Sweden vs Poland preview: predicted line-up, reaction to Thursday and more

Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter

The time has come for what is essentially Poland’s most important game of football all year: the play-off final for World Cup qualification against Sweden, at the Strawberry Arena in Stockholm. 

As far as I can make out in the lead-up to what is the typical “match for everything” that Polish football media often declares these sorts of games, much of it seems to be reacting to what we saw on Thursday night against Albania. 

Poland were fortunate at times in that match, even the players have since come out and said as much. Luck is a factor, although not a strategy, and that is frequently true in bigger games seemingly. 

Another minor quibble I saw some people having was the atmosphere in Stadion Narodowy on Thursday. This seems to be a real bugbear for a number of people, and while I’m not against making the stands a bit more raucous for a game of this nature, it is a general fact that international football does tend to be a little more gentle by dint of the fact it can often attract children and families in a way that some club games don’t. 

Amongst all the hubbub and criticism of the Albania match, I think it’s worth not getting too down about it. I wouldn’t describe it as a “full strength” Poland team we saw last week, although it was close to being one. Sure, some of the more experienced players didn’t play to their full potential, but the job was done in the end and it does seem like some of the analysis has lost sight of this. 

Looking through this lens, some pundits have suggested Sweden will win tonight at a canter, especially given the way they were able to dismantle Ukraine. I think that whilst Sweden are no doubt a decent side who played very well last week, it’s also a team with problems. 

Yes, Viktor Gyökeres scored a hat-trick against Ukraine but the rest of this Swedish squad is either at a level comparable to, or slightly worse than, the Poland squad. At least, that’s when you look at the prestige of the clubs or leagues these players feature at. 

It’s also worth mentioning that Sweden’s most important defender, Isak Hien, has had to withdraw due to injury and will not be featuring for the hosts tonight. 

Without further ado, the reported Poland line-up is as below:

In my opinion, this is a pretty comfortable looking side. Many expected Przemysław Wiśniewski to come into the team given his physical attributes, and having Karol Świderski as a withdrawn second striker means that the team shape could quite fluidly move between the expected 3-4-3 and a more traditional 4-4-2 depending on the situation. 

On account of the opponent and the time of year, there are a lot of people drawing parallels between this match and the last time Poland were in a World Cup play-off four years ago. It actually feels like a bit of a full-circle moment for me personally, as shortly before that match was around the time I had the idea to set up this website later that year. 

However, as far as I’m concerned, the parallels between now and four years ago aren’t really as widespread as some might say. Poland are, on paper, a much stronger team and Sweden perhaps slightly weaker, so to me that speaks as a bit of a role reversal from the last time these two met. Likewise, Sweden have a new manager in Graham Potter, not unlike how Poland had Czesław Michniewicz four years back. 

Beyond this however, I don’t see as many similarities as others are reaching for. There seems to be some passing of the buck when it comes to who wants to be considered favourite for this tie, with neither Potter nor Urban keen to accept that label for their teams. In my opinion, you would consider Poland an ever so slight favourite given the problems Sweden are facing with injury, but then again it is being played on Swedish soil which will make a difference. If we thought it might be a surprisingly close game against Albania, this might be a very close game. 

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