Euro 2020 Match 9: Five-Goal Match Sees Spain Overcome Poland

The following article provides an oversight for matches and tournaments taking place in 2020.

Euro 2020 Match 9: Spain v Poland

Five-Goal Match Sees Spain Overcome Poland

June 17, 2020

Spain 3 Poland 2

 

Alvaro Morata scored the winning goal in the 74th minute to complete a Spanish win featuring five goals.

 

Poland travelled to Spain for their opening match, looking to start off on the right foot. However, Spain attacked early, and soon had the lead inside five minutes. Morata had the ball and shot, only for the Polish goalkeeper, Wojciech Szczęsny, to halt the initial shot. The ball bobbled behind him, and Mikel Oyarzabal picked up the pieces, guiding it into the back of the net.

 

Five minutes later, Daniel Carvajal worked down the right wing, leading ahead of the defenders. He placed the perfect cross on the head of Rodrigo, who sent the ball back across goal for Spain’s second.

 

Morata had a ping from a tight angle in the 29th minute as Spain exerted full possession control over the match, searching for a way to goal from both wings as well as down the guts of the field.

 

Poland finally advanced into their front third late in the half, first with a free kick from Bartosz Bereszyński that just went over the crossbar. Then, placing the Spanish defence under pressure, Robert Lewandowski took a punt from a tight angle and scored with ease beyond David De Gea, granting Poland a goal back.

 

Ten minutes after halftime, Lewandowski worked around his marking man and fired, on goal, where De Gea was up to the task.

 

Instead, from the corner, Grzegorz Krychowiak reached the ball first with his header. The ball also came off the head of Sergio Ramos, causing the ball to loop up and over the Spanish goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

 

The match, all even, caused Spain to charge on the attack, only for Rodrigo to miss to the left of what should have been his second goal and Spain’s third.

 

Both sides had a corner each that came to nothing. Spain, though, looked more dangerous in attack, and Morata finished off with his head a grand goal that put Spain in the lead with sixteen minutes remaining.

 

Poland nearly responded immediately with Krychowiak having a shot on goal from the edge of the box; with multiple defenders placing pressure, he was unable to get it on target. Two of their substitutes, Kamil Jóźwiak and Przemysław Frankowski, combined, only for the latter’s shot to be blocked. Then, Lewandowski and Player of the Match Krychowiak combined, first with the midfielder’s pass to Lewandowski, before a pass back to Krychowiak, whose shot required a De Gea save for the ages.

 

Spain had one more attempt at goal, but Poland managed to keep it away, and soon the whistle stopped a wonderful 3-2 match, with Spain gaining the full three points.