Despite making his comeback from injury, Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski was unable to assist Poland win their first point in the Euro 2024 group stage as the Poles lost 3-1 to Austria in their second Group D match in Berlin. Though they are not mathematically eliminated yet, Lewandowski and his team’s destiny is all but certain with zero points from two games before the group finals against favourites France. They battled valiantly, but were not the best in the crucial moments.
Lewandowski sat on the bench for the whole first half as Austria, riding high on the pitch after their thrilling performance against France, scored after just 10 minutes through a header from Gernot Trauner. In the opening twenty-five minutes, Austria appeared to be the clear favourites to win all three points. They were by much the superior team and could have easily added one or two more goals.
Despite the early downpour, Poland managed to weather the storm and gradually gained momentum in the game. Their direct style resulted in numerous long balls and crosses into the box, and they continued to do so until Krzysztof Piatek’s striker passed the ball into the net to equalise for the Polish.
With the promise of additional excitement and Lewandowski’s tournament debut in the second half, the first half came to an end with the blow of the halftime whistle.
The tournament’s top scorer, Piatek, was replaced by Poland’s talisman, Lewandowski, in the 60th minute. Lewandowski did not display any symptoms of the thigh injury that had sidelined him for the first 120 minutes of play. He was involved in several duels with Austrian center-backs and was once given a yellow card for elbowing Philipp Lienhart.
However, Lewandowski was powerless to stop the outstanding play that saw his team go behind twice:
Christoph Baumgartner was released by an excellent pass from Alexander Prass and a stunning dummy by Marko Arnautovic. Baumgartner then put Austria back ahead by passing the ball into the corner from the edge of the box.
The clock was ticking down quickly for Poland to salvage a spot in the knockout stage, but with fifteen minutes remaining, Marcel Sabitzer’s one-on-one with Wojciech Szczesny proved fatal when the custodian fouled him inside the box. Austria won the match with ease after Arnautovic’s penalty kick.
Poland started to lose control of the game as they started pushing forward in a desperate attempt to tie the score, but they gave themselves plenty of room to grow and could have easily given up again in the last seconds. The final whistle sealed Poland’s fate, but no further goals were scored.
The only way Poland could realistically qualify for Euro 2024 in third place with an unlikely win over Les Bleus in the last group game is if France loses to the Netherlands. But, the likelihood is that Poland’s Euro 2024 odyssey will come to an end next Tuesday. Lewandowski’s attempt to play even though he was presumably not physically strong enough demonstrates both his character and the weaknesses of the team he was playing with.
It appears that the Poles will not be able to escape this group, which was always going to be terrible for them.
