Malta 2-3 Poland: A worrying performance despite the win for Poland, but exactly how worried should we be?

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

A very uncontrolled display from Poland saw them just about win away to Malta in Ta’Qali, with goals from Robert Lewandowski, Paweł Wszołek and Piotr Zieliński. 

It was however a very uneven and disjointed Polish performance, especially in defence. Jan Urban kept quite a strong group of players from Friday’s positive 1-1 draw with the Dutch, only choosing to rotate in Bartłomiej Drągowski and Wszołek, as well as bringing back in Bartosz Slisz and Przemysław Wiśniewski after they served their suspensions. 

The game did not start auspiciously from a Polish perspective. Gaps in the defence presented themselves very quickly and Malta looked to take advantage of that, and Drągowski did not seem hugely confident to begin his first start in a competitive Poland match since 2022. 

Wiśniewski did not help matters by picking up an early booking, barely four minutes into the match. A little while later, whilst Polish players were still finding their way into the game, Nicola Zalewski made a foul and received a yellow card as well, which will rule him out of next spring’s World Cup play-off semi-final. 

After half an hour of what had either been Maltese supremacy or a relatively even affair, Poland did manage to wrangle the upper hand. It was then that a set-piece was delivered superbly by Zieliński straight onto the head of Lewandowski, who put Poland into the lead with a downward header which bounced into the ground and beat the goalkeeper. 

Unfortunately, it was not long after that Malta equalised. Two huge sliding tackles were mistimed by both Tomasz Kędziora and Jakub Kiwior, and whilst they were nearly bailed out on the line by Drągowski and Michał Skóraś, the first half ended level. 

There was one change at half-time, when Zalewski was replaced by Karol Świderski, and this was a very positive change in my opinion as Świderski was more able to affect the game in central areas. It also opened up more room for Jakub Kamiński and Skóraś, but more on that later. 

After a few great chances were spurned by Poland, Zieliński played through Lewandowski, and his shot was half-blocked into the path of Wszołek, who managed to finish into an almost empty net from five yards out. 

Shortly after, Skóraś deployed a wonderful piece of skill to beat his man and roll it into the path of Świderski, who finished well past the Maltese keeper from just behind the penalty spot. However, the goal was ruled out after a nearly five minute long VAR check, which resulted in a penalty being given to Malta after an out-stretched Kiwior arm was adjudged enough for his opposite man to go down when turning back the other direction. The penalty was converted and the game was once again even. 

I’m loath to criticise officials, but there was some oddities from the referee. It felt very much like cards were handed out quite cheaply to the Polish players who were booked, but not so much the other way, and that’s before we get to the penalty. I’d have had no issue with it being given, were it not for the fact that it took so long to reach that decision. For me, it cannot be deemed an obvious mistake to not award the penalty in real time if it takes so many replays and so much deliberation to then award it on review. It was a debatable decision I would say, although not wholly unjust. 

Jan Urban made what I thought at the time was aa bizarre triple substitution. Introduced for Wszołek, Slisz and Wiśniewski were Kamil Grosicki, Bartosz Kapustka and Bartosz Bereszyński. In hindsight, these were not bad changes, but I did feel there were more interesting and worthwhile options on the bench. 

Grosicki made his 100th appearance for the national team tonight, and he had a few good touches with the ball but nothing of real note. Kapustka was absolutely a more progressive passer than Slisz, but Kapustka was just as prone to misplacing his passes as the man he came on for. Bereszyński was actually pretty much playing at the same level as Wiśniewski, which was a pleasant surprise but perhaps indicative of how bad Poland’s starting three centre backs were. 

Kapustka did however get the assist for the winning goal, a simple pass into Zieliński, who shifted the ball and struck from distance. On another day it may not have troubled the goalkeeper, but it took a sizeable deflection and did indeed sail past the keeper. 

After ten minutes of stoppage time, Poland saw out a narrow win against what on paper was an inferior opponent. 

Almost certainly the worst Poland game under Jan Urban so far, it will given plenty for pundits and journalists to write about over the winter. Indeed I’ll probably write something later this week, but that’s for then. 

As for now and this evening’s match, who played best and who was on the other end of the spectrum? I would argue the entire defence had bad games by all of their standards, indeed it was definitely the worst game I’ve seen Kiwior play in a Poland shirt. 

Slisz was clearly somewhat rusty having not properly played for some months, and Zalewski’s booking was so wholly unnecessary I’m pleased that Urban has said it irritated him. Zieliński and Lewandowski were the absolute best performers, which sounds obvious but isn’t always the case. 

I still take a bit of umbrage with Urban’s substitutions, although the experience argument is a strong one. I’d just have liked to see Kacper Kozłowski step into midfield if we were looking for a more attacking midfield option, especially as Kapustka hasn’t been in the greatest form at club level. Filip Rózga did get another short run-out at the end, but other than him there wasn’t the youthful edge to Poland’s substitutions or rotated starters that I and some others were hoping for. 

Regardless of everyone worrying about how poor a Poland we saw tonight, I think the match against Holland and the other work done so far in Urban’s tenure can mitigate the alarm bells. It’s not like Poland had a performance like this coming, in the sense that they played similarly dismally in other games, quite the opposite in fact. Also, lest we forget, Poland still won this game. Not comfortably, but even as the clock started ebbing away you still felt that Poland would get the opportunity to come away with the win. 

Another positive which basically nobody has talked about is the fact that in previous iterations of Poland over the last few years, there have been complete collapses when faced with adversity in matches. Tonight, that was not the case. I think that speaks to positives, and in a few days’ time I think we’ll start to recognise that a little bit more clearly. 

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