Poland enter Tuesday\u2019s World Cup playoff final against Sweden seeking to end a winless run on Swedish soil that stretches back \u200cnearly a century.
\nThe match at the sold-out Strawberry Arena in Solna is a winner-takes-all clash for a place in the tournament finals in North America and for Poland, it offers a chance to end a dismal sequence of results, having not won in Sweden since a 3-0 friendly victory in Stockholm in 1930.
\nSince then, Poland have endured eight losses and two draws in Sweden.
\n“It depends on whether \u2060we look at the statistics,” Poland coach Jan Urban told reporters earlier in the week when asked if the winless streak would have an impact on Tuesday’s match. “Apparently, it has been nearly 100 years since we won a match in Sweden. This will be a completely different encounter.”
\nWhile Sweden hold the historical edge, Poland can draw confidence from more recent events.
\nThe two nations met in the 2022 World Cup playoffs, with Poland earning a 2-0 victory at home in Chorzow to secure their spot in Qatar.
\nSWEDEN HIT FORM
\nAfter a disappointing qualifying campaign, Sweden are showing signs of improvement under new coach Graham Potter, beating Ukraine 3-1 in their playoff semi-final \u200cwhile \u2060Poland fought to a 2-1 win over Albania.
\n“On paper, Sweden are the strongest team in this bracket,” Urban told reporters on Monday. “Potter\u2019s team confirmed their quality against Ukraine, but many unknowns remain. We don’t yet know how they will behave in a more difficult scenario – for example, if they are trailing.”
\nThe match could mark the end of an era for Poland\u2019s \u2060experienced core.
\nCaptain Robert Lewandowski, 37, has indicated he is approaching the final stage of his career, while midfielder Piotr Zielinski, 31, remains a key figure.
\n\u201cI’m not afraid to end my career because I’m starting to prepare for it, to prepare \u2060things I can do after football,\u201d Lewandowski said in January. \u201cI know it’s a very important part of my life, but it’s not everything.\u201d
\nFailure to qualify would likely trigger an immediate overhaul of the national side, signalling \u2060the end for a generation that made Poland a fixture at major tournaments.
\n“The World Cup is the most important tournament in every footballer’s career. Tomorrow we’ll play a decisive match to fulfil our dreams and write more history,” winger Jakub Kaminski said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Poland enter Tuesday\u2019s World Cup playoff final against Sweden seeking to end a winless run on Swedish soil that stretches back \u200cnearly a century. The match at the sold-out Strawberry Arena in Solna is a winner-takes-all clash for a place in the tournament finals in North America and for Poland, it offers a chance to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3294,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3288\/revisions\/3294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}