– Most of our players have played a lot of matches recently. We need to regenerate the players well. There is a lot of turnover in clubs and we have to act similarly here. We have several players recovering from injuries. We will do everything to make the most of our players, said Michał Probierz at the Monday press conference that started the Polish national team’s training camp in Porto.
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The training camp was marked by health problems of our players from the first day. On Monday morning, the Polish Football Association announced that Robert Lewandowski would not come to Portugal due to an injury. On Wednesday, Przemysław Frankowski and Michael Ameyaw left the training camp due to injuries.
Despite this, Touchstone did not decide to call up additional players. The coach had already called up as many as 29 players and, as he later explained, it was a safeguard against the possibility of injuries, which were taken into account.
In Porto, Probierz took exceptional care of the Polish representatives. Only five of them trained on Monday, the rest stayed in the hotel gym for regeneration classes. On Tuesday, seven players did not appear on Boavista’s side pitch. On Wednesday, Frankowski and Ameyaw were missing. All this suggested that on Friday Touchstone may make a few changes to the Polish national team and give a chance to those who have played less in the Nations League so far.
However, there are no plans for any major changes in the lineup. The biggest surprise may be the presence of Bartłomiej Drągowski in goal, as we reported on Wednesday morning. Touchstone wanted to give his goalkeepers two games in the Nations League, but his plans were thwarted by an injury Drągowski suffered before the previous training camp, to which he ultimately did not attend.
This is what the Polish squad will look like for the match against Portugal
At Thursday’s press conference, Probierz did not want to confirm our information. However, on Thursday evening, Tomasz Włodarczyk from the website matchyki.pl said that Marcin Bułka would not be the goalkeeper, but Drągowski.
Jan Bednarek has a certain place in defense. Jakub Kiwior will play the half-left defender, and in the absence of the injured Paweł Dawidowicz, Kamil Pi±tkowski, who has been playing regularly for RB Salzburg in recent months, may get a chance.
The injured Frankowski on the right swing – just like in the last match against Croatia – could be replaced by Jakub Kamiñski. He could, but he broke his finger in training last week. The player was fitted with a special splint and must train and play with a large bandage until the end of the year. Even though on Monday Kamiński assured us in Porto that he could play, according to Włodarczyk, Bartosz Bereszyński will play on the right wing.
Nicola Zalewski will play on the opposite side. Piotr Zieliński has a certain place in the midfield, and Taras Romanczuk and Sebastian Szymañski can also play in the second line. There are a lot of indications that this time Probierz will decide to set up with one striker and an offensive midfielder under him. Krzysztof Piątek will probably play in attack, and Kacper Urbański will support him.
Portugal – Poland match on Friday at 20:45. Live coverage of Sport.pl.
Portugal – Poland. This is what the Polish national team squad might look like:
- Bartłomiej Drągowski (Marcin Bułka) – Kamil Piątkowski, Jan Bednarek, Jakub Kiwior – Taras Romanczuk – Jakub Kamiński (Bartosz Bereszyński), Piotr Zieliński, Sebastian Szymański, Nicola Zalewski – Kacper Urbański – Krzysztof Piątek.
