The former president of the Polish Football Association Zbigniew Boniek shared his reaction to the draw for the 2026 World Cup qualifying playoffs, in which the Polish team was matched with the Albanian team in the semi-finals. Should they advance to the finals, the Poles will play the winner of the Ukraine vs. Sweden match.
Zbigniew Boniek«We certainly face a challenging path, but in theory, the draw could have been worse. It’s too early to talk about chances, as March is still far away, but we will definitely be favorites against Albania, despite the team showing good football. In the second match, we will play away against Ukraine or Sweden, so it’s fair to say we faced the weakest team in the first pot. Any other team would have been much more difficult.
Ukraine or Sweden in the finals? The turkey thought about Sunday... More important than predicting today’s possible finalist is how Ukraine will decide on the stadium choice. Because we don’t know if they will choose Poland as a neutral ground, where they’ve played before, or, for example, Germany. There will surely be diplomatic negotiations at the federation presidents' level, but whatever the decision, our chances of reaching the World Cup are real. Especially since Sweden has shown disastrous results thus far.
The President of the Polish Football Association Cezary Kulesza is certainly familiar with the head of the Ukrainian Football Association Andriy Shevchenko. He is a nice person, but I don’t know if Ukraine will do us the favor of hosting the decisive playoff match in Poland. They might decide to hold both the match against Sweden and the final at the same stadium, but perhaps in Germany. It seems to me that if President Kulesza can convince Shevchenko to play here, it would be a huge diplomatic success for him.
In any case, this situation will be clarified soon, as if my memory doesn’t fail me, the stadium needs to be decided 90 days before the match,» Boniek said in his interview with «Interia Sport.»
