Poland took on Bosnia and Herzegovina at Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy on Friday night, in a game opening the both nations' UEFA Nations League Division B campaign for the 2026/27 season - the Poles' first-ever match outside the competition's top tier.
Poland's manager Jan Urban stirred things up tactically, fielding a four-man defensive line - which happened for the first time since 31 national team games. Maybe because of this, or maybe due to the rivals' tenacious defending, all across the first half it seemed like the Polish team struggled to find its bearing in the attack.
Furthermore, Benfica's Polish winger Jakub Kamiński had to be subbed by Atalanta's Nicola Zalewski in the 24th minute, due to muscle injury.
Things looked better for Poland in the back, though - so a somewhat drab 1st half ended in a goalless draw, with just four shots made by each team, and just one of those overall being on target.
In the 44th minute Nicola Zalewski's deflected cross found its way to Robert Lewandowski, whose bad first touch turned into an assist almost. Sebastian Szymański got the loose ball and managed to deliver a powerful strike with his left foot from just over ten meters out, but it went right in the centre of the goal, and Bosnian goalkeeper Zlomislić managed to react in time and parry the shot.
Moments earlier, Poland's Piotr Zieliński showed a glimpse of his magic - with a fantastic diagonal pass towards Matty Cash charging down the right flank. The Aston Villa full back went for a first-touch pass into the box, where Poland's Michał Skóraś got the ball, but with less-than-perfect first touch and facing a tightly-packed Bosnian defensive line he failed to take a shot.
Seeing Poland's struggles up front, manager Jan Urban corrected the tactics for the 2nd half, and made some personnel changes too. While the four-man defensive setup remained, more attack-oriented Przemysław Frankowski was introduced as left back, subbing nominal centre back Jakub Kiwior there. Furthermore, on the defensive midfielder post Bartosz Slisz was replaced with a debutant, Wiktor Nowak, who turned out to be Poland's brightest point of the match.
With Poland's full-backs encouraged to engage more in the attacking play, and Nowak being a true powerhouse in the middle, the gears of the Polish team seemed to turn much better from the get go when the play was resumed.
In the first ten minutes after the break, Zlomislić had to intervene to stop a thunderous shot from Matty Cash from a tight angle, and moments later, he had to make a reflex save to deny Szymański on the rebound.
After weathering the hosts' pressure, the Bosnians thought they had scored the decisive goal directly from a corner kick after a failed off-the-line clearance, but the referee rightfully spotted a foul on Polish goalie Marcin Bułka, and it was disallowed.
All in all, Poland had ten shots across the 2nd half, with three of them on target - with their best chance coming in in stoppage time when Piotr Zieliński took the ball into the box and cleverly created space to take a shot, but Zlomislić once again rose to the occasion, ensuring the points were shared in the opening Group B4 clash. It was Poland's first game without a goal under Jan Urban's helm.
Poland, winless in four matches, will now head for Monday's away game against Sweden, who scored a hard-won 2-1 win against Romania in their opener on Friday. That's not all though, as with this season's UEFA Nations League "packed fixtures" concept, home game against Romania on October 2nd and away match versus Bosnia on October 5th will follow.
The group stage will conclude on November 17th. The winners of each four-team group will be promoted to the 2028-29 UEFA Nations Division A, and each group's second-placed teams will play promotion play-offs against a third or fourth-placed team from Division A. Meanwhile, the Division B fourth-placed teams will participate in relegation play-offs against the second-placed teams from Division C.
The playoff phase is scheduled to take place in March 2027.
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Source: PAP