Foreigners give Poland a lesson

A team comprising the best foreign players in the Ekstraklasa overcame Leo Beenhakker's national team 3-2 in an unofficial friendly fixture on Tuesday.
Poor start


In front of a 16,000 crowd in Szczecin, Poland fielded a largely home-based squad save for VfL Wolfsburg winger Jacek Krzynówek and Hertha BSC Berlin striker Łukasz Piszczek. They were a goal down within a minute of the off, however, as Zagłębie Lubin's Colombian defender Manuel Arboleda headed in an Edson corner, and two down on 39 when F.Y.R. Macedonia striker Filip Ivanovski scored with another header.

Poland rally
Poland rallied after the break, and Łukasz Garguła, Krzynówek and Michał Goliński all wasted opportunities before Piszczek hit the post on 62 minutes. Garguła finally halved the deficit with a header after goalkeeper Jan Mucha failed to hold a Krzynówek shot on 73 minutes, although the foreigners restored their two-goal lead six minutes later with a 20-metre shot from Legia Warszawa's Zimbabwean striker Takesure Chinyama.

'Useful test'

Legia defender Jakub Wawrzyniak scored a consolation goal for Poland with a neat volley on 89 minutes, and coach Beenhakker was not too disappointed with the overall performance, saying: "We are continuing our preparations for EURO 2008™ and this was a very useful test."

by Pawel Dimow