Poland aim to do talking on the pitch

“L‘Silenzio stampa” is not a phrase that does not translate into Polish, which is why their FA president Zbigniew Boniek stuck to the Italian version of the word “media blackout” to describe the Poland team’s lockdown ahead of Sunday’s winner-takes-all final qualifier for an automatic place at Euro 2016.

And while that might suggest the team is struggling for confidence after slipping up twice in the last month — they lost 3-1 in Germany before Thursday’s 2-2 draw against Scotland — in fact the opposite is true.

Poland coach Adam Nawalka turned Robert Lewandowski’s last-minute equaliser in Glasgow into a huge positive: The team kept on pushing for their second goal and when it came, Lewandowski was so confident that another might follow, he ran into the net, picked up the ball, and re-spotted it so Poland could push for a third.