PZPN

The head coach admitted how much this promotion means to him. "After the match, I kissed the ground because I had to overcome many obstacles to get here, from being a small boy, through studies, a bit of a career as a player and a coach, to this place, where the whole of Poland is supporting us," said Michniewicz. "I have spent hundreds of hours, days and weeks on self-development. To perform an analysis, you need knowledge and you have to get this knowledge first. For me, it was trips, internships and work with the U-21 Polish national team that has helped me a lot in my development. I am an optimist and, despite the disbelief of many, I managed to build a team that advanced to the World Cup," he stressed.

Czeslaw Michniewicz also spoke about the problems during the match. "As for the match, there was a difficult moment and we lost our rhythm. It was after Krystian Bielik lost the ball and Wojtek Szczęsny saved us. For five minutes, we could not get out of our half of the pitch. On top of that, Jacek Góralski got a yellow card and I asked him not to get into any more scuffles in the first half. He made it and Grzesiek Krychowiak came out onto the pitch instead of him in the second half. He came in at half-time and had a hand in the goal. He gave a lot of experience and confidence. Analysts cut out 10 pieces of play – five bad ones and five good ones – from the first half. We showed this to the players at half-time to point out what to do better and what to avoid. We've learnt our lessons and we've accomplished our goal," he said.

The coach revealed that there were health problems in the team even before the match. "Most players wouldn't even warm up with an injury like the one Kamil Glik has. However, he asked me to be ready to make a substitution, which is why the centre half was warming up from the very beginning. That's how Kamil is; as long as his leg doesn't fall off, he will play. Bielik and Bereszyński also had some medical problems during halftime. This success will compensate them for their pain," said Michniewicz.

After the second goal, the coach urged the players to focus on the defence even more. "I started talking to Hubert Małowiejski, telling him that it was a very important moment and we couldn't let our opponents create a goal-scoring opportunity in the next five minutes. Instead, we were trying to score the third goal and we had some opportunities from set-pieces. We practised them in the last training session before the match against Sweden," said Michniewicz. "We also knew that Zlatan Ibrahimović would come out onto the pitch at some point. We man-marked him during set pieces, which did not really help anyway because he is a great player, despite his age," said the coach.

Coach Michniewicz stressed that the tension during this match was enormous. "There was a lot of emotion, the importance of the match, the setting and the fact that we have achieved our goal - it all got to me and I got emotional. It wasn't just my match versus Sweden. The whole of Poland wanted to win this match. The tension was shared by over 38 million Poles. I kept telling the players to focus on the game. Today, we are all celebrating together and I would like to thank President Cezary Kulesza for choosing me. He gave me a chance and, in return, I did the best I could. I am glad that the whole staff managed to establish such good contact with the team in such a short time," concluded Michniewicz.