Mini football figure - Poland

Poland

The Polish national football team is the football team of the Central European country of Poland and officially represents the Polish Football Association. Their greatest successes to date include winning the 1972 Olympics and two third-place finishes at the 1974 and 1982 World Cups.

History

The Polish Football Association was founded in 1919. In 1923, the association joined FIFA and has officially played international matches ever since.

During the German occupation in World War II, Poles were banned from playing football and the football association was declared dissolved by the occupation authorities. A total of nine former Polish national players were murdered by the occupying forces. Tey were shot as Polish officers.

Poland has participated in World Cups seven times so far, with the most successful period of Polish football being in the 1970s. In 1972, it achieved its greatest success to date when the then team became Olympic football champions at the Summer Games in Munich. Two years later, the team finished third in the World Cup in Germany, a result they repeated in Spain in 1982. Two more Olympic silver medals came in Montreal in 1976 and Barcelona in 1992.

In contrast, qualifying for European football championships was not very successful for a long time. Even during the golden era of the 1970s, no Polish team qualified. It was not until the qualifying round for the 2008 European Football Championship that Poland qualified for the first time. At the 2012 tournament, the team automatically qualified as hosts alongside Ukraine. The Poles also successfully completed the qualifying rounds for the 2016 and 2021 European Football Championships.

1938 World Cup in France

The Polish team failed in the first round with 5:6 after extra time against Brazil. The match is considered one of the best and most dramatic in tournament history. Ernst Willimowski became the first player in the history of the World Cup finals to score four goals in this match.

1974 World Cup in Germany

Poland qualified for the tournament by playing the 1966 World Champions England. A national hero celebrated in Poland to this day is Domarski the goal scorer at Wembley,. The draw, however, brought no less high-calibre opponents: the 1970 World Cup runners-up Italy, the secret favourites Argentina and the outsiders Haiti. The Poles' first game immediately ensured that their powerful attacking football made them one of the most popular teams of the tournament. Argentina was defeated 3:2. After an unchallenged 7-0 victory over Haiti, they knocked the big favourites Italy out of the tournament with a 2-1 win. In the Second Final Round, which was played in groups for the first time, the Poles met the hosts Germany, Sweden and Yugoslavia. After two narrow victories with 1:0 over Sweden and 2:1 over Yugoslavia, a real semi-final was played against the German team, which had also been victorious so far. In the legendary water battle in Frankfurt, the technically better team lost to Germany 0:1, failing mainly because of Sepp Maier after 90 minutes of running at the German goal. It didn't help that Poland could boast an equal goalkeeper. Jan Tomaszewski saved a penalty kick from Uli Hoeneß in the 53rd minute.

In the match for third place against the defending champions Brazil, Poland won 1:0 with a goal by Grzegorz Lato, who was also the tournament's top scorer with seven goals.

Football World Cup 1978 in Argentina

After the successes of the last World Cup and the last two Olympic Games, the pressure to succeed from home was enormous for the Polish team. They expected to improve on their third-place finish in 1974, but this was much more difficult in Argentina. In addition, the golden team had also become a few years older. In the opening match against world champions Germany, they were the better team, but could not get beyond a 0-0 draw. With victories over Tunisia and Mexico, they reached the second round as group winners. However, they were very unlucky to lose to Brazil and Argentina. Only Peru was defeated 1:0.

1982 World Cup in Spain

Poland was in a serious political crisis in 1982. In December 1981, a state of war had been declared by General Jaruzelski and there were no great hopes at home when the team left for Spain. The first group games reflected the mood of the entire nation. A 0-0 draw against Italy seemed like a success, but the 0-0 draw against World Cup newcomers Cameroon was a disappointment. A brilliant 5:1 victory against Peru finally made them group winners. This victory seemed like a liberating blow, and in the second round the team around their new starplayer Boniek really turned up the heat. Belgium were beaten 3-0 almost single-handedly by Boniek, and a 0-0 draw against the arch-enemy Soviet Union was enough to get them into the semi-finals. Here they met Italy again, who, like Poland, had woken up in the meantime and no longer saw Poland as a hurdle after victories over Brazil and Argentina. So the semi-final was lost 0:2. In the match for third place, Poland then beat France, which was at the beginning of a great era with Michel Platini, 3-2. Boniek and Platini later became club mates at Juventus Turin.

1986 World Cup in Mexico

In 1986, Poland was convinced that with Boniek, one of Europe's superstars, they had a far more effective squad than in 1982. The disillusionment came in the first group match against Morocco. The result was no more than a 0-0 draw. A new mode of play, which also allowed third-placed teams to advance to the next round, ensured the decision in the second match. A 1-0 win over Portugal was a preliminary decision for qualification to the last 16. The 3-0 defeat against England no longer mattered. However, an emphatic 0:4 defeat against top favourites Brazil ended their journey in the round of 16. It took 16 years for a Polish national team to qualify for another World Cup.

World Cup 2002 in South Korea and Japan

After qualifying with flying colours, the euphoria among Polish fans was enormous, but the first problems surfaced in the run-up to the World Cup when the team had discussions about advertising money and bonuses. An extra-sporting scandal was the appearance of Polish pop star Edyta Górniak. She sang the Polish national anthem in a peculiar pop style before the first match, which caused great discussion in Poland. The match against co-host South Korea was lost with a bang 0-2. After the clear 0:4 defeat against Portugal, Poland was then already eliminated early. The 3-1 victory over the USA was highly deserved and could even have been higher, but was only of statistical value. In the final table of Group D, Poland finished fourth and last with 3 points and 3:7 goals from 3 matches.

Football World Cup 2006 in Germany

Poland qualified for the World Cup as one of the two best runners-up in the eight European qualifying groups. Out of the ten group matches, only two were lost, both to eventual group winners England. This raised high hopes among Polish football fans to finally return to great times after the disappointment of the last World Cup. However, the surprising opening defeat against Ecuador destroyed all hopes of a successful World Cup. An almost completely different team had travelled to Germany compared to the players in the qualifying round. The match against Ecuador was lost 0:2, after Poland was not always solid in defence and was sometimes clueless and unimaginative in attack, and in the end was also unlucky with two crossbar goals. The second match against the hosts Germany was lost 0:1. Poland were lucky to keep the score 0-0 until injury time thanks to their goalkeeper Artur Boruc, but after Sobolewski received a second yellow card for a tactical foul at the beginning of the final phase, the pressure on the Polish goal increased massively. After Klose and Ballack both hit the crossbar in the 90th minute, it was Neuville who scored the goal in the 90th +1 minute, which meant World Cup elimination for Poland due to Ecuador's victory the following day.

In the third match against Costa Rica, who were also eliminated at that point, Poland tried to make amends for their early World Cup exit, but the Polish team's play was strongly reminiscent of the two previous matches. In the end, the Polish team won a rather weak match 2-1 thanks to goals from Bartosz Bosacki and was eliminated from Group A in third place (3 games, 1 win and 2 losses, 2:4 goals (-2), 3 points) ahead of Costa Rica, three points behind the second place qualifying for the round of 16.

Football World Cup 2018 in Russia

Poland qualified for a World Cup finals tournament for the first time in 12 years. In qualifying, they had won their group directly with only one defeat ahead of Denmark. In Russia, Poland played Colombia, Japan and Senegal in Group H. After the draw, Poland and Robert Lewandowski were considered favourites alongside Colombia to qualify for the last 16. Already in the first match, Poland lost 1:2 to Senegal. After another defeat on matchday 2 against Colombia, Poland was already eliminated before the last matchday. The last match against Japan was won 1:0 with a goal by Jan Bednarek, but Poland still finished last in the group.

2022 World Cup in Qatar

In qualifying Group I, the Polish team beat Albania, Andorra, Hungary and San Marino to finish second behind England. In the wake of Russia's war against Ukraine, the Polish FA refused to play the play-off semi-final against the Russian team, which was subsequently excluded from the competition altogether. Poland received a bye and won the decisive match against Sweden 2:0 to secure their participation in the tournament in Qatar. Their group opponents are Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Argentina. Furthermore, Maciej Rybus was excluded from the team for the World Cup due to his work in Russia.

1960 European Football Championship in France

Poland took part in a European Championship for the first time in 1960. They lost to Spain in their first two matches in the round of 16 and therefore failed to qualify for the finals in France. However, it is not entirely clear whether the games up to and including the four-final match counted as qualifiers.

2008 European Football Championship in Austria and Switzerland

Poland qualified for a European Championship for the first time ever. In the only group with eight teams - in all other groups only seven were represented - Poland won the group ahead of the reigning World Cup runners-up Portugal. Poland travelled to the European Championship with the slogan ...bo liczy się sport i dobra zabawa! Translated, the slogan means ...because sport and real fun count! In the course of the preliminary round, Poland played in Group B against World Cup third-placed Germany, co-hosts Austria and Croatia. After a 2-0 defeat against the German team, for which Lukas Podolski scored both goals, they managed a 1-1 draw against Austria with a goal by Roger Guerreiro. The Austrian equaliser came from a penalty in injury time, which Ivica Vastić converted. After a 1-0 defeat in their last match against the Croatians, who had already won their group with a B team, Poland finished the group stage in fourth and last place and were eliminated.

2012 European Football Championship in Poland and Ukraine

As co-hosts, Poland did not have to qualify for the 2012 European Championship. In the preliminary round, the Poles played Greece in the opening match, followed by Russia and the Czech Republic. Although Robert Lewandowski scored the first goal of the European Championship in the opening match, after this match ended 1-1, as did the second against Russia, and Poland lost the third match against the Czech Republic 1-0, the team was eliminated after the group stage.

European Football Championship 2016 in France

Poland finished second in the qualifying group behind Germany, ahead of Ireland, Scotland, Georgia and Gibraltar, who were participating for the first time. Poland thus qualified for the finals once again. In the group stage of the tournament, the Polish national team beat Ukraine and Northern Ireland by 1-0 each, and drew with the DFB team (0-0). Poland finished second in the group on points with Germany, where they beat Switzerland on penalties. Granit Xhaka was the only player not to score, but instead sent his penalty to the left of the goal. Poland were eliminated from the tournament in the quarter-finals after another penalty shoot-out against eventual European champions Portugal. Jakub Błaszczykowski failed with his fourth penalty against Rui Patrício.

2021 European Football Championship

On 13 October 2019, Poland secured qualification for the 2021 European Football Championship with a 2-0 home win against North Macedonia. Poland was eliminated from the group stage after a loss to Slovakia, a draw against Spain and a defeat against Sweden.

1972 Summer Olympics in Munich

The 1972 Olympic Football Tournament took place from 26 August to 10 September. The draw for the preliminary round showed that the Polish team had to play one of the co-favourites right away in the preliminary round. The first opponents, Colombia and Ghana, were easily defeated 5:1 and 4:0 respectively. The decisive match for entry into the second group phase followed on the last match day against the GDR. Poland won 2-1 with two goals from centre-back Jerzy Gorgoń with Joachim Streich conceding. The second final round then brought a disappointment in the first match. Poland could not get past a 1-1 draw with Denmark, but then beat the big favourites, the Soviet Union, 2-1 in the second game. In the last match, Poland beat Morocco 5-0 to reach the final. In the final, Poland beat the Hungarian F team 2-1, having taken a 1-0 lead through Varadi just before half-time. Kazimierz Deyna equalised in the 47th minute and scored the winning goal himself in the 68th minute. The 1972 Olympic victory in Munich was the first major success in the history of Polish football.

1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal

The legendary coach Kazimierz Górski sat on the Polish bench for the last time at this tournament. As Olympic champions in 1972 and World Cup third-place finishers in 1974, the Polish team was the top favourite to win the gold medal again. So it was of course no surprise that the team once again played its way to the final. But this time, coach Georg Buschner's GDR team was the stronger. The Polish team again performed with great game culture, but the strikers had left the penetrating power of the previous years and the GDR won 3:1. Nevertheless, winning the silver medal is one of the historic great successes of Polish football.

1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona

The first Olympic Games after the political change in Europe brought an unexpected surprise for Polish football fans. Now it was no longer the state amateurs who competed, but a junior team that gave hope for the future. The future national coach Janusz Wójcik had young talented players at his disposal, who eliminated much stronger rated opponents such as Italy and Australia in the first rounds. The star of the team was the young centre-forward Andrzej Juskowiak, who was the tournament's top scorer and took the team to the final. They then lost 3-2 to hosts Spain in a dramatic final, but winning the silver medal is the greatest success since the legendary victories of the 1970s.