2022 World Cup: Country profile – Poland

Factfile on Poland who are in World Cup Group C:

Best World Cup performance: Third place in 1974, 1982 

Honours: Olympic champions in 1972 

FIFA ranking: 26 

Main clubs: Legia Warsaw, Gornik Zabrze, Wisla Krakow, Ruch Chorzow, Lech Poznan 

How they qualified: Finished second in European qualifying Group I. Defeated Sweden 2-0 in play-off 

ALSO READ: 2022 World Cup: Country profile – Mexico

Coach: Czeslaw Michniewicz, 52, was appointed in January after Paulo Sousa left to take the job at Brazilian club Flamengo. Born in present-day Belarus, Michniewicz managed nine Polish clubs before he was appointed coach of the country’s Under-21 team in 2017. He led them to the Euro Under-21 finals in 2019. Michniewicz returned to club duty with Legia Warsaw the following year and steered them to a record 15th Polish league title. He was sacked last October after a poor start to the season. 

Key player: Robert Lewandowski is one of the greats of Polish football. The country’s record appearance maker and goalscorer, Lewandowski will hope to fare far better than in Russia four years ago when he drew a blank in the group stage and Poland made an early exit. The 34-year-old has picked up at Barcelona where he left off at Bayern Munich following eight prolific, record-breaking seasons with the German giants. The reigning two-time winner of the European Golden Shoe has also won the Best FIFA Men’s Player award the past two years. 

Group fixtures 

November 22: Mexico v Poland 

November 26: Poland v Saudi Arabia 

November 30: Poland v Argentina 

Possible squad 

Goalkeepers: Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus/ITA), Lukasz Skorupski (Bologna/ITA), Bartlomiej Dragowski (Spezia/ITA), Kamil Grabara (FC Copenhagen/DEN)

Defenders: Kamil Glik (Benevento/ITA), Bartosz Bereszynski (Sampdoria/ITA), Jan Bednarek (Aston Villa/ENG), Artur Jedrzejczyk (Legia Warsaw), Matty Cash (Aston Villa/ENG), Jakub Kiwior (Spezia/ITA), Robert Gumny (Augsburg/GER), Mateusz Wieteska (Clermont/FRA), Maik Nawrocki (Legia Warsaw)

Midfielders: Grzegorz Krychowiak (Al-Shabab/KSA), Piotr Zielinski (Napoli/ITA), Karol Linetty (Torino/ITA), Przemyslaw Frankowski (Lens/FRA), Sebastian Szymanski (Feyenoord/NED), Szymon Zurkowski (Fiorentina/ITA), Krystian Bielik (Birmingham City/ENG), Jakub Kaminski (Wolfsburg/GER), Nicola Zalewski (Roma/ITA) 

Forwards: Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona/ESP), Arkadiusz Milik (Juventus/ITA), Krzysztof Piatek (Salernitana/ITA), Karol Swiderski (Charlotte FC/USA)