Spain vs. Poland score: Morata scores and struggles as Lewandowski rescue a point
Morata #Morata
Spain and Poland played out a tight, physical 1-1 draw on Saturday at Euro 2020 in what ends up being a result that does very little for either. After both teams failed to win their opening game of the competition, they were left frustrated again, leaving themselves plenty of work to do on Matchday 3 if they are to advance from the group stage.
Spain, once again, had a boatload of chances but could not consistently finish, following up their 0-0 draw with Sweden with this one. Poland, fresh off of losing to Slovakia, looked a bit sharper but were fortunate to get a point as the wasteful favorites missed a penalty kick, among other clear chances in the second half.
Spain now enter their final group stage game in third place in the group, two points behind leader Sweden and one point behind Slovakia. Poland are in fourth place with one point.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Expectations for Spain must be modified
Spain have the name, and they have an appealing game that would make them seem like contenders, but let’s not fool ourselves. Lone gone are the days of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Ramos, David Villa, David Silva and others.
Expectations remain high after you win Euro 2008, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2012, but that Spain is not this Spain. This Spain is a team that has a load of young talent, lacks game-changing superstars and is coming off a disappointing 2018 World Cup.
The last time they scored more than one goal against a team that is in this Euro was that hard-to-believe 6-0 win over Germany in the Nations League in November of last year. But, they’ve only done it once since November of 2018 as Luis Enrique continues to try and figure out the best combination in attack with Alvaro Morata and Gerard Moreno as the top picks.
But the results show, as does the lack of a reference point in attack, that this team isn’t quite ready to compete for a cup. Down the road, maybe. But for now, they are above average at best and after two below average displays maybe not even that.
The two sides of Morata showed up as usual
Morata can blow you away one moment and then make you wonder how he is even in consideration for the national team the next. After a rough outing in the opener against Sweden, he got the chance here and delivered … sort of.
He was on the scoresheet with his goal in the first half with this well-timed strike:
Then the real Morata stood up. As Gerard Moreno won a penalty kick in the second half, the Villarreal striker rocked it off the post, with it falling right to Morata. Props to him for following up the penalty, and with much of the goal open, he didn’t even come close to hitting the frame.
A golden point for Poland that keeps them alive
Boy did Poland need that. They are far from a comfortable position, but a loss likely would have meant an end to their participation in the competition.
The service to Lewandowski had been quite poor entering this one, but he just needed that one moment to deliver and did it to perfection with this header:
He took that so well, giving Aymeric Laporte a little shove early on to gain leverage and made that Spain backline pay.
That was just one of two shots that tested Unai Simon, but it was all they needed to keep themselves alive.
Next up, the teams return to the pitch on Wednesday for their final group stage games, with Poland facing Sweden and Spain taking on Slovakia. Both matches are at 12 p.m. A win for Spain will see them advance to the next round, while a victory would also likely be enough for the Polish, pending other results.