Bednarek rues “schoolboy error” on Albania goal: “Hard, but over” | OneFootball

Poland beat Albania 2-1 and secured a place in the final of the 2026 World Cup qualifying playoff. Even so, it was far from a perfect night for the Poles, who had fallen behind due to an individual mistake by Jan Bednarek in the 42nd minute.

At the end of the match, the FC Porto centre-back admitted the “childish mistake” he made in the move, acknowledging that the comeback, completed through goals by Lewandowski and Zielinski, took “a huge weight” off his shoulders.

“It was a simple mistake on my part and a big lesson and experience for the future: not to change my mind at the last moment. In that situation, I had everything under control and the only thing that went wrong was the decision right at the end. At first, I wanted to pass the ball straight to Kiwior, but then I saw that I had a lot of space around me and decided to control the ball. As a result, I made a childish mistake, but fortunately we showed that we are a team. When one player makes a mistake, there are others who sort it out. And we deserve credit for that. Lewandowski scored a brilliant set-piece goal and Zielinski had already produced a great shot that could have gone in,” he began, in comments quoted by ‘TVP Sport’, continuing: “A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. So many things were going through my head. I knew how important this game was for us, for our fans and for our country. It was difficult, but I have been through many complicated moments in life and that gave me the experience I needed to focus on the next step. We won the game and now all my thoughts are focused on Sweden.”

The half-time talk in the dressing room

“We exchanged important and honest words in the dressing room. They were not emotional remarks, but rather something that helped us organise our tactical positioning. The game started very well, but then we began to waver a little. There were mistakes, including mine. It is natural that, in such a situation, a sense of uncertainty arises, not only in the team, but throughout the entire stadium. But that is how you recognise a team that can overcome problems. The emotional impact was enormous. Fortunately, we can now focus on Sweden and, ultimately, on all of us meeting at the World Cup in June.”

The switch to a back four

“We said at half-time that we could change our formation after a few moments. I think we had some difficulties with this system because we definitely need to move the ball better. In this formation, there are four of us in defence instead of five, so there is more running, but there are also more players up front. Our opponents had to worry about defending and that was one of the reasons why we won,” he concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.