52′ England are playing with a little more urgency now. Maguire ventures into Poland’s half and feeds Shaw but the attack’s cut out. Phillips intercepts and belts an effort towards goal that Szczesny catches easily.
50′ Grealish feeds Sterling in the box who turns inside a Polish defender. Kane eventually arrives on the scene but it’s too late for him to get a header at goal when Shaw crosses back in.
48′ Sterling dallies in the penalty area and takes too long to cross, so Poland crowd him out.
47′ Both sides get chances as Buksa’s shot from outside the box is blocked. Grealish beats Glik and fizzes in a low cross across the face of goal that evades everyone. England think Szczesny got a hand to it but he didn’t.
46′ England get the second half underway. Neither side has made changes at half-time.
2′ It’s a testament to the progress that England have made in recent years that they haven’t looked like going behind. They’ve kept 11 clean sheets in their 14 games so far in 2021, their joint-most in a single year alongside 1966, and they’re on track to beat that record here. However, Poland could still nick the win here if the visitors dare switch off.
1′ It’s all square between Poland and England at the break after a feisty first half in Warsaw. The game has been fairly balanced overall with England edging things in a positional sense but Poland have had slightly better chances. This game could swing either way, or not at all.
HALF-TIME: POLAND 0-0 ENGLAND
45′ + 3′ Maguire also receives a booking despite his protests. The referee points them both towards the dressing rooms. That’ll be all for now.
K. Glik
Yellow Card
45′ + 3′ Glik is shown a yellow card for his role in the fracas.
45′ + 2′ Puchacz darts inside past Kane and is finally stopped by Mount unfairly. Stones clears the eventual free-kick. The half-time whistle blows and a melee starts between the players. This is unsavoury stuff. The referee eventually defuses the situation and calls back Glik and Maguire.
45′ Grealish and Mount combine to work the ball to Shaw on the opposite side. Shaw’s cross worries Poland and Phillips’ follow-up shot is blocked. There’ll be two additional minutes in this first half.
43′ Shaw’s free-kick wins England another corner. It doesn’t cause Poland too many problems though.
41′ Grealish is unhappy as he’s caught by Krychowiak. Again, a free-kick is not forthcoming. The Manchester City man finally gets his wish seconds later though as he’s impeded by Linetty. Grealish shoves Linetty and the referee lets him off.
39′ Pickford claims a wayward Poland cross into the box. The energy of the opening half-hour or so of this match has disappeared a little.
37′ Play finally resumes as Stones ventures back onto the pitch.
35′ Stones is in discomfort and puts the ball out of play to receive some treatment. England might have to think about making an early change here.
34′ Phillips wins possession for England but Sterling can’t find the right pass to Kane. England are looking fairly comfortable but haven’t quite clicked in attack yet.
33′ Sterling carries the ball upfield and goes down but the referee isn’t interested. Puchacz looks to find Lewandowski with a cross in and Maguire is in the right place to head clear.
31′ Moder goes for goal from way out and gets it all wrong, blazing high and wide. Poland are giving England as good as they’ve got at the moment.
29′ Chance for Poland! Lewandowski drifts into the left-hand channel and looks to flick past Pickford with the outside of his boot. It’s not the most powerful effort and Pickford is able to block.
28′ Krychowiak turns Phillips to reach Walker’s poor pass and ends up winning a foul as Kane closes him down.
26′ Grealish latches onto Walker’s ball over the top and is stopped in his tracks by Glik near the corner flag. Grealish wants a free-kick but he isn’t getting it.
25′ England are staying patient, biding their time for the right time to strike. The home fans whistle their disapproval.
23′ England are starting to put their stamp on the game after a fairly even start. All Poland can do is sit back and defend for now.
22′ The offside flag goes up against Kane as he activates to reach Sterling’s flick-on.
21′ Chance for England! Sterling beats Puchacz down the right and hangs up a cross for Kane at the far post. Kane gets his header unusually wrong though and Poland hook it away.
20′ Krychowiak steals the ball from Kane. Poland have nowhere to go though. The first 20 minutes of this match have been very lively and easy on the eye.
18′ Buksa stretches to beat Maguire to Puchacz’s cross into the England box but is unable to connect with it. Up the other end, Mount bends an effort over the crossbar from the left of the box.
16′ Poland manage to escape their half. Jozwiak tries to free Lewandowski with an pass over England’s defence but the visitors are alive to the danger.
15′ Grealish wins England’s first corner of the game. Shaw fires it in towards Rice. It comes to Mount whose shot is blocked. Poland’s counter fails and England come straight back. Poland are penned in for the time being.
14′ Pickford gets down low at his near post to catch Moder’s effort from near the byline after Lewandowski slipped the midfielder into the box.
13′ Shaw swings in the free-kick from the left. The second ball lands to Maguire who swipes at it but can’t get a clean shot at goal. Poland clear.
11′ Sterling is dispossessed to the right of Poland’s box. Poland can’t counter though and England win the ball straight back. Jozwiak is penalised for sliding in on Grealish. It’s been a feisty start to the game.
10′ Moder sends the ball over the top for Lewandowski who holds it up well. Poland can’t get a shot away but their movement is promising early on.
9′ Rice gallops down the left and tempts Krychowiak into a sliding tackle. Rice thinks he’s won a corner but the decision goes Poland’s way.
K. Phillips
Yellow Card
8′ Phillips is booked for a fairly innocuous-looking challenge on Puchacz.
7′ England see the corner out easily enough, blocking Glik’s shot from the centre of the box. The visitors are having to pull their sleeves up and get stuck in straight away.
6′ Poland are dictating much of the early play, egged on by the home fans. Rice concedes the first corner of the game, beating Krychowiak to a loose ball.
4′ Poland’s right wing-back Jozwiak flings a high cross into the penalty area. It’s met by Puchacz on the far side of the box who slams a shot against Walker. England smuggle the ball away.
2′ Contrary to pre-match reports, Poland have started in a 3-4-3 formation. It’s likely to spend more time looking like a 5-4-1. Szczesny tries a throughball for Lewandowski who’s offside.
1′ England take the knee before kick-off, a gesture that doesn’t go down entirely well with the home supporters. Poland get this game underway.
The two nations are out on the pitch at a packed PGE Narodawy. Both teams belt out their national anthems with gusto. Let’s do this!
England have lost just one of their 20 matches against Poland in all competitions, beating the Poles 2-1 earlier this year at Wembley. However, five of the last seven meetings between the sides on Polish soil have ended in draws. A draw wouldn’t be a bad result for either side, but England in particular will believe they can win this.
Sousa makes six changes to the Poland team that saw off San Marino so convincingly last time out. Bednarek, Glik and Krychowiak all come back into the starting line-up. England show their strength in depth by fielding a whole different 11 from the one that started against Andorra. 10 of them started the Euro 2020 final.
SUBS: Jordan Henderson, Bukayo Saka, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Sam Johnstone, Reece James, Jude Bellingham, Kieran Trippier, Patrick Bamford, Conor Coady, Nick Pope, Jesse Lingard.
ENGLAND (4-2-3-1): Jordan Pickford; Kyle Walker, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw; Kalvin Phillips, Declan Rice; Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount, Jack Grealish; Harry Kane (c).
SUBS: Tomasz Kedziora, Bartosz Slisz, Przemyslaw Frankowski, Lukasz Skorupski, Karol Swiderski, Maciej Rybus, Nicola Zalewski, Michal Helik, Jakub Kaminski, Kamil Piatkowski, Bartlomiej Dragowski, Damian Szymanski.
POLAND (4-4-2): Wojciech Szczesny; Pawel Dawidowicz, Kamil Glik, Jan Bednarek, Tymoteusz Puchacz; Kamil Jozwiak, Karol Linetty, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Jakub Moder; Adam Buksa, Robert Lewandowski (c).
Visiting Poland here are England who dispatched minnows Andorra 4-0 at Wembley in their last game. Five points clear at the top of Group I, Gareth Southgate’s men are unbeaten in their last 15 matches in all competitions and look on track for automatic qualification. A victory here won’t seal their place in Qatar, but it would take them one big step closer.
After demolishing San Marino 7-1 last time out, Poland have won consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since November last year. It’s good timing for Paulo Sousa’s team, who sit second in Group I currently and will want to firmly establish themselves in the group’s top two.
Hello! Welcome to our live text commentary of this 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification UEFA Group I match between Poland and England at the PGE Narodowy, Warsaw.
H. Maguire
Yellow Card