The Polish national team went through several stages at once before getting to the main international tournament. Their path began in Group I, where they had the British, Albanians, Hungarians and modest San Marino and Andorra as rivals. Naturally, there were no problems with the last two teams, but the teams of Hungary and Albania had to suffer. As a result, the second place in the group and a ticket to the play-offs. Here the Poles got into the playoffs, where they first defeated Russia (an automatic victory with a score of 3:0), and then beat the Swedes in a very equal match (2:0).
The top scorer and assistant was Robert Lewandowski, who has been the sole leader of the team for many years. He has 9 goals scored and 4 assists (in the qualifying stage). As Polish football experts say, give the ball to Robert, and he will decide what to do with it. By the way, since we started talking about passes – in the group stage, on average, the Poles made 83.1% of accurate passes, so they are all right with that.
Poland squad for the 2022 World Cup
Approximate starting lineup:
Pattern: 3-6-1
Goalkeeper: Szczesny
Defenders: Kivior-Glik-Bednarek
Midfielders: Frankowski-Linette-Szymański-Krychowiak-Goralski-Zieliński
Forward: Lewandowski
The Polish national team does not have a favorite formation in which they play against all their opponents. If we take a closer look at the games with top opponents (England, Belgium, the Netherlands), we will see 3-4-2-1, 4-4-1-1, and even 5-3-2. If we simplify it completely, then there is a saturated middle line, where as many as 6 midfielders with different functions can nominally play at once. At the same time, saturation of the middle line is clearly visible in all schemes, where there are quite a lot of quality players - no doubt, this should be used. In confrontations with Mexico and Saudi Arabia, midfield can be the key to success.
As for the attacking potential, the permanent leader Lewandowski, already mentioned by us, plays here. He's already scored a handful of goals this season with Barcelona, now it's time to uncover the gun at the World Cup. Most likely, this world championship will be the last for Robert, so the fans believe that a miracle will happen right now and their idols will “shoot”.
The total cost of the Polish national team is 257 million euros - an impressive amount, isn't it? Yes, but it wouldn't be like this without the 2 most expensive players, and we'll talk about them.
Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona) - €45m
Robert is already 34 years old, but he continues to demonstrate an extremely high level of play. His 5 goals in 9 minutes against Wolfsburg (2015) and won the trophies of the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup, the Club World Cup, as it were, hint to us that goalscoring extravaganzas can and should be expected from this guy.
Piotr Zieliński (Napoli) – €40m
Piotr is often not as visible as Robert because he plays as a midfielder. At the same time, the amount of work that falls on him every game has turned Zelinski into one of the best wingers in Serie A. Over the last 2 and a half seasons, Peter has already given more than 20 assists in the Italian championship - and he definitely will not stop there.
Of course, the Polish national team cannot be called the World Cup favorite: their composition is not entirely balanced, sometimes holes appear, which top opponents can take advantage of. Plus, in the 21st century, this team did not reach heights, and believing only in Robert Lewandowski is a very adventurous occupation. If you manage to resist the Mexicans, then the second place is in your pocket, so we assume that they will leave the group.
