Robert Lewandowski to the rescue! A key hit by the Polish captain
Robert Lewandowski scored a goal to make it 1-1 in the Poland-Albania match. The hit by the captain of the Polish national team was extremely important in an unsuccessful match.
After the first half, Poland was losing 0-1 and it seemed that it might be difficult to reverse the fate of the competition at the PGE National Stadium. However, it turned out not for the first time that Robert Lewandowski was in trouble. The captain of the Polish team, even with a mask on his face (broken eye socket several days ago), was able to help the national team once again.
World Cup 2026: Poland is a play-off specialist. A good series for the Urban team
In recent years, Polish football players have become specialists in winning tickets to large tournaments, competing through the so-called a second, play-off chance. This series started with the previous World Cup that was played in Qatar (2022).
After excluding the Russians from the competition, who were the Polish team’s opponents, due to their brutal attack on Ukraine, Poland immediately played in the final against the Swedes. In Chorzów, after goals by Robert Lewandowski and Piotr Zieliński, the team won a relatively certain 2-0. It was also a great success for the then coach Czesław Michniewicz. The Pole was brought in in an emergency after a stormy breakup between the Polish Football Association and the Portuguese Paulo Sousa.
Two years later, a similar story happened to the team led by Michał Probierz. Paradoxically, at that time the Pole was “cleaning up” after the Portuguese, when Fernando Santos had a disastrous term in Poland. Touchstone managed to lead the team to the Euro 2024 play-off zone. However, the Poles had to overcome two obstacles. It started with a high victory at the PGE Narodowy against Estonia (5:1) in the semi-final. In the play-off final, Poland defeated Wales in Cardiff after a series of penalties (0-0 in regular time and overtime). The hero of the match was goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny, who saved the decisive penalty in favor of the Poles.
For the third time in a row, Poles will enter the play-offs at the end of March this year. This time, coach Jan Urban took over the team during the qualifying rounds after Probierz’s unsuccessful campaign.
It is worth adding that coach Urban’s team has had a really good series. In the second half of 2025, since the former distinguished representative, participant of the World Cup (1986), has been leading the team, the Polish national team has not lost a match.
In September, there was a draw with the Netherlands in Rotterdam (1:1) and a victory against Finland (3:1) in Chorzów. In October, a win in a friendly match against New Zealand (1-0), a participant of the 2026 World Cup – again at the Superauto.pl Silesian Stadium – and a qualifying victory against Lithuania (2-0) in Kaunas. And the last representative window, i.e. a November draw at the PGE Narodowy with the Dutch (1:1) and a slightly tired away victory over the much lower ranked Malta (3:2).
