FULL TIME: Poland 2-2 Scotland
A bit of keep-ball by Scotland, and the visitors see it out for a draw! The hosts look thoroughly disappointed, a bit of a let-down after the joys of Saturday against Germany, and they will feel they should have snatched the win in the end. But Scotland were brilliant for large portions of that game, and defeat would have been cruel. A fair result on balance, and Scotland will be very pleased with their four-point haul from this international break! Oidhche mhath, everyone!
Updated
90 min +1: Lewandowski is released down the left by a long raking crossfield pass. But he’s flagged offside. Scotland a little fortunate there; that looked marginal.
90 min: Grosicki is replaced by Zyro. The crowd are getting anxious. Doubly so as they hear there will only be two minutes of stoppage time!
87 min: The corner is half-cleared by Russell Martin, and returned into the area by Glik, down the right. Marshall claims, giving Scotland some much needed respite. This is insane pressure, it’s almost as though the pitch has tipped up on one end.
86 min: Greer is booked for a gentle clip on Mila down the right. The free kick is humped into the box and met by Glik, whose header is deflected wide right. Corner.
84 min: Mila dances past Scott Brown down the inside left. He feeds the ball forward to Milik, who rounds Marshall on the left and must score. But he batters the ball onto the left-hand post! The rebound is met by Mila, who lashes wildly to the left of goal. What an escape for Scotland! That is astonishing!
83 min: Chris Martin flicks the ball down the left for Anya, who nearly returns the favour with a ball squared into the box. Poland mop up the mess, just as it looks like Scotland are going to take another unlikely lead.
80 min: ... Poland nearly score. The set piece is hit long, and Krychowiak, by the left-hand post, should head past Marshall. But his weak effort is wide of the goalframe. Scotland are all over the shop right now. They need to clear their heads.
79 min: Scotland are on the ropes. Lewandowski cuts in from the left and launches a rocket towards the right-hand side of the net. It’s heading in, but Marshall, at full length, tips round the right-hand post! Corner! From which ...
GOAL! Poland 2-2 Scotland (Milik 76)
And yes, this had been coming. Jedrzejczyk, on the left touchline, takes down a raking crossfield pass and slides a ball along and inside for Milik, who hammers an unstoppable low shot across Marshall and into the right-hand side of the net! A brilliant finish. Scotland would settle for a draw, but the way Poland are playing right now ... well, this is going to be a long last 14 minutes!
74 min: Poland push Scotland back. Grosicki loops a ball in from the right. Russell Martin heads clear powerfully. Anya romps up the other end down the left. His deep cross finds Maloney coming in from the right. Maloney batters a rising shot goalwards. Szczesny tips over, though the ball was straight at him. The corner’s easily dealt with. This is going to be a long last quarter of an hour!
71 min: A double change for Scotland, who take off Naismith and Steven Fletcher, replacing them with Chris Martin and Darren Fletcher.
70 min: Poland have stepped it up again. Mila, down the left, causes all manner of bother. Eventually the ball’s pulled back for Maczynski, who from 20 yards flays a hopeless effort over the bar for three rugby points. Nowhere near.
68 min: Milik twists and turns down the left. He enters the box and, near the byline, bobbles the ball through Scotland’s six-yard box ... and out the other side! How on earth did nobody get their boot to that? Lewandowski was an inch or so away from connecting at the near post. And breathe.
67 min: Lewandowski, irritated by his lack of service, drops deep down the left flank. He swings a high ball into the area, but it’s easily fielded by Marshall.
66 min: A lot of whistling ringing around the Stadion Narodowy. Scotland are doing a fine job right now. But there’s plenty to do yet.
63 min: That was Sobota’s last act. He’s replaced by Mila, one of Poland’s weekend heroes against Germany.
62 min: Grosicki tears down the right. The ball pinballs to Sobota, just inside the box on the right. Sobota hooks inside, where Milik is free, eight yards out. He plants a header goalwards, but over the bar. Marshall would have had no chance if that was on target. Milik holds his head in his hands.
60 min: Maloney twists along the left, in the middle of the pitch. A frustrated Krychowiak comes straight through the back of him as he turns, and is booked. To the Pole’s credit, there is not a single word of complaint.
59 min: Scotland are stroking it around with a little more confidence now. After Anya wanders up and down the left, the ball’s slid inside for Morrison, who attempts to fire a heatseeker into the top left from the best part of 30 yards. Over the bar, though not by much.
GOAL!!! Poland 1-2 Scotland (Naismith 57)
Krychowiak rather cynically nudges Maloney as the Scot heads down the left wing. A free kick, 40 yards out. Morrison swings a long ball into the box, towards the far post. The Polish back line is flat footed. Naismith springs clear, sticks a leg out, and with a little twist of the right boot, shuttles the ball on and into the bottom-right corner! That’s a very deft finish. And after being on the rack since the restart, Scotland are in the lead!
55 min: Scotland can’t keep hold of the ball at all. Grosicki curls a pass down the right channel for Milik. Marshall is forced to race out of his box to chest the ball down and hoick clear.
53 min: Poland pass it around awhile in the middle of the park. Suddenly Sobota is tearing towards the box down the inside-right channel. Martin does well to come across and guide the ball out of play for a throw, and Scotland mop up. Poland have really stepped it up since the restart.
50 min: Scotland are on the rack a little here, for the first time in the game. Anya clatters into Grosicki down the Polish right, allowing the hosts to load the box for the resulting free kick. Marshall eventually claims, but only after a fashion.
Updated
49 min: Scotland win a free kick down the right, but Maloney’s delivery is poor, and Poland sweep the ball clear. Suddenly there’s a break on! Piszczek is in acres down the right, and is allowed to barge the only man in his road, Anya, to the ground. The ball’s lashed into the centre, but to little effect.
47 min: Poland are soon coming back at Scotland, and win a corner down the right. Glik meets the set piece on the edge of the area, heading forward for Milik, who lashes wildly over the bar from close range. The hosts have come out of the blocks here.
46 min: An early scare for Scotland, as Whittaker is nutmegged by Piszczek down the right. The Poland right-back enters the area, but his low cross pinballs all the way through the box and out the other side, somehow avoiding all of the home side’s attackers. “That half-time film reminds me of the guy who ate a can of floor polish,” begins Mark Readdie. “Horrible end. But a beautiful finish.” He’s here all week, ladies and gentlemen, try the Pledge.
And we're off again!
Scotland get the ball rolling for the second half. No changes.
Updated
Half-time advertisement public information film:
I typed “Polish advert” into Google. Google isn’t perfect.
HALF TIME: Poland 1-1 Scotland
And that’s that for the half. Scotland will be pretty pleased with the scoreline, their response to going a goal down, and indeed their overall performance.
44 min: Now it’s Poland’s turn for a bit of lax play. Maloney nips ahead of a dozing Szukala and slips the ball down the right for Anya, who sends a cross into the box. Naismith, in the middle, is shaping to lash home first time, but the ball’s cleared. Shame, not least because it would have been a carbon copy of Janos Farkas’s classic for Hungary against Brazil at the 1966 World Cup (which Scotland weren’t at, because of Poland).
42 min: Brown, in the middle of his own half, falls a-kip. To a soundtrack of loud snoring, Lewandowski nips in from behind and robs the Scotland captain, then hares off towards the area. He feeds Maczynski to his left; the resulting shot is blocked. Scotland breathe again. Brown should be thanking his defence at the break; that was appallingly slack.
40 min: Lewandowski looks to break down the inside-right channel. He’ll be clear on goal if he nudges it past Martin, 30 yards out, but the Scottish defender stands firm. Fine play all round.
39 min: Poland so nearly break on Scotland’s goal. Hutton is sleeping as Jedrzejczyk threads a delightful ball down the left flank for Sobota, who squares for Lewandowski. It looks like a second goal for Poland, but Whittaker is alive and across to hack clear just before the striker can pull the trigger. A brilliant clearance, but that was a lovely move by the Poles.
38 min: Scotland are stroking it around the back again. With each pass, the travelling Tartan Army emit fate-tempting screams of “Olé!” Please don’t do that. No good can come of that.
36 min: Glik is back.
35 min: Glik is off the pitch, getting some bandages and an orange sack applied to his head, after taking a whack over his right eye. Fletcher’s elbow was to blame as the pair tussled in the middle of the park. Purely accidental. While Poland’s centre back is away, Fletcher himself goes for goal 25 yards out. That really would have been adding insult to injury, but the shot’s dragged well wide right.
32 min: Scotland are doing pretty well in the midfield, too, controlling their fair share of possession. However they’re also playing a very high line. Whittaker had to do the full Jinky Johnstone through the centre circle there, avoiding three challenges. If he’d not made it through and lost the ball, it was three on one. I fear a goal on the break for Poland.
29 min: Whittaker has a little time down the left. His cross is awful, and looks like flying out of play to the right of goal, but Fletcher, on the byline, hooks back brilliantly. Glik clears just before Naismith, on the penalty spot, can connect. Poland aren’t all that clever at the back, but Scotland are attacking with vigour.
28 min: Maloney goes on a skedaddle down the inside-right channel and is hauled to the floor by Krychowiak, 30 yards from goal. Scotland load the box. Again, though, Maloney can’t beat the first man at a set piece. It’s hard to criticise him after the brilliance of his strike, though. So let’s not.
25 min: A ball whipped into the Scottish area from the Poland left. Sobota stoops with the intention of heading home, six yards out, level with the right-hand post, but Whittaker is on his shoulder, and puts him off, the ball flying out of play. The crowd appeal for a tug on Sobota’s shirt, but the player makes no great claim.
22 min: It’s Grosicki v Marshall at the moment. Grosicki takes the corner and Marshall makes a nine-course tasting menu of gathering a simple ball at the near post. The keeper is looking nervous right now. He looks to throw the ball upfield and checks mid-arc. For a second, you fear he’s going to let that squirm towards the empty net. Good God, man, don’t do that! Have you never heard of Gary Sprake?!
21 min: Corner to Poland down the left. The noise here is something else. Grosicki’s set piece is punched clear with confidence by Marshall. There’s not as much confidence in what he does next. Grosicki picks up the loose ball and, from 20 yards, has a whack for the bottom left. Lucky for Scotland that it’s not on target, because Marshall fumbles it behind for another corner. He should have claimed.
GOAL!!! Poland 1-1 Scotland (Maloney 18)
This is a picture-book goal! Fletcher, his back to goal 40 yards down the inside-right channel, turns and sprays a delightful diagonal pass towards Anya on the left-hand edge of the Polish box. Anya takes a touch and a stride forward, then cuts a low ball back towards Maloney on the penalty spot. Maloney opens his body and sidefoots hard into the bottom-right corner. A perfectly placed shot, leaving Szczesny no chance! What a response by Scotland! That’s as good a goal as you’ll see in this international break.
17 min: A few whistles as Scotland try the passing thing upfield a bit, in the centre of the park. Poland seem happy enough for the visitors to do this, for they’re going nowhere. Martin eventually gets fed up and blooters long for Anya, but accuracy comes at a premium, and Szczesny claims with ease.
14 min: Well, so much for Poland’s sluggish start. The atmosphere in the stadium really is quite something now. Scotland are knocking the ball around the back again, presumably in an attempt to clear their heads. There are worse ideas. Scotland were fairly lively in those opening exchanges; that goal will have come as a blow.
GOAL! Poland 1-0 Scotland (Maczynski 12)
Poland knock it around the front of the Scottish area. Hutton prods the ball nearly two centimetres back upfield. Maczynski, in a central position on the edge of the D, lashes a low shot towards the bottom right, off the base of the post, and into the net. A lovely finish, but what a dismal attempted clearance by Hutton!
11 min: Whittaker heads lamely upfield from the edge of the Scottish area. The ball drops to Lewandowski, who prepares to hammer a shot goalwards from 25 yards. Greer prods the ball away with his studs, but catches Lewandowski’s shin too. That’s a pretty poor challenge. It should be a free kick, and a booking, but it’s neither. Never mind, because from the resulting throw...
9 min: Poland haven’t managed to put anything together yet, but there’s time. Lewandowski is putting himself about a bit. Piszczek is fed the ball in space down the Polish right, but with men in the area, hoofs a hopeless centre deep into the stand behind the goal.
6 min: Hutton, sent into space down the right by Naismith, wins a corner off Polish Left Back. Maloney’s set piece doesn’t beat the first man. Poland clear but Scotland come back at the hosts. Glik takes Fletcher out to the right of the D, and Scotland should have a free kick in a dangerous position, but the striker’s given nothing.
4 min: Scotland have started fairly comfortably, but on the touchline, Gordon Strachan is doing a lot of pointing and shouting. Perchance the lyrical deployment of a little swear word or two. He’s got a pen and notepad, too, but unlike his predecessor Craig Levein, doesn’t seem too interested in taking notes. I prefer Strachan’s back-to-basics style, but each to their own I guess.
2 min: A belting atmosphere in the Stadion Narodowy tonight. Greer, making his full debut as a 33 year old, is allowed plenty of time on the ball as Scotland stroke it around the back in the style of Liverpool circa 1979. The home crowd aren’t too happy at Poland’s perceived reluctance to press.
And we're off!
Poland get the ball rolling. Nothing against the guy, but here’s hoping their left back Artur Jedrzejczyk doesn’t get too many crucial touches of the ball tonight.
The teams are out! Poland are playing in their white shirts and red shorts, while Scotland are in their famous dark blue shirts and famous white blue shorts. “Tonight will end 1-1: a ‘good point’,” predicts Lou Roper. “But we do know how it will end, of course, since Gibraltar (home and away) await. Should there be space dedicated at Hampden to honour minnows who have brought the Tartan Army to distraction: Iran, the Faroes, etc.?” Dedicate space at Hampden to what now? The place would have to be bigger than the Maracana in 1950!
The national anthems:
Poland has not yet perished
So long as we still live!
What the alien force has taken from us
We shall retrieve with a sabre!
Help ma boab! A lively old waltz, this one, and in terms of sheer bellicosity, certainly up there with Scotland’s national anthem 500 Miles Chelsea Dagger Flower of Scotland.
The teamsheets
Poland: Szczesny, Piszczek, Szukala, Glik, Jedrzejczyk, Grosicki, Maczynski, Krychowiak, Sobota, Lewandowski, Milik.
Subs: Boruc, Cionek, Wojtkowiak, Teodorczyk, Rybus, Wawrzyniak, Olkowski, Mila, Starzynski, Zyro, Kucharczyk, Fabianski.
Scotland: Marshall, Hutton, Russell Martin, Greer, Whittaker, Maloney, Morrison, Brown, Anya, Steven Fletcher, Naismith.
Subs: Gordon, Chris Martin, Berra, Bryson, Forsyth, Bannan, McArthur, Darren Fletcher, Burke, Robertson, May, Gilks.
Referee: Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)
Steven Whittaker and Gordon Greer come into the Scotland team. Whittaker replaces young Andrew Robertson at left back, the Hull defender dropping to the bench, while Greer is in for the injured Grant Hanley. Ikechi Anya keeps his place after overcoming a calf strain picked up in training.
Some pre-match chat. Iain Cameron would like to pull me up for suggesting in the preamble that Gordon Strachan’s predecessor, the absurd technocrat Craig Levein, had some ‘fancy systems’. “Since when did parking the bus against everyone, including Lichtenstein (and generally parking it badly at that) count as ‘fancy systems’?” He’s making a fair enough point, dear reader. Although isn’t a team with no striker a fancy system? It’s just not a very good one. I think we’re in broad agreement here. But what a beard!
Meanwhile here’s Simon McMahon. “My mind is drawn to March this year, when the signs of a new Strachan inspired Scotland were clearly evident in a fine 1-0 win in Poland. But it was a friendly, and I confidently predicted that we’d be on the end of a 3-0 shellacking when the real business took place tonight. Cos this is Scotland. And, as you say, we all know how this ends. But, to quote Martin Luther King (or was it Elvis?), as long as a man has the strength to dream, he can redeem his soul and fly. Deep in my heart there’s a trembling question, Still I am sure that the answers gonna come, somehow. Out there in the dark, there’s a beckoning candle. And while I can think, while I can talk, While I can stand, while I can walk, While I can dream, please let my dream, come true, right now. Let it come true, right now. Oh yeah.” Ladies and gentlemen, a round of applause, not so much for Simon but the nutritional benefits of bevvy. It’s the taste!
A little bit of history. Poland and Scotland have only met in competitive football on two occasions. Both matches were in the qualifiers for the 1966 World Cup, where the Poles would effectively do for a Scottish team desperate to tag along to England’s party. The teams drew in Chorzow, Denis Law securing what looked like a decent point with a 76th-minute goal. But back at Hampden, Scotland blew it spectacularly. Leading through a 13th-minute Billy McNeill goal, they utterly dominated the match, only for Law to suffer a rare off day. He missed three good chances, and the Scots would pay.
Scotland, reported the Guardian, “lapsed into their old over-confident ways” against the Poles - “rugged men and hard runners with or without the ball. And sure enough, on 85 minutes, Eddie McCreadie’s mistake allowed Jan Liberda to lob an equaliser. Then a minute later, utter disaster, as Jerzy Sadek outstripped John Greig and slipped the ball between Bill Brown’s legs. Scotland were jeered and slow-handclapped off, their hopes of making it to England ‘66 severely jiggered. Even a 1-0 win over eventual group winners Italy couldn’t save them.
Older Scottish fans may feel they owe Poland one, then. They can take succour from the fact that, while Poland’s record in eight matches against Scotland is an in-credit W3 D3 L2 (W1 D1 in competitive games), their home record isn’t quite so decent: W1 D2 L2. Let’s see how this pans out, then.
Hello, halò, witam!
When the whistle blew at the end of Scotland’s recent Euro 2016 qualifier in Germany, Gordon Strachan took a couple of determined steps onto the pitch while peeling off his jacket in the pub-car-park style, and made a beeline for the referee. Thankfully for all concerned, he quickly thought better of getting in the official’s grille, or booting him foursquare up the trousers, and as a result nobody’s now facing a custodial sentence. But just for a minute there, it was so sweet! A little bit of passion in international football! An unfashionable concept these days, passion, but you have to remember that Scotland fans recently had to put up with absurd technocrat Craig Levein† and his fancy systems, all drawn out in mechanical pencil, so this is a major improvement in the grand scheme of things.
Strachan has been good for Scotland. Very good. Since taking over, you could say his record is an approximate definition of average - won seven, drawn two, lost five. However, four of those defeats came in his first six matches. There’s been a marked improvement in the following eight games: Scotland have only been defeated by the world champions Germany, unluckily on the balance of play, too, in a match which should have seem Erik Durm sent off. Hence the wee man peeling off his outer garments in preparation for a rigorous debate. Scotland are in good nick. They’ve a stock of reliable goalkeepers, the midfield is blessed with solid if not necessarily spectacular talent, Steven Naismith is one of the most consistent and hard-working forwards in the Premier League, and Ikechi Anya is better than Garrincha. Strachan’s got the defence, not blessed with stars, playing as a team; they’re able to close out 1-0 wins against Georgia with the team not playing particularly well. (Hey, baby steps.) They’re in a decent place. Watching Scotland is fun again, even if we all know how it’s going to end.
Yes. Banana skins, designed by nature specifically to put a stop to the Scottish national football team’s gallop, lie in wait around every corner. And oh look, here come Poland! Now, at the start of the year, the Scots came to Warsaw and won, Scott Brown scoring late on. But things have changed. Specifically, while Scotland have their hard-luck story against Germany to tell, the Poles have a fairytale against the same opposition. They’ve just famously beaten their neighbours and rivals for the first time ever, and it’s fair to say their tails are up as a result. They top Group D, and this time they’ll host the Scots with Robert Lewandowski in their line-up. A Bayern Munich striker, up against a defence featuring players from Hull City, Brighton and Hove Albion and Norwich City. God speed, Scotland! Poland therefore go into this match as favourites, but then the Scots have been magnificent away from home under Strachan - as well as Poland, they’ve won in Croatia, Macedonia and Norway - so they won’t be heading into the Stadion Narodowy tonight feeling too sorry for themselves. You never know, they might even be thinking that it’s on. And they’d be right! Because it’s on!!!
Kick off: 8.45pm in Warsaw, 7.45pm back in Glasgow.
† Admittedly I do miss Levein’s bellwether beard, which would vary in length on a scale from Noel Edmonds to Alfresco Buckfast Consumer and as far as Cap’n Roy Keane, depending on mood, serving as an easy-to-read metaphor for the bedraggled state of the team. But that’s another issue altogether.
