Israel outclassed by Poland, officially eliminated from Euro qualifying
Israel fell 2-1 to Poland at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem over the weekend in Matchday 9 of its Euro 2020 qualification campaign.
The blue-and-white fell behind early as Grzegorz Krychowiak scored for the visitors in the first half and Krzysztof Piatek added a goal in the second, but a late Monas Dabbur strike gave Israel hope.
However, Andi Herzog’s Israel team couldn’t find a lastgasp equalizer as it was officially eliminated from qualifying and will now have to rely on finding its way into the European Championship via the Nations League Playoffs.
Before the playoffs, Israel will visit North Macedonia on Tuesday for the last game of the regular qualifying competition.
A disappointed Herzog summed up his squad’s performance against the Poles.
“We wanted to play out of the back and we had bad movement and bad ball control. We lost duels for the ball and we lost our self confidence in the first few minutes and we then we gave up a goal. However, in the second half I was really impressed with a number of players.”
Poland pressed Israel right from the get-go as Piotr Zielinski and Sebastian Szymanski each had chances to beat the blue-and-white shot-stopper Ofir Marciano in the third minute, but came up short.
However, less than a minute later, Israel conceded a corner kick that landed right by Lokomotiv Moscow’s midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak, who slammed the ball past a helpless Marciano to give Poland an early 1-0 lead.
The visitors came close to doubling their advantage in the 22nd minute when Zielinski played a gorgeous ball from the center of the box to the right, where AC Milan Krzysztof Piatek was waiting, but his deflection just missed the goal and went out.
Five minutes later, Israeli central defender Loai Taha and Marciano got their signals crossed in the area, conceding an indirect free kick that Zielinski had blocked by the blue-and-white defense to safety.
Piatek’s off-balance attempt from the right side beat Marciano, but grasped the left post as the score remained as is heading into the 35th minute. Przemyslaw Frankowski laced a chance three minutes later, but Marciano made a terrific instinctive save while Krychowiak’s stunner of an opportunity was parried away by the Israel ’keeper.
Herzog was forced to make a substitute in the 41st minute as an injured Taha came off for attacking midfielder Dolev Haziza, who made his Israel national team debut as Poland went into the break with a slim one-goal advantage.
Unfortunately for Israel, the second half began exactly the first half did with another early goal off a corner for Poland as an active Zielinski sent the ball into the area for Piatek to put behind a helpless Marciano for a 2-0 advantage.
The Israelis had their first legitimate chance of the game two minutes later when Dabbur received the ball in the box from Haziza, who streaked down the right side, but his shot was smothered by Poland’s Juventus ’keeper Wojciech Szczesny.
Both sides made substitutes soon thereafter as Bayern Munich superstar striker Robert Lewandowski entered the contest in favor of Szymanski while Sun Menachem came on for Omri Ben Harush.
An unusually quiet Eran Zahavi finally unleashed a powerful thumper, but his attempt just went wide left of the goal as Israel began controlling the play.
Zahavi and Haziza each had opportunities, but it was Dabbur who finally broke through with a tough angled shot to beat Szczesny’s and pull Israel to 2-1 in the 86th minute.
However, the strike was too little, too late and the blue-and-white was eliminated from Euro 2020 qualifying as Herzog’s team will now have to count on the Nations League playoffs as its last chance to enter the competition.