BEDNAREK: WE WILL BE NASTY
JAN BEDNAREK insists Poland will be even more motivated after their nightmare preparation for their World Cup qualifier at Wembley.
Poland have seen record goalscorer Robert Lewandowski ruled out for four weeks through a knee injury, they had a Covid outbreak in the camp and key midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak has now taken a second test but will have to make a last-minute flight to play.
But their Southampton centre-half Bednarek says they will have to show a “nasty” streak to shutdown England’s best players and are determined to overcome the odds. “It’s going to be even more of a motivation for us to prove that we have some quality and that we can perform without our best player, without our first XI players,” said Bednarek (right).
“We will show a lot of courage, lots of motivation that we can cause many problems to England’s team because we know they have some amazing players from the Premier League.
“England have superstars like Phil Foden and Raheem Sterling, great players from the Premier League.
“But if you are aggressive and nasty against them it can make it difficult. We are very motivated to show the English their place.”
Bayern Munich superstar Lewandowski is out of their Champions League quarter-final with
Paris Saint Germain and faces a race to be fit for a potential semi-final with Manchester City.
But Bednarek says Poland’s talisman will come back even stronger. He said: “It’s a big disappointment that Robert will have to have a break for a long time and we know that in the near future he’s got some very important games at club level and I’m sure he’s not very happy. But knowing his character and determination, he will do his best to return and after those four weeks he will come back with even more hunger for scoring goals.” Poland manager Paulo Sousa (below) confirmed that Krychowiak will now fly to London and hope to play but still needs UEFA clearance while Kamil Piatkowski is out after testing positive. Arkadiusz Milik will play but his participation has also been in doubt and he was below-par against Andorra. Sousa said: “We must show a strong mentality, this is an important moment for the team to prove we can still play and overcome the challenge.”