The debut of Fernando Santos on the Polish bench, with Lewandowski starting, ended with a serious correction during his visit to the Czech Republic (3-1)who forcefully beat a soulless team at the beginning, when they let the game slip away in just two minutes.
It only took thirty seconds for the former Portuguese coach to realize the depression suffered by Poland after falling in the round of 16 of the World Cup in Qatar 2022 against France. His defeat in that game, in which he barely stood up to the French team, showed that in key events, Poland deflates.
The arrival of Santos after leaving the Portuguese bench after many years was expected as a shock. However, on one of the first plays of the game, he was met with a harsh reality check. Almost immediately after leaving the center of the field, when part of the public was still looking for their seats, Ladislav Krejci scored the first goal after pushing a throw-in launched by Vladimir Coufal into the net.
The hot flash turned into a nightmare when just 120 seconds later Tomas Cvancara scored on his Czech debut. He took advantage of an assist from another newcomer, David Jurásek, who celebrated with his teammate somewhat symbolic of the regeneration that the Central European team hopes to carry out successfully.
Poland, stung in their pride, tried to react before the break, but only Przemyslaw Frankowski, who found a good intervention by Jiri Pavlenka, was able to close the gap. He did not succeed and in the second part Fernando Santos’s men threw in the towel.
The Czech Republic returned from the locker room stronger and after a chance by Cvancara, Jan Kuchta finished off the job with half an hour to go with a great volley that Wojciech Szczesny couldn’t save.
Meanwhile, Robert Lewandowski, totally deactivated, left the honor in the boots of Damian Szymanski, who scored an obviously useless goal that did not mask the bad debut of Fernando Santos with Poland. Of the eleven that lost against France, he repeated with seven in his lineup. The novelties of Bednarek, Linetty, Karbownik and Bielik, did not take effect.
