The Peninsula
Twenty points in ten games was a decent return for a Poland team led by Paulo Sousa in their FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. They finished second in Group I behind a strong England side, putting them into the UEFA play-offs, at which point Sousa departed for Brazilian side Flamengo, paving the way for Czeslaw Michniewicz to take charge.
With their first opponents Russia excluded from the play-offs, Poland went directly into the final round, meaning that a ticket for Qatar was theirs for the taking over one 90-minute contest. A 2-0 win over Sweden saw Michniewicz and his men through, offering the opportunity to put behind them their group-stage exit at the 2018 tournament.
With experienced players like Robert Lewandowski in his squad, Michniewicz will be looking to strike the ideal balance between both defence and attack, and between old hands and up-and-coming young talents. If he can achieve that, then Poland will be well placed to make a better fist of things than they did four years ago.
Here, we look at five players who are set to play crucial roles for Poland in Qatar as they take on Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Argentina in an attempt to make it through to the knock-out stage at a World Cup for the first time since 1986.
Robert Lewandowski
Position: Striker
Age: 34?
Two-time The Best FIFA Men's Player, footballer of the year a dozen times in Poland and Germany combined, Bundesliga top-scorer on seven occasions, FIFA Club World Cup and UEFA Champions League winner… the list goes on, and tells you all you need to know about the Poland captain’s storied career.
Lewandowski scored an incredible 312 goals in 384 Bundesliga matches for Bayern München and Borussia Dortmund, before moving ahead of this season to Barcelona. He has already fitted in nicely to La Liga and picked up where he left off in Germany.
For Poland, he has racked up 132 appearances and 76 goals – records both. And yet there is one thing missing from his resume – in Russia in 2018, which was his only World Cup to date, he failed to find the back of the net, with Bednarek and Krychowiak suppling Poland’s two goals at that tournament as they went out in the group stage.
The 34-year-old will therefore have all the motivation he needs over in Qatar to get his name on the World Cup goalscoring list and propel Poland through to the knock-out stage once again. Not that his value to the team is purely reflected in how often he finds the back of the net. Lewandowski is a key figure off the pitch and can always be found talking to younger squad-members to help integrate them into the squad.
Wojciech Szczesny
Position: Goalkeeper
Age: 32?
The experienced keeper has spent most of his career at Arsenal and Juventus, filling his trophy cabinet in the process with such silverware as the Italian league title (three times), and a pair of English and Italian cup-winner’s medals. He has over 200 Serie A appearances to his name, having played 150 times in the Premier League prior to that. And as if that were not enough, he has also featured in a good 70 UEFA Champions League ties.
That kind of big-match calibre will be worth its weight in gold for Poland, for whom made his debut in 2009 and has gone on to win 64 caps. The 32-year-old is very much his country’s number 1, but has had to contend with a number of injuries over recent months, an ankle problem being the latest in that line.
Polish fans will be hoping that Szczesny is back to 100 per cent fitness in time for the World Cup in Qatar, although Lukasz Skorupski, Bartlomiej Dragowski and Kamil Grabara are all decent options between the posts and have featured in the latest Nations League fixtures.
Szczesny though has proven international pedigree, forming a human wall on plenty of occasions for his country, showing incredible reflexes, in particular on the goal-line – skills that his understudies do not have at their command, making the Juve stopper’s return from injury critical to the Polish defence once the World Cup rolls around.
Jan Bednarek
Position: Centre-back
Age: 26?
Jan Bednarek is a lynchpin of Poland’s back line. The 26-year-old central defender has made over 150 appearances for Southampton but is currently on loan at Aston Villa, where he is looking to get more regular playing time than he was anticipating on England's south coast. Last season though, he was one of the first names on the team-sheet for the Saints, making 30 starts in the Premier League plus another from the bench, picking up four goals as well during the campaign.
He has also become more or less a fixture in the Poland national team, and the expectation is that he and experienced back Kamil Glik will form the central defensive pairing in Qatar. Those two know one another well, and together they managed to keep Sweden’s forward line – featuring Isak, Quaison, Forsberg and Ibrahimovic – under wraps and off the scoresheet during their World Cup play-off match.
Glik is reputed for never backing out of a tackle, leaving the ball-playing to 42-time international Bednarek, who has the speed and intelligence to carry that off side of the game. He is known for his vision out on the pitch, making him a veritable quarterback of the Polish defence and a key figure in build-up play.
Grzegorz Krychowiak
Position: Defensive midfielder
Age: 32
Krychowiak has had an interesting career to date that has seen him ply his trade for a host of different clubs. In 2017, he won the Coupe de France with Paris St. Germain before going on to secure the Russian equivalent twice (in 2019 and 2021) at Lokomotiv Moscow. With Sevilla meanwhile, he was part of the 2015 and 2016 Europa League-winning teams.
Wherever the 32-year-old has played, he has been a fixture on the team-sheet in defensive midfielder. Currently under contract with FK Krasnodar, he has gone out on loan to Al-Shabab and has enjoyed a good start to the season out in Saudi Arabia.
Krychowiak is nearing the century mark for his country, with 91 caps to date – a clear indication of his importance to the team. During his time in Ligue 1, he was known as 'the lumberjack' which is a reasonably accurate summary of his playing style, particularly when going in for a tackle – something he never shies away from.
To reduce his abilities to uncompromising play would be to do him a disservice, however. He may be tough in the one-on-ones, but as a No6, he also knows how to find a team-mate with incredible regularity as well as pushing forward to join the attack. Not that he ever neglects his defensive duties though, putting his body on the line to stop everything and everyone that looks to get past him.
Krychowiak is a real team player who always puts in a shift – exactly the type of footballer that everyone loves to play alongside, and that no opponent wants to come up against, particularly with his combative nature. And these are the very qualities that make him a key figure in Michniewicz’s team as they look to emerge from a tough first-round group.
Piotr Zielinski
Position: Attacking midfielder
Age: 28?
Piotr Zielinski on the other hand has a lot fewer clubs on his CV than team-mate Krychowiak. When he was still a youth player, he moved from Zaglebie Lubin to Udinese in Italy, with his Serie A debut coming almost immediately thereafter.
After two seasons on loan at Empoli, he moved to Napoli in 2016 and has laid down roots over the past six years. The 2020 Italian Cup winners are now regulars in the Champions League or Europa League, and Zielinski barely misses a match on the domestic and European stages for Maradona’s old club. 300 appearances in all competitions tells a tale, as do the 40+ goals that he has scored in the process.
Little wonder, therefore, that Zielinski has also become a pillar of his national side, with 72 caps and nine goals. His main task is to pull the strings in the Poland midfield and set up chances for Robert Lewandowski. He is the nerve centre of the team, dictating play and using his outstanding footballing IQ to read the game and feed his team-mates with clever passes. He also knows where the goal is, as he proved with his timely strike to make it 2-0 in the play-off match against Sweden.