LEW BLOW HITS ENGLAND RIVALS

ENGLAND’S World Cup qualification hopes have received a massive boost after Poland superstar Robert Lewandowski was ruled out of tomorrow’s Wembley showdown. The Bayern Munich striker – described by England manager

Gareth Southgate as an “arch marksman” – limped out of Sunday’s game against Andorra after scoring twice in Poland’s 3-0 win.

Scans have revealed knee ligament damage to Lewandowski, left, and a statement from the Polish FA admitted playing him at Wembley would be too great a gamble with the Euro 2020 finals less than three months away.

“This decision is the only right one, bearing in mind the upcoming Euro 2020 tournament,” the

statement read. “The short time remaining until the next match excludes participation of the national team captain. This would carry too much risk of aggravating the injury.”

The Polish FA are now facing criticism for allowing their skipper to play against minnows Andorra.

But Poland FA chairman Zbigniew Boniek, below, hit back on social media: “Lewandowski wouldn’t have broken any goalscoring record without playing against pot 5/6 teams. An in-form player wants and has the right to play.

“An injury can be picked in the training, match, or walking out of a lift. Without Robert you also have to play and the team will cope.”

Even so, the absence of Lewandowski, Poland’s record scorer with 66 goals from 118 appearances, has to be considered crucial under the new format of World Cup qualifying.

Only the top-placed teams in each European group are guaranteed a place at Qatar, and just three of the 12 runners-up will join them via the play-offs, which have a semi-finals and final element, rather than a straight head-to-head format.

Poland are ranked No19 in the world and England’s closest rivals in Group I – but have already dropped points in a 3-3 draw against Hungary.

Nevertheless, Gareth Southgate admits he is going into tomorrow’s game seeking to win rather than treating it simply as a “mustnot lose”.

“I am not looking at any game we play as a must-not lose,” he said. “We go out to try and win every game and find a way to win. “This is going to be an outstanding test for our whole team. It is a key game in the group.

“We have given ourselves an opportunity that if we can beat Poland at home, we are in a really strong position already. We have to make sure we can make that count.

“It is a good opportunity to really control the group before we name the squad for Euro 2020 in a really good frame of mind.”