Spain must beat Poland and for this they have to stop Robert Lewandowski . The Bayern Munich forward is the great reference of his team and his goals monopolize the aspirations of the Poles in this European Championship .
With the absence of Sergio Ramos, Luis Enrique has had to improvise a pair of left-handed centrals formed by Pau Torres and Aymeric Laporte . Two footballers who did not know each other, who had never played together and who are facing this Saturday the most important test they have faced.
It is true that in the minutes that the Torres-Laporte duo has played, Spain has not conceded a goal. Neither against Portugal nor against Sweden. But that does not mean that his performance was excellent. Against the Swedes, in the debut in the Eurocup , they were lacking in forcefulness in several actions that not if they ended in a goal was due to fortune or the lack of success of the rival.
Between the two they will have to face the best scorer in Europe this season. Lewandowski has scored a record 41 goals in the Bundesliga alone , beating a legend like Gerd Müller. To them we must add the 5 scored in the Champions League and the 2 in the Club World Cup . In total 48. Almost nothing.
And that is why Luis Enrique recognized in the previous one that players like him require “special vigilance.” “The best weapon to counteract a player of that level is to receive the ball as little as possible and you have to defend them with help when they receive the ball,” warned the coach
Also criticized
But the reality is that Robert Lewandowski , like Morata, has come under fire for his performance in the loss to Slovakia , which left Poland at the bottom of the group. For this reason, Paulo Sousa jumped to his defense at a press conference.
“Against Slovakia he did a lot of things, from the 62nd minute when we were left with ten, he worked much more than normal, he had a clear head chance, he works a lot without the ball creating spaces,” he said. “All the rivals are focused on him, trying to take space from him, and that created opportunities” for his teammates, added the Portuguese coach.
Your team does not accompany you
Lewandowski has just played the best two seasons of his life for Bayern Munich. But, contrary to what happens to him at his club, he is not lucky enough to have a national team that allows him to dispute titles.
The glory hours of Poland go back more than 40 years ago, to the golden generation of goalkeeper Tomaszewski , the great Deyna and the daring Lato and Gadocha , Olympic champions in 1972 and third in the 1974 World Cup, when they beat Brazil.
Since then, there is not much to tell. It should be remembered that the current group was eliminated in the round of 16 of the 2016 Eurocup in France by Portugal, ultimately the winner, and finished last of their group in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The old internationals are devastated to see that attacking talent go to waste. “I have not seen that they support him against the opposite goal,” the legendary Grzegorz Lato , top scorer of the 1974 World Cup, is outraged.
Pull the car
For Grzegorz Mielcarski , also a former international, the fault lies with Paulo Sousa, the coach, who would be making the team play against nature: «Against Slovakia, Lewandowski shot twice on goal, in uncomfortable situations. They did not create clear chances for him to score. It’s not just Robert’s fault.
But there are also those who demand more of him: “I know that a forward lives off the passes he receives, but it is also natural that a player like Lewandowski is asked for more”, considers Paweł Golanski, who also knows what it is to defend the Polish shirt. “He should be able to pull the team in difficult moments,” he adds.
The aspirations of Spain in this European Championship depend on not having his night. To do this, as Luis Enrique says, the best thing is to “touch the ball as little as possible”, to “be pressured”, and to be defended “collectively.” In short, Lewandowski needs special vigilance.
