Poland came into the midweek friendly match against the Republic of Ireland with a great amount of confidence after having won the last two matches. However, they suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Trapattoni’s men. After the match, the Poland manager Waldemar Fornalik said that the match should not have ended in a defeat for his team because he thought that his players played extremely well. Poland made a number of chances in the first 35 min of the match. However, they were unable to convert the chances into goals and they were later made to pay for their mistakes.
Ciaran Clark scored for the Republic of Ireland in the 35th minute. From then on in, Ireland managed to soak up the pressure from Poland and hit them on the counter. Yet, there was still belief within the Polish team that they could come back in the second half. The second half goals from the Norwich player Hoolahan all but ended any hopes of a comeback for Poland. Fornalik has said that the only difference between the two teams was the fact that Ireland were more efficient in converting their chances, while Poland were not. The manager also praised the huge number of Polish fans who had turned out to support the team despite this being an away fixture.
“It was not a game we should have lost, especially taking into account the first half, but unfortunately the Irish team were more effective. The 2nd half was not as good as the first half, the Irish team were becoming more threatening and we were getting worse and worse. Our purpose was to increase our offensive power in the second half however it didn’t go according to plan, and the game ended the way it did,” said the Polish manager.