Poland's odds to win the World Cup
100/1
Best World Cup
Third place 1974 & 1982
2018 World Cup
Group stage
Poland's World Cup Schedule
|
Date |
Fixture |
Location |
|
22nd November 4pm |
Stadium 974, Doha |
|
|
26th November 1pm |
Education City Stadium, Al Rayyan |
|
|
30th November 7pm |
Stadium 974, Doha |
Road to Qatar
Once they lost their initial encounter in England and then slipped up at home to Hungary by the same 2-1 scoreline, a playoff spot was always going to be the best that Poland could hope for. Russia's exclusion from the competition granted them a bye to enjoy home advantage in their playoff final against Sweden, with a Robert Lewandowski penalty opening the scoring just after half-time to set up a 2-0 win and a place on the plane to Qatar.
Recent form
Poland will do well to qualify from their difficult group unless they can find a major improvement on recent form. Their Nations League campaign found them wanting against Belgium, to whom they lost 1-6 and 0-1, and the Netherlands, where they spurned a two-goal advantage to draw 2-2, before losing 2-0 at home. The Poles did bookend those disappointments with home-and-away successes against bottom-placed Wales (2-1 and 1-0), but that is hardly a CV to take them deep into a World Cup tournament.
Poland World Cup squad
Goalkeepers: Bartlomiej Dragowski (Spezia), Lukasz Skorupski (Bologna), Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus).
Defenders: Jan Bednarek (Aston Villa), Bartosz Bereszynski (Sampdoria), Matty Cash (Aston Villa), Kamil Glik (Benevento), Robert Gumny (Augsburg), Artur Jedrzejczyk (Legia Warsaw), Jakub Kiwior (Spezia), Mateusz Wieteska (Clermont), Nicola Zalewski (Roma).
Midfielders: Krystian Bielik (Birmingham City), Przemyslaw Frankowski (Lens), Kamil Grosicki (Pogon Szczecin), Jakub Kaminski (Wolfsburg), Grzegorz Krychowiak (Al-Shabab), Michal Skoras (Lech Poznan), Damian Szymanski (AEK Athens), Sebastian Szymanski (Feyenoord), Piotr Zielinski (Napoli), Szymon Zurkowski (Fiorentina).
Forwards: Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona), Arkadiusz Milik (Juventus), Krzysztof Piatek (Salernitana), Karol Swiderski (Charlotte FC).
Team insights
Probable formation: 4-1-4-1 Poland's coach Czeslaw Michniewicz only took charge at the beginning of the year, and it won't surprise many to learn that he has built his team around a strategy aimed at supplying Robert Lewandowski where he is most dangerous - in the opponent's box. Despite boasting one of Europe's best ever goal-scorers in Lewandowski, Poland struggle to make an impact in big tournaments, and some might argue that is because Poland do not have the quality to provide their star striker with the service he has enjoyed at Bayern Munich and Barcelona. And yet Poland are not bereft of creative talent - Piotr Zielinski is one of Europe's best attacking midfielders, while 20-year-old Nicola Zalewski has already attracted the attention of clubs even bigger than his current Roma. Wojciech Szczesny has been much safer in goal for Juventus and Poland than when occasionally blundering at Arsenal earlier in his career, while Aston Villa's Matty Cash and Jan Bednarek offer Premier League experience in front of him.
World Cup prospects
Since reaching the semi-finals in 1974 and 1982, Poland have struggled at World Cups, failing to progress to the knock-out stage in any of just three tournament appearances since 1986. This time, if they can get something from their opener with Mexico and take three points from their second game against Saudi Arabia, they will at least have something to play for in their final group game against Argentina, but even then they will be confronted with difficult group D opponents in the next round. Best hope: Last 16, if they beat Mexico
Read more about each of Poland's Group C opponents: