The Polish national team at the 2022 World Cup: Lewandowski's swansong

Let's introduce the Polish national team, the last representative of Group "C" at the World Cup in Qatar.

Poland

One of Europe's largest countries by area has a rich and varied history. The mighty Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which placed its representative in Moscow as king, became part of Russia more than a century later. It was here, in Poland, that World War II began.

Today it is a country that is quite developed economically and culturally. It gave the world Stanislaw Lem and Andrzej Sapkowski, Frederic Chopin and polonaise.

Both summer and winter sports are successfully cultivated here. In the sport of games Poles excel in volleyball and, of course, soccer. In 2012 Poland hosted matches of the European Championship.

Polish national soccer team

Last year marked a hundred years since the Poles played their first match in history: then in Budapest they lost to the Hungarians 0-1.

Poland's first participation in the World Cup was held in 1938 and was limited to one match, but what a match! In 1/8 finals the Poles went into extra time against Brazil - 5:6, and the poker in their composition made Ernest Wilimowski, the legend of Polish soccer before the war. Only Oleh Salenko scored more in one World Cup match since then, in 1994 against Cameroon.

The golden age of Poland's national team was the 1970s-1980s. In 1972, the Poles won the soccer tournament at the Olympics in Munich, and in 1976 in Montreal they took silver. But the main achievement is the two bronze medals at the World Championships.

In 1974 in Germany the Poles created a sensation, beating Argentina 3-2 and Italy 2-1 in the group stage, but also demolishing Haiti 7-0. The miracles continued in the second group stage: the Swedes were defeated 1-0 and the Yugoslavians 2-1. Only the hosts and their leading scorer Gerd Muller managed to stop the victorious march of the Polish national team - 0-1. However, in the match for bronze they again surprised everyone and defeated Brazil - 1:0. Poland's forward Grzegorz Lyato was the top scorer of the championship with seven goals, and his teammate Andrzej Szarmach was second.

In 1982 in Spain the Polish national team repeated its success, albeit without the cavalry dash. In the group - zero draws with Italy and Cameroon, and defeat Peru - 5:1, in the second round hat-trick of Zbigniew Boniek helped win against Belgium - 3:0, and in the match against the Soviet team were again zero. Since the Soviet team also defeated the Belgians, but less drastically - 1:0, the Poles reached the semifinals, where they lost to Italy - 0:2. In the match for bronze, after scoring three goals in seven minutes, the Polish team defeated the French - 3:2.

The memory of those bronze days is still alive in Polish soccer. In 1986, the Bialowo-Blackwomen made it out of the group for the last time. The 2018 World Cup in Russia was no exception, where they beat Japan 1-0, but failed against Senegal 1-2 and Colombia 0-3.

Stars of the Polish national team.

This country has had enough interesting players at any time, but the super stars have mostly been there during the socialist era - Leato, Boniek, Sharmah mentioned above. The only exception is Robert Lewandowski. The World Cup in Qatar will probably be the last one in his career, and the Barcelona forward will want to rock here. He currently has 134 matches and 76 goals under his belt - a record for the Polish national team.

The soccer world also knows well Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny, former Torino and Monaco defender Kamil Glik, strikers Piotr Zieliński of Napoli and Arkadiusz Milik of Juventus. Overall, the Poles' main squad looks promising.

Group C opponents

Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico.

Poland's national team performance forecast

Argentina, if nothing happens, is the undisputed favorite in the group. The Poles will have a great chance to fight with Mexico for the second place. The two teams are about equal - the Aztecs, however, do not have Lewandowski. The very fact that Poland will make the playoffs will be a success for the Polish team.