WARSAW, Poland. November 19 (PSN) – The Polish national team ended their UEFA EURO 2020 qualifying campaign on Tuesday, with Jerzy Brzeczek’s team winning 3:2 over Slovenia.
In addition to ending the qualifiers with a win, the bialo-czerwoni also topped Group G with 25 points.
Things once again started very well for Poland, who took the lead already by the 3rd minute. During a corner kick, Jan Oblak punched the ball out of the box which landed straight to Sebastian Szymanski’s feet. The Polish winger wasted no time and took a strike from eighteen meters away for the opening goal. This also marked his first career international goal in 5 caps.
However, Slovenia not long after equalized in the 14th minute, with Tim Matavz beating Wojciech Szczesny after a some poor man marking by the Polish defense.
Nine minutes after the break, the Poles once took the lead. All thanks to a great individual play carried out by Robert Lewandowski, which became the talk of the match. The Bayern Munich striker dribbled past several Slovenia players, and then with a precise shot from the right half of the penalty area shot at goal – ousting Jan Oblak.
Slovenia once again bounced back. This time in the 61st minute, with Josip Ilicic entering the list of goal scorers. The highly rated Slovenian midfielder left Szczesny helpless with a strong shot from seven meters and it seemed the match would end as a draw.
Jerzy Brzeczek’s team were determined to play to the end and it paid off in a big way. In the 81st minute, Lewandowski sent in a cross inside the penalty box to which Kamil Grosicki headed inside and found Jacek Goralski, who ripped the ball in from only a few meters for the game winning goal.
With the win in hand, Poland have ended their qualifying campaign with two straight wins and see themselves stay as Group G leaders.
The match with Slovenia also saw Lukasz Piszczek play his final international game, giving his official farewell to fans as he was subbed off for Tomasz Kedziora right before halftime.
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Poland – Slovenia 3:2 (1:1)
Goals: Szymański 3′, Lewandowski 54′, Góralski 81′ – Matavž 14′, Iličić 61′
Yellow carded: Reca, Krychowiak, Kędziora – Kurtič
Red carded: Jasmin Kurtič (86)
Referee: Daniel Siebert (Germany) Attendance: 53 946
Poland: 1. Wojciech Szczęsny – 20. Łukasz Piszczek (45, 16. Tomasz Kędziora), 15. Kamil Glik (7, 3. Artur Jędrzejczyk), 5. Jan Bednarek, 13. Arkadiusz Reca – 19. Sebastian Szymański (86, 18. Kamil Jóźwiak), 6. Jacek Góralski, 10. Grzegorz Krychowiak, 7. Piotr Zieliński, 11. Kamil Grosicki – 9. Robert Lewandowski
Slovenia: 1. Jan Oblak – 20. Petar Stojanović, 4. Miha Blažič, 17. Miha Mevlja, 3. Jure Balkovec – 7. Josip Iličić, 6. Rene Krhin, 8. Jasmin Kurtič, 15. Jaka Bijol (72, 10. Miha Zajc), 21. Benjamin Verbič (86, 18. Rajko Rep) – 23. Tim Matavž (89, 11. Haris Vučkič)
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