Poland 0-2 Ukraine: Tired performance as wasteful Biało-Czerwoni left to rue mistakes

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

Poland were guilty of poor errors in defence and sloppiness in attack as a determined Ukrainian side were able to cruise to victory in Wrocław. Goals from Roman Yaremchuk and Andrii Yarmolenko saw the visitors take a 0-2 lead into the break, and it would be hard to argue they were substantially threatened by Poland in the second half.

Let’s just say we can be glad this was a friendly. However, friendly or not does not excuse the fairly basic errors that meant Poland gave up two goals in the first half, especially when you consider that it was a fairly strong team Jan Urban picked to start the match. 

Following a flurry of excitement including a Ukrainian goal ruled out for offside, Poland made a great chance for Oskar Pietuszewski one-on-one which he couldn’t take advantage of. Shortly thereafter, Tomasz Kędziora went down in the box as his foot was trodden on. Were it not a friendly, perhaps VAR would’ve intervened. 

In any case, the goal Poland then conceded to Yaremchuk was very much of their own making. A risky pass into the middle of the pitch from Sebastian Szymański was not shielded well enough by Jakub Piotrowski. When the ball reached Yaremchuk, he was not closed down at all by Kędziora and he was able to unleash a decent strike from range. Marcin Bułka had a difficult return to the national team, especially with his distribution, but there was little he could’ve done to prevent either goal that ended up in his net. 

Yarmolenko’s goal was even worse from a Polish perspective. Ukrainian players allowed time and space in some dangerous areas was bad enough, but not tracking runners and allowing Yarmolenko to be unmarked in the six yard box was absolutely shocking defending, friendly or not. 

A raft of changes marked the beginning of the second half, in which the only real chance for Poland came due to an error in Ukraine’s defence early on. Karol Świderski was able to pounce but his well-struck effort was saved superbly by Anatoliy Trubin from eight yards out. 

In the end, there was one team taking this match seriously and it wasn’t Poland. Ukraine showed an aggression and intensity that the hosts simply couldn’t match, as despite some neat play at times Poland showed little cutting edge no matter who was on the pitch. 

As for the debutants you’d have to say that Oskar Wójcik stood out, Mateusz Żukowski was fine and Kacper Potulski equally okay. As for Norbert Wojtuszek, you’d struggle to say he made his mark but again, very few in a Poland shirt did this evening. 

As for those more experienced but who do not often start, Arkadiusz Pyrka will hardly have Matty Cash worried in the wing-back position, although he ran well with the ball on occasion. Piotrowski I was very critical of being included in the squad this week, but he played pretty well before his mistake. 

It brings me no pleasure to report that Bartosz Kapustka was perhaps one of the worst. You wonder whether the many other midfielders who could’ve been included in Urban's experimental squad would’ve been able to influence the game better, I’ve already seen many suggesting that Bartosz Nowak could have been that player. 

You’d have to say that there were a lot of tired legs throughout for the hosts, even from those who haven’t played a lot this year. In terms of the positives there were few, but perhaps you’d point to Wójcik and some of Jakub Kamiński’s activity in the second half. 

We were hoping to see something to be interested by in terms of the performance and the debutants, and frankly we got very little. Not to be too harsh, but the very least we should expect on Wednesday against Nigeria is a better level of application, as there were times today that the effort just wasn’t good enough. 

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