-We have our problems. Certainly with defensive play and solidity. The French created many scoring opportunities. Łukasz Skorupski rose to the challenge and hit many balls. The match showed us that the Polish team has potential. We played against France by far the best match at the European Championships. It’s a pity that we weren’t able to do it against the Netherlands and Austria – adds the 63-time representative of Poland, scorer of 20 goals.

At times, the fans saw a different Polish team against the French. Committed, brave, creating opportunities from the very beginning of the match. The White and Reds fired ten shots, including two on target. After the meeting, Dziekanowski recognized several staff members.

– In addition to our goalkeeper, it is worth praising Kacper Urbański , Jakub Moder and Jakub Kiwior, who plays on the left side of defense. Piotr Zieliński can be added to this list. This does not change the fact that we still have problems with reliability, consistency, and defensive play. Austria should be a model for us in this respect. During coach Brzęczek’s term of office, we outplayed her and were better. Now it’s the other way around. The Austrian players made progress, but the Polish ones did not. We lack a monolith and a well-coordinated team that should keep a clean sheet in difficult moments – notes the expert.

Poland was the last to advance to Euro 2024. In turn, it was the first team to lose its mathematical chance of getting out of the group (and the only team after two matches played). – I was disappointed especially with the match against Austria. The Poles stayed in the locker room for the first 15 minutes. They conceded a goal quickly. It was a sign that we were playing the most difficult match in the group. But not only that. This situation showed that the Polish team lacked the right mentality. We realized the importance of this meeting much earlier. We couldn’t play like that in the most important moment. It happened differently, which showed that we still miss a lot – says the former Legia Warszawa striker.

– We should start appreciating players who don’t necessarily appear regularly on the front pages of newspapers, but who do well both defensively and offensively, and who can run for victory. I think that our national team still lacks such players. I don’t think we were in the group of death. Austria proved that it is possible to thwart the plans of the theoretically strongest. We could also take points from the Netherlands and we drew with France. It was a group of surprises, some of them are even more interesting and more demanding – he adds.

Poles have been missing a collective for years. This is to be changed by Michał Probierz , who will remain the team coach despite the unsuccessful championship.

– Sometimes I don’t see emotions in our players. As if they were falling into apathy. They give the impression that they do not fully understand what task awaits them. They cannot translate the entire framework into a meeting. That’s weird. All other teams showed that the European Championship is an event for them. One that builds them up and does not overwhelm them. The Poles seemed to be a team without feelings. I don’t want to judge who has performed the worst at the Euro so far and who has performed the best – notes the 63-time representative of Poland.

– Nevertheless, it is difficult to escape from reality. We didn’t cause any surprises and we could have played better. We did not achieve our goal. I do not agree with coach Probierz that if we removed 15 minutes from the matches against the Netherlands and Austria, we would have performed well in the tournament. This is nonsense. This is not the way to present the state of affairs. We failed. We need to look for new solutions. We have to build a team, just like the Austrians, Romanians or Slovenians and Georgians. These national teams show that you can build something beyond your means and create a real team out of players, which is something we have a problem with – sums up Dariusz Dziekanowski.