Scandal at PGE Narodowy. The Polish national team’s game was overshadowed by flares

Interestingly, before the match even started, it became clear that the Polish national team was sure of playing at least in the play-offs for the 2026 World Cup. All because of the disastrous match played by Finland, which lost at home to Malta 0-1.

The guests thus won their first victory in Group G, thus ending any hope that the Finnish team could overtake the Poles. By the way, since the Finns lost against Malta, it also shows how bad the result of the Polish team – then still under coach Michał Probierz – was in Helsinki in June. The Poles lost 1:2.

Poland – Netherlands. A good match for the Poles and a scandal at the PGE National Stadium

Fans of Polish football can see a completely different face of the national team since the times when Jan Urban took over as coach. The coach has not lost a match since he took over the most important sports function in the Polish Football Association. He played, among others, the above-mentioned Finns (3:1), plus Lithuania away (2:0), and also drew – as it turned out on Friday evening – twice with the Netherlands. Twice with the same result, a solid 1:1.

It must be admitted that Oranje, although they secured a trip to next year’s World Cup in Warsaw, could not be sure of a good result at the PGE Narodowy. Moreover, Poland played one of the best 45 minutes in recent years, having its own idea for the match and implementing the assumptions that were rightly written by the coaching staff.

Jakub Kamiński scored a goal for the Poles at the end of the first part of the game, taking advantage of Robert Lewandowski’s great performance. It was a perfect summary of the solid performance of the hosts at the PGE Narodowy. The fans were overjoyed, and rightly so. It’s a pity what happened in the second part of the match.

First, Memphis Depay provided a quick response from the Netherlands. The most effective player on the Oranje side, often challenged as an advanced striker, he once again proved that he has a sniper’s instinct.

As if that wasn’t enough, in the second half the match was interrupted for a few minutes due to… flares that appeared not only in the stands, but were thrown onto the pitch. At one point, the sector that conducted doping at the PGE National Stadium became the most important one – and the players had to leave the field.

These pictures will probably remain in memory, and what’s more, they will also appear in international messages.

The same group had big problems before the meeting to introduce the loudest sector to the PGE National grounds. Throwing flares onto the pitch and later ostentatiously leaving the stands during the match were meant to be expressions of disapproval of the negative decision on the part of the uniformed services. They allegedly disagreed with, among other things, on the so-called socket in the stand and the above-mentioned patriotic setting.

Let us add that in the first half, not for the first time, and not for the first time in a typical political sense, the “mill” supported President Karol Nawrocki – who was present in the stands. However, the slogans addressed to Prime Minister Donald Tusk were completely different. The head of the Polish government gets hit on the head regardless of whether he is at the match (the example from Kaunas) or not (the example from Poland – the Netherlands).

Coming back to typical sports matters, the Poles did not manage to score a goal to make it 2:1, which could certainly have given a positive impression on the work done on the pitch. One may get the impression that the forced break in the game, plus the goal conceded just after a quarter of an hour’s rest, interrupted the hosts’ rhythm. The Poles showed really solid football that day. The team under Urban’s leadership is heading in the right direction.

And it’s a pity that in all this there was also this completely unnecessary, for an outside observer, fan confusion. At first, somewhere in the background, and over time, as it turned out, also in the foreground.