Saturday night saw Poland snatch a 2-0 victory over their old enemies Germany in what was a historical night for Polish sport.
Few people gave Poland much chance in the run up to this encounter with the current world champions; however a brave and committed performance saw them take a massive three points in their quest to qualify for the finals in France in 2016.
With a deafening atmosphere inside the national stadium, as predicted it was Germany who had the better of the opening exchanges as they pressed Poland back in their own half for much of the opening 45 minutes. The first half ended goalless, which surely most Polish fans would have taken as a final score at this stage.
Everything changed five minutes after the restart when Poland took a shock lead. Lukasz Piszczek swung over a cross from the right which was met by Arkadiusz Milik whose header looped over the stranded Manuel Neuer and into the net to send the Polish fans into pandemonium.
After the goal Poland really found themselves under pressure, however some brave defending and solid goalkeeping from Wojciech Szczesny kept the Germans at bay. There was a heart in mouth moment on 80 minutes though when Lukasz Podolski crashed a powerful volley off the crossbar with Szczesny beaten.
The unthinkable then happened on 87 minutes as Poland made sure of the victory with a second goal. A quick counter attacked resulted in Robert Lewandowski squaring the ball to Sebastian Mila who made no mistake as he slotted past Neuer from close range resulting in wild celebrations from the players.
It was indeed the first time Poland had beaten Germany, with people in Warsaw partying until the early hours to celebrate the landmark. The team can now look forward to another big game on Tuesday as they take on Scotland in what is another vital qualifier in their quest to qualify for the European Championships.
The result signals a great upturn in fortunes for the Polish national side, and many people will hope they have now turned the corner. With the recent success of the volleyball side there was a danger of football being left behind a bit, however Saturday night’s result will certainly make a few people sit up and take notice of Polish football.
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