Poland and the Netherlands kicked off their EURO2024 campaigns on Sunday afternoon with an exciting three-goal showing at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion.
Despite an early onslaught from the Oranje, Poland opened the scoring through Antalyaspor’s Adam Buksa, who headed home from a Piotr Zielinski corner after a quarter of an hour. Cody Gakpo levelled the score with a heavily deflected effort just before the half-hour mark, though a huge number of chances went begging as the Dutch contingent went into half time with 67% possession and just the one goal from 14 shots.
The theme of missed Dutch chances continued in the second half, as Memphis Depay and Gakpo continued to pile the pressure on the Polish backline but failed to muster many shots on target or, more importantly, goals.
That was until a late Nathan Aké cross was slammed home by Wout Weghorst. The Dutchman’s first goal since April secured a first victory of the tournament for the Netherlands, and Poland will be disappointed to come away empty-handed.
Here are the five things we learnt from the match.
Buksa makes a convincing Lewandowski understudy, but Poland’s star man was missed
Poland boast a generally well rounded squad, but in the past has come to rely on the star power of Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski. He is Poland’s all-time top goalscorer by some distance, with nearly double the goals of second-placed Wlodzimierz Lubanski, and the team’s chances of surviving the group stage seemed to dip massively when he went off injured in a pretournament friendly against Turkey.
Buksa, then, could not have had bigger shoes to fill, but opened his Euros account with a pinpoint header early in the match. That header, though, was ultimately the striker’s only shot on target of the match. The 27-year-old made a good account of himself, but if Poland are to make a serious run in the tournament they will want Lewandowski’s finishing prowess and wealth of experience leading the line.
Koeman will be worried about the Netherlands’ lack of cutting edge
Truer words have never been spoken than this nugget of halftime wisdom from Danny Murphy: “The teams who win these tournaments tend to have the strikers who score in those moments.”
He was referring to the wealth of missed chances the Netherlands failed to capitalise on in the first half, a theme which persisted throughout the second as Dutch forwards poured into Poland’s box, taking plenty of shots and troubling Wojciech Szczęsny with very few of them until Weghorst poked the Dutch in front with six minutes left in regular time.
It is often said that defence wins titles but as true as that may be, you still need to score to win games. For the amount of possession held and shots taken by the Netherlands in this match, two goals is a serious underperformance, and manager Ronald Koeman has work to do to make sure his squad can finish more of those chances.
Poland’s defence upstages the Dutch
The Netherlands and defending seem to go hand in hand, and coming into Euro 2024 the conversation was no different. Lining with a back four of Denzel Dumfries, Stefan de Vrij, Virgil Van Dijk, and Nathan Ake, Koeman’s side will be upset to have conceded after falling asleep at an early corner.
It was, however, the Polish back three of Kiwior, Salamon, and Bednarek that made an impression, calmly handling a talented Dutch attack for the majority of the match. Kiwior played a particularly impressive game, blocking two shots and making three ball recoveries. The Aresenal defender also managed to press forward, with an impressive range of passing helping to create chances from Poland’s limited possession.
Roma’s Nicola Zalewski also played fantastic match from the left wing back position, mastering the role of the modern full back, keeping a calm head in defence and offering a creative force in attack, driving well on the ball and linking up well with both Zielinski and Urbanski.
Wout Weghorst plays at his best with a lion on his chest
Weghorst seems set to join the pantheon of players who seem to disappear for ten months of the year before joining up with their national team and playing out of their skin. It took just two minutes for the striker to make an impact and score the winner for the Netherlands, doing exactly what Gakpo and Depay failed to for the first 80 minutes of play.
As we saw in Qatar with his extra-time-forcing heroics against Argentina, Weghorst has the talismanic potential to create something out of nothing, seemingly always able to score crucial goals in the biggest moments.
Poland have the quality to upset the bookies’ favourites
While Poland did not manage to get the result over the line, they overperformed expectations by taking the game to the Netherlands. Despite having just 34% of possession, the Eagles did well to create chances, playing attractive football on the ball and causing the Dutch problems.
While upcoming group stage matchups with France and Austria will be far from easy, Poland could be set to bring about some upsets.
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