Poland, the team of the top scorer: five facts to know about Argentina's third rival in the World Cup in Qatar

Poland will be the rival of the closing of the group stage for the Argentine national team on Wednesday, November 30 at the Lusail Stadium: both make up Group C of the World Cup in Qatar along with Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

The qualification for the Qatar 2022 World Cup presented many problems for Poland. She was not a favorite to win her group in the qualifiers by sharing it with England, and she suffered until the last date, where she secured second place two points above Albania. In the next phase, he qualified for the culmine match by disqualifying Russia and then defeating Sweden 2-0 with category and thus securing his passage to the next World Cup.

Czesław Michniewicz, the coach, requires that his players be in excellent physical condition to fulfill one of the pillars of his tactic, which is to be dominant and put a lot of pressure on the opponent, ensuring that he does not have room to play his game. Another main feature is that he likes to play with two strikers to get the best out of the team's banner, Robert Lewandowski.

“The absolute basic element of our game in the attack must be to feed Lewandowski and the other attackers,” he explained at several press conferences. He added of the privilege of having the Bayern Munich striker on the squad: “We cannot afford to waste this potential. Not only does Poland have the best 'sniper' in the world, but overall, it has a very high level of attackers to choose from.”

1) A flexible coach hungry for glory

In early 2022, Pablo Sousa was dismissed and replaced by Czesław Michniewicz. The Polish coach had a lot of shooting at the local level and is nicknamed 'Mourinho' because of the similarities with the Portuguese coach. From the first press conference, he pointed directly to the Polish ego talking about the great traditions of the country and even referring to Pope John Paul II with the aim of gaining public support quickly.

The main change that led to his arrival at the bench of substitutes, in addition to the positive mentality that he always tries to instill, was tactical. Raised in the excellent local school of coaches he uses a very flexible hybrid training that could be planted as a 3-4-3 in numbers. Poland now plays with three defenders when they push forward, changing to four and even a line of five when they don't have the ball.

On the court, however, the beginning of his tenure was focused on achieving World Cup qualification. Doubts began to fall on the technical director because of his ambitious style. Czesław, however, never changed his attitude or beliefs and was always convinced that he can get the best out of this generation of players.

As a professional who believes in hard work and good communication, it is important for Michniewicz to focus first on the human being and then on the player. It tells players how important they are in their plans and that they have the addition that they speak a total of four languages fluently.

2) The need for a leap in hierarchical competencies

The rich history of the Polish national team at the global and continental levels has suffered strong ups and downs in recent years. The urgency of having a great contest became more of a necessity than a desire. Out in the first round of the recent Euro Cup reaping only one point and also eliminated in the group stage in Russia 2018, the outstanding debt is huge.

We have to go back to Euro 2016 to see a quarter-final for Poland, in which they fell to Portugal, which would ultimately be champions. He then highlighted the sad performance in the 2012 edition, in which he was home with Ukraine and was also left out with another poor performance in the initial phase. Hopes and pressures are concentrated on Robert Lewandowski, who hopes to be the leader of the squad that will seek to repeat the Polish exploits of the World Championships in Germany 1974 and Spain 1982.

3) Robert Lewandowski, the terror of the archers

If Poland can dream of great things, it is thanks to the enormous talent of its centre-forward. The former coach repeatedly admitted that he planned a game system that is responsible for nurturing Robert Lewandowski, who season after season demonstrates his power in front of the goal with the Bayern Munich jersey.

The 33-year-old is already the top scorer and the player with the most presences in Polish history. With a goal in the defining match against Sweden, he was also in charge of taking the first step towards Qatar 2022. “Bravo team, bravo fans! Anything is possible when you fight to the end and believe in victory. We're going to the World Cup,” he wrote on his Instagram account alongside a photo in which he is seen celebrating towards the grandstand full of fans.

However, on several occasions he was criticized for not representing the country in a good way in major parties. That is the big problem that Poland has: in the face of the great powers, the hierarchy always weighs on the other side and that is when Robert is most lonely. This time, with a more oiled and flexible game system, he hopes to break his mark of Russia and make it through the group stage.

4) The midfield driver: Piotr Zielinski

Although Piotr Zielinski is an architect in the middle of the countryside, he is not a natural leader. The talented Napoli steering wheel often talks to his game, and that is undoubtedly what he is doing this season, where he continues to average large numbers in both goals and assists.

“Zielinski is an exceptional player,” Michniewicz said of the midfielder. He added, giving an example: “I once heard Pep Guardiola talking about Phil Foden. He said he was a genius, an outstanding talent. But to reach the highest world level, you need to know when to change the pace of the game. Piotr has it. He sees everything. He perfectly feels the space between his teammates and the opponent. It has an incredible sense of time and the geometry of the tones. You can slow down or speed up the game with just one pass. He's a beautiful footballer. Sometimes he just needs a little more adrenaline. We will try to do it.”

There is no doubt in all of Italy about the talent that Zielinski has. Barcelona wanted him after all and even Jürgen Klopp once sent him a helicopter to talk about a transfer to Liverpool. Zielinski is the diamond of Poland with a big heart. The whole country expects it to shine brightly in Qatar.

5) Two participations to remember

Qatar will be the tenth participation of the Polish national team in the World Cups. The two most important presences of the European country in the highest football event were generated in Federal Germany 1974 and Spain 1982, when on both occasions it came in third place surprising the entire planet. An extremely talented generation that stayed on the verge of playing the title match: the locals and Italy were the executioners of hope.

In addition, it highlights a second round in Argentina 78 ′ and the round of 16 in both France 38 ′ and Mexico 86 ′. Unfortunately, in his last three performances, which were in Korea-Japan 02′, Germany 06′ and Russia 18′, he ended up leaving in the group stage.