PZPN

On the course of the match:

"I think the first half has to be looked at from different angles. In my opinion, the very start – the first 10-15 minutes – saw the Albanian team unable to leave their own half and one could watch it calmly, as it seemed only a matter of time before we scored. However, that did not happen. Somehow, through passing mistakes, we spurred the Albanian team on to start playing and retain possession more often. You could see them growing in confidence and beginning to believe in themselves. What happened right at the start was not normal either, considering everything I said about Albania being a really well-organised defensive side. Today they also played very well on the counterattack, and technically, if you leave them a bit of space, they can exploit it immediately."

On the mistakes in the first half:

"The mistakes were basic, even for the goal we conceded. I will speak with the players about this, but I suspect that things such as the weight of expectation, perhaps some stress, and the fact that at a certain point it was clear that things were not going well for us, played a big part. That often leads to nervous play and wrong decisions. That's just football. After scoring, the team once again gains belief in its own abilities and starts playing. Still, someone might say – and would be right to do so – that they caught us on the counter again and could have scored to make it 2-1, too."

On the attacking play:

"Perhaps we wanted to win this match too much and, at certain moments, attacked with too many players, forgetting a little that they are capable of hitting us on the counter. In those situations, I have no doubt that we were incredibly lucky. There were situations where someone shot or could have pulled the ball back. There were cutbacks by both Oskar and, in the first half, by Matty Cash, where they simply intercepted those balls and cleared them. Perhaps there really were not that many clear-cut chances, but I said before the match that this is a team that concedes very few goals, and it is not easy to create chances against them. They have been playing in this line-up for a very long time and, apart from matches against England, had not conceded two goals for a long time. In many of the other matches before today’s game, they did not concede two goals. The very fact that a goal difference of 7:5 was enough for them to be in today’s play-off shows that this team really makes life difficult for everyone and is not easy to beat. Besides, it was similar at the European Championship, where they did not suffer heavy defeats against teams such as Spain and Italy."

On Oskar Pietuszewski’s debut:

"Congratulations to him, as he made his debut for the senior national team. I think that both Oskar and Filip – each having played 45 minutes – had their good moments and also moments when they could have made better decisions.

On the play-off final against Sweden:

"It depends on whether we look at the statistics. Apparently, it has been almost 100 years since we last won a match in Sweden, because that victory was at the World Cup and on neutral ground. This will be a completely different game. The Swedes, following a poor qualifying campaign and a change of head coach, had only one international window in which they played two matches with different line-ups. I believe only one player featured in both matches. You could say the coach was taking stock of the players available to him. But the win over Ukraine means they are riding an enormous wave of positivity, because they know they are playing at home, they know what happened in qualifying, and yet they still have a chance to go to the World Cup. We have spoken quite often about the Swedish national team, and I have always said that on paper they are the strongest. Having a striker like Gyökeres is a huge ace up their sleeve, and he simply proves it. Such players want to be at major tournaments, but we also have our dreams, and we will play a do-or-die match against them."