Poland 2-1 Albania: Biało-Czerwoni made to sweat, but pull through to the World Cup play-off final

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-improved team performance during the second half, part of which was due to the half-time introduction of Oskar Pietuszewski. 

Jan Urban caused a mild stink by having Filip Rózga start instead of Pietuszewski, and whilst Rózga showed glimpses of his ability, Pietuszewski was clearly a much more dangerous option when he was brought on. 

Rewind if we can to the start, and Poland began the game with a burst of attacking intent which nearly paid dividends. The earliest shot on target for Poland was a scuffed Lewandowski effort, the result of a slightly overplayed move involving Jakub Kamiński and Sebastian Szymański. A Jakub Kiwior header was cleared from underneath the crossbar, but following that there were few real openings for the hosts. 

Then came what could be referred to as the precipitating incident, the Bednarek error. As he attempted to bring the ball under control, it skidded across the top of his left foot and ran through to Arber Hoxha, who was able to round Kamil Grabara and slide the ball into the net. Bednarek rushed back but couldn’t affect the inevitable outcome of his mistake. 

Now, this isn’t an attempt to excuse Bednarek’s terrible error, but I was a little disappointed that Tomasz Kędziora merely jogged back with his arm in the air appealing for offside. I’m not saying Kędziora would’ve been able to clear the ball off the line, but he could’ve got a lot closer to where the ball ended up than he did. Especially in a game like this, where there needed to be a certain level of fight. 

That level of fight was present to a greater degree in the Polish performance we saw during the second half. The introduction of Pietuszewski seemed to add greater urgency, and Poland did start making better choices and earning themselves better opportunities early on in the second half. 

However, it would be remiss of me not to comment on how eager Poland were to overcommit, leading to a very dangerous situation where Bednarek had to try and stop two Albanian attackers all on his own when the visitors countered. It could’ve ended very badly indeed for Poland were it not for a wayward finish from their opponents. 

Lewandowski took a speculative, deflected effort from range which resulted in a corner. Karol Świderski was introduced for Kędziora to really signal Urban’s intent, had the change at the half not shown that enough. Szymański swung in the corner and Lewandowski climbed highest at the back post, squeezing the ball in from a tight angle. 

I don’t want to take away from the goal, but you do wonder if a different set of officials may have disallowed this goal from Lewandowski. Given the way he leveraged himself above the defender some referees may have deemed it a foul. We’ve seen the level of physicality allowed at set pieces in England vary greatly from those in the rest of Europe, and perhaps that was in mind tonight given the English officials in charge of the game. 

The game again settled into the rhythm that it had, with Poland generally in the ascendancy, although an exceptionally dangerous counter from Albania occurred again, as they managed to work the ball out to a free man on the left side. Fortunately, Grabara pulled off a smart save to prevent Poland falling behind again. 

It wasn’t long after that when Zieliński was given the ball in a nice amount of space by Szymański. Zieliński unleashed a fantastic strike from distance which had a wonderful, swerving trajectory. A truly superb strike, and one which was good reward for the level Zieliński took his game to after what was, in my opinion, a fairly sub-par first half from the player many expected to lead Poland tonight. 

It was pleasing to see Poland make a comeback from their self-inflicted problems this evening, in an similar way to the last time we saw them away to Malta last November. This was a much more important game in which to do it however, and they did it very well after the fairly lacklustre first 45 minutes. 

Given the way Sweden blew Ukraine away in one of several other World Cup play-off matches tonight, Poland will have to take their game up a level in order to win in Stockholm and progress to this summer’s tournament. The adversity, albeit a little unnecessary, should hopefully make Poland better prepared for the task ahead if they can make some more improvements before Tuesday night. 

One such improvement will surely be the reintroduction of Nicola Zalewski. Rózga was alright and Pietuszewski certainly a very good option when he came on, but Zalewski is obviously a more experienced player and that will likely be a good thing against Sweden. 

It would be fair to say that Poland’s first half was maybe their worst half of football under Urban, given the issues they faced without the ball and the lack of care when they had possession. This was largely fixed after the break, and also I think it would be fair to say that Urban probably encouraged the players to show a little bit more of their individual quality. 

For all the hype around Pietuszewski, it seems Urban is desperate to make sure Rózga is also appreciated in the same breath. I think Rózga is also a talented young player, but it is becoming a little tiresome to try and equate the two when it’s clear that at this moment in time Pietuszewski is a bit better. Bednarek was also keen to try and downplay, but also understand, the level of hype around his young teammate for club and country during post-match interviews. 

Attention now turns to Tuesday, and just like last time Poland face Sweden in a play-off final to get to the World Cup. I would argue that there are other parallels to four years ago too, but that’s for another article previewing the next match. 

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