09 October 2017
It was a night of celebration for Wojciech Szczesny as Poland were officially confirmed to be heading to the World Cup next summer in Russia, after beating Montenegro 4-2 in Warsaw.
The Poles took a comfortable 2-0 half-time lead after goals from Krzysztof Maczynski and Kamil Grosicki, but they were pegged back in the second half with the score locked at 2-2 with less than 10 minutes to play. However, Bayern Munich striker, Robert Lewandowski restored the home side’s advantage in the 85th minute, and an own goal came just two minutes later to earn Poland World Cup qualification.
Poland topped Group E with 25 points, five points more than second-placed Denmark, picking up eight wins, one draw and just one defeat.
In World Cup qualifying action tonight will be the Bianconeri’s Italy contingent as Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli, Giorgio Chiellini, Daniele Rugani and Federico Bernardeschi travel to Albania. The Azzurri are already assured of a play-off spot and cannot qualify automatically, but they will want the victory to make sure that they are top seeds come the play-off draw.
Elsewhere, Mario Mandzukic’s Croatia travel to Ukraine, where a draw will guarantee them at least a play-off place, and a win would give them the possibility of qualifying automatically if other results go their way.
