Poland vs Albania: preview and predicted line-up

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 of the best Polish players in Europe at present on form alone, which makes it a surprise to see he is not in either of the two most widely reported predicted line-ups this morning. 

Tomasz Włodarczyk alleges that it will be Filip Rózga to start tonight, with the rest of the team looking as it does below:

Now, we all know that Jan Urban has a clear predilection for Rózga, and he’s a fine young player. To have him starting tonight in lieu of a more in form young player such as Pietuszewski or even instead of someone more experienced seems a bold and dare I say slightly unwise decision. 

Of course, there is every chance Urban knows what he is doing and this pays off, but you get the sense many this morning are left scratching their heads slightly at this news. 

Włodarczyk is of course not the only one with an inside line on what tonight’s team may look like; as I alluded earlier, several journalists are predicting that Jakub Moder will come into the side and Urban will have Sebastian Szymański pushed further forward. 

Tomasz Kędziora being in the starting XI in place of a different defender did raise an eyebrow for me, but if he is to play tonight I can only assume it is because Urban plans for Poland to have a lot more of the ball than Albania, and Kędziora may well be the best option of the third-choice defenders in terms of his passing range.

As for the opposition, Albania have absences to key attacking players, but it is the defence where they are really strong. It seems as though we all know this by now though, as Moder was mentioning it in yesterday’s press conference. Albania will be tough to break down and tonight may well be a close game, but Poland under Jan Urban have generally been pleasantly surprising, so I have faith they will get the job done tonight. 

I’ll be running a live commentary over on Twitter (or X as I am loathed to call it) for the match tonight, so feel free to come and engage with that when the match kicks off. 

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