The Polish national team qualified for the World Cup following a glorious playoff match against Sweden (2-0). This followed a fortunate turn of events, as our team benefited from the disqualification of Russia, which allowed us to reach the final stage of the playoffs automatically. 

Once in Qatar, the White and Reds managed to make it out of the group phase. A decent draw against Mexico, a memorable win against Saudi Arabia (2-0), and a frantic defeat against Argentina (0-2) turned out to be sufficient to qualify for the final phase of the prestigious tournament, where France put an end to the Pole’s dreams (3-1). 

As always in the past decade or so, Polish fans counted on their world-class striker and captain Robert Lewandowski to be decisive in the pursuit of glory. The latter had thus tremendous pressure on his shoulders. This could be seen in Poland’s opening game against Mexico, during which “RL9” was denied a goal by a heroic penalty save by  Guillermo Ochoa. 

The following game was more fortunate for the Barcelona star, who finally scored a goal in a World Cup against Saudi Arabia. His emotional reaction was worth more than à thousand words and showed how much it meant to him. In the White and Reds’ ultimate game against France, Lewy also found the net, in the very last moment of the match, on a (retaken!) penalty. 

In other words, Poland’s super striker found the net two times, reaching 78 goals for Poland. By doing so, he took over Pelé and Neymar (both 77) in the classification of players with the most goals with their national team. 

Given the level he produces on the pitch, Lewy seems able to continue scoring with the White and Reds for at least a few years. Becoming the 8th player ever to reach the symbolic threshold of 80 goals with the national team is just a matter of time for “Lewangoalski”.  There are currently four active players who achieved this, namely the leader of the classification, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (118), Argentina’s Lionel Messi (96), India’s Sunil Chhetri (84), and United Arab Emirate’s Ali Mabkhout (80). 

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Lewandowski is also the player with the most appearances in the history of the Polish national team, with 138 and counting. In most of these, Lewy performed as Poland’s captain, where he also holds the record. Long story short, our number 9 has this in common with Cristiano Ronaldo, he does not “run after records, but records rather run after him”.  

Let’s hope he stays fit, so we can witness his outstanding skills just a little longer and, hopefully, qualify and achieve a good result at the Euro 2024, which will be his last one. 

Image: Łączy Nas Piłka

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen