Poland star in Euros doubt
Strikers Robert Lewandowski and Karol Swiderski were in doubt for the European Championship after they were injured as Poland beat Turkey 2-1 in a warmup yesterday. Lewandowski set up Swiderski for the opening goal in the 12th minute. But in his celebrations, Swiderski hurt his ankle and had to be replaced.
Captain Lewandowski, Poland’s all-time leading goal-scorer, lasted until the 32nd minutes when he hurt his right leg and was substituted.
The double blow was a nightmare for Poland. Arkadiusz Milik was to be up front with Lewandowski for the Euros until he damaged his left knee on Saturday in the friendly against Ukraine. Milik returned to Juventus and had successful knee surgery yesterday.
Lewandowski and Swiderski have only until Monday to recover when Poland opens their Euros campaign against the Netherlands in Hamburg.
Turkey threatened an equaliser in the second half. Arda Guler and Orkun Koktocu were saved but goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was helpless when halftime substitute Baris Alper Yilmaz’s shot from the edge of box deflected in.
After Turkey’s Kerem Akturkoglu hit the crossbar from long range, Poland won in the 90th thanks to a beauty by Nicola Zalewski, who weaved past two defenders to the box and scored his maiden international goal.
Turkey face Georgia in their opener on Wednesday in Dortmund, while Poland will be sweating on their strikers.
The Czech Republic struggled to subdue North Macedonia 2-1, needing two second-half penalties in Hradec Kralove.
After Malta was ravaged 7-1 last Friday, the Czechs made nine changes to give their likely Euro lineup a run before facing Portugal in a week in Leipzig.
But nobody scored until the 60th when Patrik Schick converted a penalty for a foul on Tomas Soucek.
Just five minutes later, North Macedonia was level after Isnik Alimi headed in a rebound of Aleksandar Trajkovski’s shot off the right post.
The Czechs needed all seven minutes of added time to find the winner, from a spot kick by Antonin Barak.
They suffered a setback on Sunday when midfielder Michal Sadilek, who captained the team against Malta, withdrew from the Euro 2024 squad after injuring his shin from falling off a bike on a day off.
Netherlands midfielder Frenkie de Jong has been ruled out of the Euros after failing to recover from an ankle injury, dealing a blow to the team’s chances.
The Dutch football association announced the Barcelona star would not be available for Euro 2024 in Germany after Ronald Koeman’s team beat Iceland 4-0 in their final warmup.
De Jong watched from the bench yesterday in Rotterdam.
“He won’t be fit enough to play at this level for the next three weeks,” Koeman said. “There’s no point keeping him with us.”
De Jong’s hopes of playing were dashed when tests “showed that the ankle is not yet sufficiently resilient,” Netherlands officials said in a statement.
Koeman will decide later whether to call up a replacement.
AC Milan midfielder Tijjani Reijnders played in midfield in De Jong’s absence yesterday.
Another midfielder, Teun Koopmeiners, was injured while warming up for the Iceland match and was also in doubt for the tournament.
The Netherlands, the 1988 European champion, play Poland in their first Group D match on Monday in Hamburg before taking on World Cup runnersup France and Austria.