WARSAW, Poland. September 7 (REUTERS) – Robert Lewandowski, Kamil Grosicki and Arkadiusz Milik all scored twice as Poland bounced back from last week’s defeat by Germany to flatten Gibraltar 8:1 in a one-sided UEFA EURO 2016 qualifier on Monday.
The Poles are now second in Group D on 17 points, two behind leaders Germany with two matches remaining.Ireland are third on 15 points with Scotland fourth on 11. The top two progress to next year’s finals in France.
Grosicki struck twice in the opening 15 minutes before another quickfire double from Lewandowski put the Poles 4:0 up by halftime.
Milik was on target twice in the second half while Jakub Blaszczykowski added a penalty and Bartosz Kapustka also netted.
Gibraltar, UEFA’s newest international team, fielded just one professional player — Jake Gosling of Bristol Rovers — and he scored a consolation goal in the 87th minute.
It was only their second goal in the qualifying campaign but it did little to lift their spirits as they stayed rooted to the foot of the table with zero points from eight games.
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Poland – Gibraltar 8:1 (4:0)
Goals: Grosicki 8′, 15′, Lewandowski 18′, 29′, Milik 56′, 72′, Błaszczykowski 59′ (Pk), Kapustka 73′ – Gosling 87′
Referee: Gediminas Mažeika (Lithuania) Attendance: 27 763
Poland: 22. Łukasz Fabiański – 14. Paweł Olkowski (87, 18. Sebastian Mila), 4. Łukasz Szukała, 15. Kamil Glik, 13. Maciej Rybus – 16. Jakub Błaszczykowski (62, 10. Bartosz Kapustka), 5. Krzysztof Mączyński, 8. Grzegorz Krychowiak, 7. Arkadiusz Milik, 11. Kamil Grosicki – 9. Robert Lewandowski (66, 19. Piotr Zieliński)
Gibraltar: 1. Jordan Perez – 20. Jean-Carlos Garcia, 15. Erin Barnett, 6. Roy Chipolina, 3. Joseph Chipolina – 7. Lee Casciaro (79, 12. Jeremy Lopez), 17. Anthony Bardon, 10. Liam Walker, 19. Jamie Coombes (46, 9. Kyle Casciaro), 11. Jake Gosling – 18. John-Paul Duarte (68, 2. Jamie Bosio)
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