Poles’ nightmare at the very end. This is the end of the World Cup dream
Sweden – Poland 3:2. The Polish national team played a pretty solid match in the final of the 2026 World Cup play-offs, unfortunately, but their rivals were more effective. And they’re going to the World Cup.
Unfortunately, coach Jan Urban’s team actually showed that it has a lot of quality. Poles repeatedly threatened the goal of the Swedish national team.
The problem, however, is, from the perspective of the Polish team, that what they managed to achieve offensively, on the other hand, the Poles lost defensively. It is difficult to accept the fact that Sweden had fewer shots on target, and yet, out of five such occasions, they scored three goals.
Ultimately, the facts are such that the Swedes will go to the 2026 World Cup. The only thing left for Poles is a lot of dissatisfaction. In the eighth game, coach Urban’s team lost their first match.
As it turned out, the most important…
Sweden – Poland 3:2. Polish footballers will not go to the World Cup!
Poles made up for their losses twice on Tuesday (March 31) evening. First, Nicola Zalewski scored a goal, with a nice break inside from the wing and a juicy shot from outside the penalty area. But what good is it if the player who usually plays for the Italian Atalanta made a big mistake, after which Sweden took the lead again (this time 2:1).
However, the Poles did not give up. Despite several controversial decisions by the main referee, they pressed forward, wanting to equalize the score at all costs. This was achieved in the 55th minute after a goal by Karol Świderski. It must be admitted that a nice action by the Polish team was involved: Matty Cash (cross), Jakub Kamiński (extension of the header), Nicola Zalewski (return and assist) and the conscious finding of the shooter in the penalty area.
In the end, having a score of 2:2, the Poles again failed to take the lead, and after several mistakes – starting with the ball being thrown by goalkeeper Kamil Grabara – they lost a goal to make it 2:3 in the 88th minute of the match. The goal was scored by the one who could be feared the most before the match, striker Viktor Gyökeres.
The Poles ran out of time for another answer. However, as we mentioned earlier, there was too much nervousness in the defensive zone on the part of coach Urban’s team to realistically think about a good result in such a difficult terrain.
Tradition has unfortunately come to an end, Poland has not been able to win against Sweden for 96 years. And again it ended in nothing.
Interestingly, the 2026 World Cup will be the first World Cup since 2018 in which the Polish national team will not be present.
