The Silesian Stadium in the Polish city of Katowice, known as “the witches’ cauldron”, witnessed the Polish delirium by getting the pass to Qatar 2022 with a well-deserved 2-0 victory.
Due to the exclusion of the Russian team from FIFA and UEFA competitions, the Polish team automatically advanced to the play-off final on their way to Qatar 2022.
The duel of titans between Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic was finally not such due to the late entry into play of the Swede, who did not set foot on the pitch except in the last minutes of the match.
After a start full of hesitation in which both rivals groped each other, from the second quarter of an hour the Swedes began to control the situation and in the 19th minute Forsberg was about to open the scoring.
The inaccuracy in attack of the Poles, with a Lewandowski drowned by the markings and the inability to braid plays, contrasted throughout the first part of the match with Sweden’s ability to continuously create chances, although without specifying.
The match had to be temporarily suspended in the 44th minute due to technical lighting problems that were quickly resolved.
The Polish joy came in the 49th minute, when Karlstroem committed a clear penalty on Krychowiak that captain Lewandowski converted, causing delirium in the stands.
From there, Sweden woke up again but Poland was content to tie up positions and wait for counterattacks.
In the 72nd minute, Zielinski got ahead of Danielsson, stole the ball from him in an opportunistic maneuver and beat Olsen head-to-head.
From then on, the Poles saw themselves in Qatar and settled for disrupting the advances that Sweden was desperately trying to make.
Ibra’s entry into the game in the 79th minute was not enough to even unsettle the Poles.
Sweden, who came from beating the Czech Republic in extremis with a goal scored in extra time, missed the many opportunities they had to score, with a great Lewandowski but without much collaboration at the top and a Polish defense that was content to park the bus around of Szczesny.
The new Polish coach, Czesaw Michniewicz, with only two months in charge of the red and white squad, could not have started on a better foot.
Injury absences by Milik and Salamon raised concerns about the Polish chances, but Lewandowski is used to shouldering his team and making up for it with his motivational skills.
With this victory, in addition to qualifying for Qatar, Poland has broken the curse that seemed to drag in their clashes with Sweden, which frustrated their progress in the 2000 and 2004 European Championships.
