PZPN

0 – not once throughout the history of their World Cup appearances has our national team taken part in a penalty shoot-out. The outcome of a match was decided in extra time only once, when the White-and-Reds succumbed 5-6 to Brazil after their first-ever World Cup game.

1 – USA, Tunisia, Mexico, Morocco, Costa Rica, South Korea, Cameroon, Haiti, France and Ecuador – these are the national teams against which the White-and-Reds have played only once during the World Cup finals.

2 – in spite of being a distant history, the tournaments in West Germany and Spain are the ones most cherished by Polish fans. It was on the football fields of these countries that our team fought their way up to two bronze medals, which remain their best achievements in the world's most important football competition.

3 – Uruguay 1930, Brazil 1950 and Switzerland 1954 – Poland failed to make it to these three tournaments mainly for reasons of non-sporting nature. The White-and-Reds did not participate in the qualifiers for the history's first World Cup at all. The case was similar for the first post-war World Cup. Our national team was withdrawn from the 1954 tournament qualifiers after it became apparent that the incredibly strong Hungarian team was standing in their way.

4 – this is how many times in a row Poland earned the right to play in the World Cup in the years from 1973 to 1983. It remains the best and longest streak of the Polish national team to date. At that time, our team battled on the football fields of West Germany, Argentina, Spain and Mexico.

5 – the Polish national team started three of their World Cup appearances with a draw, for a total of five matches ending this way. Interestingly enough, the score was always 0-0.

6 – the number of coaches who led the White-and-Reds in the previous seven World Cup appearances. The first was Józef Kałuża, followed by Kazimierz Górski, Jacek Gmoch, Antoni Piechniczek (twice), Jerzy Engel and Paweł Janas.

7 – that was the number of goals that Grzegorz Lato needed in West Germany in 1974 to win the only title of World Cup top goalscorer for Poland so far. During that World Cup, he scored two goals in each match against Argentina and Haiti as well as one goal in each mech against Sweden, Yugoslavia and Brazil.

8 – the World Cup in Russia will be the 8th appearance of Poland in this tournament. Before that, Poland played in World Cups in France, West Germany, Argentina, Spain, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Germany.

10 – three World Cups and 10 goals; for many years, no other Polish footballer has even come close to the achievement of Grzegorz Lato, who remains the most effective player of the Polish national team in their World Cup track record.

11 – the highest number of goals in a single match involving our team was shot during the match against Brazil in France in 1938. That game is remembered not only for the final score of 6-5 for Brazil but also thanks to the excellent performance of Ernest Wilimowski. The four goals he scored in that game were an individual goalscoring record until beaten in 1984 by Oleg Salenko, who racked up five goals in the match between Russia and Cameroon.

14 – the highest number of Poland's World Cup matches was against teams from the European zone. Poland's second most frequent World Cup rivals are teams from South America (9 matches).

15 – Poland scored their first World Cup victory in 1974 in the match against Argentina (3-2). In turn, their last World Cup victory took place in 2006, when they beat Costa Rica 2-1 at the end of the group stage. In total, our national team emerged victorious from 15 World Cup matches.

21 – four World Cups and 21 games. To this day, Władysław Żmuda's achievements remain on top in terms of the number of World Cup matches played among all Polish players. Hailing from Motor Lublin, he took part in four consecutive World Cups from West Germany in 1974 to Mexico in 1986. 

31 –  The White-and-Reds have played 31 World Cup matches against 21 opponents. The list of Poland's opponents includes the national teams of: Brazil (the highest number of matches – 4), West Germany/Germany (the most challenging opponent, three matches without a win) as well as Italy, Argentina, Peru (two games and two wins each) Portugal, England, Belgium, Ecuador, France, Haiti, Yugoslavia, Cameroon, South Korea, Costa Rica, Morocco, Mexico, Sweden, Tunisia, the USA and the USSR.

40 – Polish goalkeepers have been defeated 40 times in all meetings so far. In this respect, the worst matches were those against Brazil in Mexico in 1986 and Portugal in Korea and Japan in 2002. In both cases, our team lost 0-4.

44 – the number of goals scored by the Polish national team in all World Cups. Our highest victory so far is the 7-0 crushing of Haiti in Munich in 1974. Playing against Poland is also a painful memory for the Peruvians, who lost 1-5 in 1982.

96 – a total of 96 players appeared in Poland's 31 World Cup matches. Now it's time for the upcoming players to hit new numbers.

Kamil Świrydowicz