Lewandowski leads Poland world cup campaign

Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski will lead Poland’s World Cup campaign after making the 26-man squad of coach Czeslaw Michniewicz.

The coach who named Lewandowski on the list said the move for the goalscoring machine was “the most important decision of my life”.

“None of the 26 are going there for the atmosphere,” he added.

“Each one is at such a level and such an ability that I can count on them at any time.”

Lewandowski is yet to make his mark at a World Cup. However, the former Bayern Munich striker remains undoubtedly the key to Poland’s destiny.

The 34-year-old scored nine times in as many outings as Poland punched their ticket to Qatar, taking his haul to 25 goals in 19 games across the last two World Cup qualifying campaigns.

Lewandowski’s Poland will be battling with Lionel Messi’s Argentina, Saudi Arabi and Mexico in the same group and will have their opening game on November 22.

On his goalkeeper choice, Michniewicz settled for Wojciech Szczesny of Juventus, saying nothing else could have changed his mind.

He is among 11 of the squad based in Italy.

Midfield problems for Poland

The coach included AEK Athens’ Damian Szymanski in midfield which is one area he felt the team was having problems in.

“Damian has been playing great recently and his team are second (in the Greek Super League).

“I won’t hide that I spent a long time talking about it with Robert. I put forward my reasoning out of respect for the captain, this great player.”

Poland World Cup full squad

Goalkeepers: Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus/ITA), Lukasz Skorupski (Bologna/ITA), Bartlomiej Dragowski (Spezia/ITA)

Defenders: Matty Cash (Aston Villa/ENG), Robert Gumny (Augsburg/GER), Bartosz Bereszynski (Sampdoria/ITA), Kamil Glik (Benevento/ITA), Jan Bednarek (Aston Villa/ENG), Jakub Kiwior (Spezia/ITA), Mateusz Wieteska (Clermont/FRA), Artur Jedrzejczyk (Legia Warsaw), Nicola Zalewski (Roma/ITA)

Midfielders: Grzegorz Krychowiak (Al-Shabab/KSA), Krystian Bielik (Birmingham City/ENG), Damian Szymanski (AEK Athens/GRE), Piotr Zielinski (Napoli/ITA), Sebastian Szymanski (Feyenoord/NED), Szymon Zurkowski (Fiorentina/ITA), Jakub Kaminski (Wolfsburg/GER), Przemyslaw Frankowski (Lens/FRA), Kamil Grosicki (Pogon Szczecin), Michal Skoras (Lech Poznan)

Forwards: Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona/ESP), Karol Swiderski (Charlotte FC/USA), Arkadiusz Milik (Juventus/ITA), Krzysztof Piatek (Salernitana/ITA)