Group H favourites Poland left themselves work to do as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Senegal in their opening group game. It was a performance riddled with
90 Min | Jun 19, 2018
Group H favourites Poland left themselves work to do as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Senegal in their opening group game. It was a performance riddled with errors, with the Poles conceding two very avoidable goals, with the second stemming from a comedy of errors.
A mix up in the defence left M'baye Niang clean through on goal, Polish shot-stopper Wojciech Szczęsny rushed off his line to meet the forward but was left stranded in no man's land as Niang ran on to an open goal.
Poland's boss Adam Nawalka was understandably upset, and took to bemoaning his team's lack of quality which cost them at key moments.
Wyborcza quoted Nawalka as saying: "We made too many unforced mistakes, too many inaccuracies. Many elements in our game were very weak. We did not make the assumptions as we would like."
Nawalka claimed his tactics were spot on but the execution was not good enough from his players, also claiming that his have enough mental fortitude to overcome this setback.
"We knew that rivals would attack. However, the plan is one thing and the implementation is something completely different. We did not deal with the aggressive game."
Nawalka believes his side can still get out of the group stating: "Both goals were lost after our mistakes. We must learn from this. You have to take this defeat to the chest. We have enough strength and potential to join Colombia with the right attitude and fight for victory."
That game is now tightly poised as at least one of the Group H favourites will surely be exiting the World Cup in the group stages.