World Cup report: Poland 2 – 0 Saudi Arabia

Macdara Ferris reports from Education City Stadium

Having claimed a stunning victory over Argentina in their opening game, there were doubts could Saudi Arabia back that up against Poland. They did that in terms of their performance but ultimately they came away with no points in a pulsating game against a Polish side who were ruthless with the chances that came their way. 

Poland, who played out a scoreless draw with Mexico in their tournament opener, were thankful in the first half for Wojciech Szczesny’s penalty save and Piotr Zielinski’s goal with Robert Lewandowski wrapping up the win late on as he put behind him his penalty miss against central Americans.

There was an incredible atmosphere in Education Stadium on Saturday afternoon with the Group C game feeling like it was a home match for Saudi Arabia.

The venue’s green and white seating helped and the Saudi supporters either wearing the team’s colour of green or the traditional white Bisht and thawb filled the venue. Saudi supporters had streamed over the border to cheer on their team and heartily boo the Polish side.

Somehow Poland led at the break. It was a surprise not only as they were second best for much of the opening half but also as the Saudi’s had contrived to miss a VAR awarded penalty and the resulting follow up from the miss but it would be dissentious not to highlight the super double save from Wojciech Szczesny when facing that spot kick.

Poland’s physical manner had them in the bad books with Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio who put three of them in his book withing the first 20 minutes of the match. 

A dozen minutes in and the Juventus goalkeeper made his first save of the game pushing over Kanno’s effort after a good one-two with Abdulhamid down the right. 

Three minutes later Albreik did well with a physical but fair challenge on Frankowski in a one-on-one. Mistime that and the Lens forward was in on goal or it could have been a red card for the Saudi full back. 

Krystian Bielik’s header was on target but Al-Shehri headed clear and Mohammed al-Owais was well placed anyway to save if his teammate hadn’t got in the way.

The European side took the lead in the 39^th minute off a sweeping six man move from back to front. It started with Szczesny playing it long but accurately to Matty Cash. He found Piotr Frankowski who fed Lewandowski. Alowais came out to close him down but the Barcelona man had the presence to get on the ball and pull it back for Zielinski to smash a right foot effort home.

On the cusp of the board going up to show the first half injury time, Bielik pushed Saleh Alshehri over in the box. It has to be said he went down with a bit too much ease but following a VAR review by the sideline the referee awarded the spotkick. 

Szczesny saved it in spectacular fashion diving to his right and then he got up to push over Alburayk's follow up over to keep his side in the lead at the break. 

Ten minutes into the second half there was a mad scramble in the box which saw Aldawsari force another save from Szczesny- this time with his legs - after the ball came back off the backside of Bielik to the Saudi striker.

With an hour on the clock Albrikan was slipped in on goal but he blazed over the bar this time without making Szczesny work to keep him at bay.

Poland in a short period just after the hour mark twice hit the Saudi woodwork. First Lewandowski held the ball up to feed Frankowski and his cross was met by a diving header by Milik who smashed the ball off the Saudi crossbar. 

Then Lewandowski’s trailing leg deflected the ball onto the post but back out to safety from a Saudi perspective.

Saudi pressed forward creating more space for Poland to exploit but Alowals swept off his line at times to stop Lewandowsi getting in. Almaki’s low shot had Szczesny scrambling across to get his hand to it but it just drifted beyond the post.

It was all for nothing though for Herve Renard’s side as Lewandowski punished an error by Almalki who allowed the ball to get under his foot to run to the Polish number nine on the edge of the area. He made no mistake to score his first ever World Cup goal and move Poland onto four points and above Saudi Arabia in the table.

Poland: Wojciech Szczesny; Matty Cash, Kamil Glik, Jakub Kiwior, Bartosz Bereszynski; Grzegorz Krychowiak, Krystian Bielik; Arkadiusz Milik, Piotr Zielinski (Krzysztof Piatek 63), Przemyslaw Frankowski; Robert Lewandowski.
Subs not used: Lukasz Skorupski, Kamil Grabara, Robert Gumny, Mateusz Wieteska, Jan Bednarek, Artur Jedrzejczyk, Nicola Zalewski, Szymon Zurkowski, Kamil Grosicki, Michal Skoras, Sebastian Szymanski, Damian Szymanski, Karol Swiderski. 
Booked: Jakub Kiwior (15), Matty Cash (16), Arkadiusz Milik (20). 
Sent off: None. 

Saudi Arabia: Mohammed al-Owais; Saud Abdulhamid, Abdulelah Al-Amri, Ali al-Bulaihi, Mohammed al-Breik (Sultan Al-Ghannam 65); Abdulellah Al-Malki; Sami Al-Najei (Nawaf Al-Abed 46), Mohamed Kanno; Firas Al-Buraikan, Saleh Al-Shehri (Nasser Al-Dawsari 85), Salem Al-Dawsari.
Subs not used: Nawaf Al-Aqidi, Mohammed Al-Rubaie, Hassan Tambakti, Yasser al-Shahrani, Abdullah Madu, Abdullah Otayf, Abdulrahman Al-Aboud, Riyadh Sharahili, Ali Al-Hassan, Salman al-Faraj, Haitham Asiri. 
Booked: Abdulellah Al-Malki (21) Abdulelah Al-Amri (45). 
 

Referee: Wilton Sampaio (Brazil) 
Attendance: 44,259
extratime.com Player of the Match: Wojciech Szczesny (Poland)

Argentina ready to bounce back after ‘big blow’ from Saudi defeat https://t.co/ntVQwbK7hTpic.twitter.com/RGSZ6a974d

— Extratime.com (@ExtratimeNews) November 26, 2022