even before that. I really despair, because with the squad they have it’s obvious they should be doing a lot better. Furthermore, I’m really not sure if sacking Edward Iordanescu has made any positive difference, it certainly wasn’t apparent in the way they managed to throw away even a measly point against Bruk-Bet Termalica yesterday afternoon. 

Regardless of whether you’re a Legia fan or not, this poor form is a worry for Polish football. Further bad results in Europe will tank the coefficient, something which has really helped football in Poland over the last few years, not to mention players on the fringes of the national team playing in a club which is in such a calamitous state at present. Obviously I’m thinking mostly here about a younger player like Kacper Urbański, but it can’t be good for Paweł Wszołek or Bartosz Kapustka either. 

Another worry is that you can kind of see the problems at Legia happening in slow-motion over at Lech Poznań as well, although not quite to the same degree yet it would be fair to say. 

The good news however is that for the next week and a bit we can forget about club football, and hopefully Jan Urban can work some magic with the players that are fit and available against Holland on Friday night, a game I’ll be previewing properly later in the week. 

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