Sporting Life

Poland World Cup 2018 profile: Ones to watch, best bets and more

By Sporting Life
Football
Thu July 21, 2022 · 2y ago

Captain Robert Lewandowski will look to replicate his qualification goal scoring form in the finals this summer in Russia, after the Bayern Munich striker racked up 16 goals in European qualification.

Poland Factfile

Coach - Adam Nawałka: This will be his second major tournament as Poland manager after taking his country to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, a tournament in which Poland remained unbeaten (W2 D3). He also played in five of Poland’s six games at the 1978 World Cup.

Legend - Michał Żewłakow: The former captain has the most Poland caps of all-time (102) and played in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups with his country.

Star Man - Robert Lewandowski: The Bayern Munich striker is Poland’s all-time leading goal scorer with 52 goals in 102 appearances. He netted 16 goals in qualification and will captain the side in Russia.

Did you know? Although they've got goals in Lewandowski now, in the World Cup they've struggled and in fact have only scored in two of their last eight games in finals.

Fun Fact: The Polish alphabet has 32 characters; nine vowels and 23 consonants.

Qualifying: Poland topped their group in European qualification after winning eight, drawing one and losing one.

Fixtures: Senegal (4pm, June 19, Otkrytie Arena), Colombia (7pm, June 24, Kazan Arena), Japan (3pm, June 28, Volgograd Arena)

Poland squad

Goalkeepers: Bartosz Bialkowski (Ipswich), Lukasz Fabianski (Swansea City), Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus).

Defenders: Jan Bednarek (Southampton), Bartosz Bereszynski (Sampdoria), Thiago Cionek (SPAL), Kamil Glik (Monaco), Artur Jedrzejczyk (Legia Warsaw), Michal Pazdan (Legia Warsaw), Lukasz Piszczek (Borussia Dortmund).

Midfielders: Jakub Blaszczykowski (Wolfsburg), Jacek Goralski (Ludogorets Razgrad), Kamil Grosicki (Hull City), Grzegorz Krychowiak (Paris St-Germain), Rafal Kurzawa (Gornik Zabrze), Karol Linetty (Sampdoria), Slawomir Peszko (Lechnia Gdansk), Maciej Rybus (Lokomotiv Moscow), Piotr Zielinski (Napoli).

Forwards: Dawid Kownacki (Sampdoria), Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich), Arkadiusz Milik (Napoli), Lukasz Teodorczyk (Anderlecht).

Poland Profile

Poland are back in the World Cup after missing the last two tournaments and considering their wide-open group they will fancy their chances after a promising Euro 2016 campaign.

Poland striker Robert Lewandowski
Poland striker Robert Lewandowski

They got to the quarter-finals in France and went out without losing a game in 90 minutes.

In Robert Lewandowski they have one of the most feared marksmen in world football, and he will be hoping to impress again after announcing he wanted to leave Bayern Munich for a new challenge.

Poland are a hard working group, with plenty of pace and some underrated ability on the ball so, when facing Colombia, Senegal and Japan they are an interesting prospect in Russia.

Who to watch out for

Napoli midfielder Piotr Zielinski has been targeted by a number of top clubs around Europe, including Liverpool, and could be one to watch during the tournament.

Another Napoli man, Arkaduisz Milik, had a successful season with the Italians and will hope to take that form into the national side.

Ex-Arsenal and current Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny will most likely start at number one.

How did they qualify?

The Poles topped their group but not without a few hiccups, such as a 2-2 draw with Kazakhstan in October 2016, but they bounced back with wins over Denmark and Armenia. A win over Montenegro saw them go top of the group at the halfway point.

Losing 4-0 to Denmark was a real low point and brought them back down to earth with a bump, but they pulled out two late goals against Montenegro to seal the group.

Any interesting facts about Poland?

Poland is located towards the eastern side of Europe. It has a lot of borders with other countries. These include Russia, Lithuania, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Germany.

Poland has had a number of capital cities, but most recently it is Warsaw.

Poland has a population of over 37,000,000. Their national symbol is the White Eagle, which is portrayed on their national team badge.

The main religion across Poland is Roman Catholic. There are a lot of beautiful cathedrals and churches across the nation, which is a key tourism attraction.

They have a huge land mass of forests, and also have over 20 national parks dedicated to nature.

Any famous football moments?

Poland finished third in the World Cup in 1974, where they lost to West Germany 1-0 in Frankfurt in the semi-final, and then beat Brazil 1-0 in the third-place play-off in Munich.

Poland achieved their joint-best World Cup finish in 1982 as they lost to Italy in the semi-final 2-0, before beating France 3-2 in the play-off in Alicante.

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