PZPN

In Thursday’s match, the Polish national team mainly defended low, focusing on quick attacks after intercepting the ball. ‟We played with a back five. The Netherlands builds the attack with four or three players; sometimes De Jong drops lower. We wanted to close down their midfield, and I think it worked. Of course, the Dutch had their chances, but it’s hard to imagine it being any other way, because they’re a top-class team”, said the head coach. “We had to be prepared for balls behind our defence line, very quick transitions from defence to attack, and crosses to the far post. The Netherlands are an excellent team, and it’s a pleasure to watch the technique of individual players. We had to take away their space. Our transitions after winning the ball were good, although we often lacked the final pass to create a chance. You can think of many things against such an opponent, but it’s not easy to pull off”.

The Poles conceded their only goal after a corner. “We had a slight lapse in concentration, which could have been prevented. I don’t think we made any mistakes in set pieces. The Dutch are excellent at attacking from set pieces, and we defended well in most of those situations”, said the 63-year-old coach.

One of the best players on the Polish team at De Kuip was newcomer Przemysław Wiśniewski. The 27-year-old’s call-up was a big surprise, and his performance alongside Jan Bednarek and Jakub Kiwior was something almost no one would have expected a week ago. “We don’t have a huge choice of centre-backs, but there is competition. It certainly helped Przemek that I knew him from Górnik Zabrze. I knew what he was capable of and that he had made some progress after moving to Italy. I was curious to see how he would fare against the Netherlands, especially mentally. He took advantage of his opportunity and played a good game. We substituted him at the end because he had previously bruised his calf and was starting to feel discomfort. I hope everything will be okay with him”, concluded Urban.

Tomasz Kędziora replaced Wiśniewski, and earlier the coach surprised everyone by substituting Robert Lewandowski, Piotr Zieliński, Nicola Zalewski and Sebastian Szymański. They were replaced by Karol Świderski and a trio from PKO BP Ekstraklasa: Bartosz Kapustka, Paweł Wszołek and Kamil Grosicki. “We didn’t want Robert and Piotr to play two 90-minute matches, because that could cause an injury. Fatigue usually sets in after an hour of play, and that’s when Robert left the pitch. We had planned these changes. I mentioned that Nicola hasn’t had many minutes, so we wanted to freshen up the wings. We were thinking about the second game; we couldn’t afford the luxury of having everyone play 90 minutes today and on Sunday. It turned out well, the substitutions were good, and the bench players contributed a lot”, said the coach happily.

Now the Poles face Finland. “I don’t know at this point how we will play in the next matches. I hope that everyone will be healthy and rested for the next game. It will be a completely different match from today’s. Here we had a lot to gain, and our opponent had a lot to lose. Now, it will be the other way around, and in such situations, different players may react differently. Today’s draw without a win on Sunday won’t do us any good”, said Urban.