{"id":27700,"date":"2022-11-26T18:54:19","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T18:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=27700"},"modified":"2022-11-26T18:54:20","modified_gmt":"2022-11-26T18:54:20","slug":"qatar-world-cup-poland-beats-saudi-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2022\/11\/26\/qatar-world-cup-poland-beats-saudi-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar World Cup: Poland beats Saudi 2-0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before kick-off Herv\u00e9 Renard denied that Saudi Arabia\u2019s government had gifted his players a Rolls Royce apiece in recognition of their achievement in beating Argentina last week. The Green Falcons\u2019 French manager reminded everyone his team had not escaped the group stage yet and, Robert Lewandowski revelled in reinforcing the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland\u2019s record scorer not only finally registered his first World Cup goal but created Piotr Zielenski\u2019s opener as Renard\u2019s initially dominant team missed a penalty and ultimately ran out of steam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barely two minutes had elapsed before Lewandowski was left limping following a full-blooded Saudi challenge. It was cheered to the rafters by a full house at Education City where the overwhelmingly Saudi-supporting crowd had transformed the stadium into a sea of green, and every time a Poland player touched the ball they were booed like pantomime villains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The atmosphere served as a tailwind for Renard\u2019s vibrant side and it took an excellent save by Wojciech Szczesny to palm a shot over the bar from the impressive Mohammed Kano. Invariably half a yard off the pace at this juncture, Poland appeared in danger of being submerged by wave upon wave of Saudi attacks and it spoke volumes that, as early as the 20th minute, their mounting frustration had seen three of Czeslaw Michniewicz\u2019s players booked.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That trio included Aston Villa\u2019s Matty Cash, a right-back Renard\u2019s side seemed particularly eager to provoke into the collection of a second yellow card. Lewandowski was so starved of service that he dropped ever deeper in search of the ball. At one point Poland\u2019s record goalscorer could even be spotted occupying the right-back role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in the 39th minute, Cash for once succeeded in overlapping down the right and although Lewandowski could not quite control his cross in the manner he had hoped, Poland\u2019s captain laid it off to Piotr Zielsinki. As Zielsinki\u2019s fabulous first-time volley flew into the roof of the net, Lewandowski smiled for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was only his side\u2019s second chance, Saudi Arabia\u2019s Saleh al-Shehri having earlier diverted Krystian Bielik\u2019s header to safety. The same pair were involved in a rather more significant incident at the other end when Bielik caught Shehri on an ankle in the area and, following a VAR review, a penalty was given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Poland\u2019s<\/a>
Poland\u2019s Wojciech Szczesny saves the follow-up shot from Saudi Arabia\u2019s Mohammed al-Breik after saving a penalty from Salem al-Dawsari. Photograph: Peter Bryne\/PA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It was a soft award and the kick was disappointingly executed by Salem al-Dawsari, whose poor shot was saved low by Szczesny. The former Arsenal goalkeeper then performed acrobatic wonders to somehow tip the follow-up shot from Mohammed al-Breik over the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Szczesny\u2019s double-save was up there with the finest goalkeeping interventions seen at the World Cup. By now it was dark in Doha and Renard desperately needed one of his players to switch the lights back on for his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Poland\u2019s back four \u2013 Michniewicz had switched from his more familiar defensive trio specifically for this game \u2013 held firm. Indeed Poland might have increased their advantage but saw a header from Arkadiusz Milik and a shot from Lewandowski, who by now was joining the attacking dots for Poland, hit the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this stage the tiring Green Falcons had lost their earlier shape and structure and looked to be interchanging positions at will, but urged on by the hyperactive Renard, whose touchline exertions had left his trademark fitted white shirt thoroughly soaked in sweat, they remained dangerous. Or at least they did until Abdullah al-Malki\u2019s poor touch permitted Lewandowski to snatch the ball off his toes before directing a low left-foot shot under the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewandowski claims to always sleep on his left side in order to preserve the power of his slightly stronger right foot, but the left looked pretty good here. It was his 77th goal in a Poland shirt and left both sides with much to play for in their final group games, when Lewandowski and co face Argentina and Saudi Arabia Mexico.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before kick-off Herv\u00e9 Renard denied that Saudi Arabia\u2019s government had gifted his players a Rolls Royce apiece in recognition of their achievement in beating Argentina last week. The Green Falcons\u2019 French manager reminded everyone his team had not escaped the group stage yet and, Robert Lewandowski revelled in reinforcing the point. Poland\u2019s record scorer not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":27701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4173,285,2824,11394,7331,8924,9331,9171,8875,9478,423,5500,6351,7090,803,2264,10634,12791,1510,11973,13256,837,10917,8552,11093,2148,5365,8666,5702,8160,1364,11259,6571,3954,36,5248,594,9294],"class_list":["post-27700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-argentina","tag-arsenal","tag-aston-villa","tag-attacks","tag-cash","tag-chance","tag-city","tag-crowd","tag-doha","tag-dropped","tag-education","tag-fifa","tag-french","tag-games","tag-goalkeeper","tag-government","tag-lost","tag-manager","tag-mexico","tag-one","tag-players","tag-poland","tag-poor","tag-qatar","tag-reminded","tag-robert-lewandowski","tag-rolls-royce","tag-saidi-arabia","tag-saleh","tag-saudi","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-shot","tag-white","tag-will","tag-world","tag-world-cup","tag-who","tag-yellow-card"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}