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Football: Five Polish starters in a European top-5 league game tie a historical record

17.03.2024 17:30
The situation occurred in Friday evening's Italian Serie A 29th matchday game, when 17th Empoli FC hosted Bologna FC 1909, placed 4th.
Szymon Żurkowski
Szymon Żurkowski PAP/PA/Fabio Fagiolini/LiveMedia / ipa-

For the third time in history, and for the first time since the year 2000, five Polish players were fielded as starters in a football game of one of European top-5 leagues (English Premier League, Spanish LaLiga, Italian Serie A, French Ligue 1 and German 1. Bundesliga).

An X-Twitter user hidden behind the nickname 'AbsurDB', who is a top Polish expert on football stats and probabilities, reported this historic occurrence on Saturday evening. Polish midfielder Kacper Urbański and goalkeeper Łukasz Skorupski were included in Bologna's starting line-up while Polish defenders Bartosz Bereszyński and Sebastian Walukiewicz, as well as midfielder Szymon Żurkowski, were fielded in the starting eleven of Empoli.

As AbsurDB reported - to find such a number of Poles starting for their teams in a game of top-5 European football league, one would have to rewind to the year 2000. The only two previous events like that occurred more than 23 years ago in Germany's 1. Bundesliga. In a March MSV Duisburg - VfL Wolfsburg game Poland's Hajto and Reiss faced countrymen Kryger, Nowak and Juskowiak, while in a December VfL Wolfsburg - Schalke 04 game Poland's Kryger, Nowak and Juskowiak faced their compatriots Hajto and Wałdoch.

The Friday's historic 'Polish' game of Italian Serie A ended with a 1-0 away win for Bologna FC, snatched thanks to a last-minute injury time goal.

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