World European Preliminary - Poland VS Netherlands: Battle between Lanlan, Lewandowski singles out the uncrowned king

In Group G of the European Group Stage of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, Lithuania and Malta are weak, while the Netherlands, Poland, and Finland are competing for the top two.

The Netherlands, known as the "Uncrowned King", was once the world's top powerhouse, but now it is not at its peak because of the lack of top stars on the front line. Poland has the world's top striker Lewandowski, who is now past his prime. Even if Lewandowski was at his peak, he could not carry Poland, and his results in the competition were mediocre. As for Finland, although it has produced stars like Litmanen, for a long time, it was only second or third-rate in Europe.

In Group G, the Netherlands currently has the initiative to compete for first place in the group, and Poland also has a chance to counterattack.

Poland VS Netherlands

Nature of the match: Round 9 of Group G of the European Group Stage of the World Cup

Match time: 3:45 on November 15th

Group G is currently the Netherlands Ranked first with 16 points from 6 games, 5 wins, 1 draw, Poland, second with 13 points from 6 games, 4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss, Finland, third with 10 points from 7 games, 3 wins, 1 draw, 3 losses, Lithuania, fourth with 3 points from 7 games, 3 draws, 4 losses, Malta, last place with 2 points from 6 games, 2 draws and 4 losses.

Judging from the current situation, Lithuania and Malta have already been eliminated early. Finland, which faced Malta at home in the last round, has little hope of competing for second place in the group. The goal difference is too far behind Poland. It also hopes that Poland will lose the last two rounds at home to the Netherlands and away to Malta. The Netherlands currently has 3 points more than Poland and a goal difference of 13 goals more than Poland. Even if they lose to Poland in this round away game, defeating Lithuania at home in the last round can basically ensure that the first place in the group will directly advance to the 2026 World Cup. If Poland wants to compete for first place in the group, it must defeat the Netherlands at home in this round. In the final round of the away game, Malta will have a huge goal difference. It is unrealistic to expect the Netherlands to lose points at home against Lithuania in the final round.

Poland's offense has long relied on top scorer Lewandowski, but the 37-year-old Lewandowski is clearly past his prime.

In the Netherlands, after famous players such as Robin van Persie and Robben retired, there are basically no top forwards. At present, forwards such as Depay, Mullen, Noah Lang, Gakpo, and Emerga are either old or mediocre. However, judging from the situation in this World Cup preliminaries, the Netherlands is not worried about scoring goals. It scored 22 goals in 6 rounds. Among the 12 groups, it is second only to Norway, which scored 33 goals in 7 rounds. However, Norway, led by Haaland, is good at bullying and scored 11 goals in its home game against Moldova.

Poland has 6 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses in the past 10 games in all competitions. The one loss in the World Cup preliminaries was not an away game against the Netherlands, the strongest team in the group, but a 1:2 away defeat to Finland. The away game against the Netherlands also resulted in a draw.

The Netherlands is undefeated in the past 10 games in all competitions with 6 wins and 4 draws.

In the past 7 meetings between the two sides, Poland was at the disadvantage with 2 draws and 5 losses.

In this battle, in order to theoretically compete for the first place in the group, although the hope is not great, Poland will still fight hard and is optimistic about being undefeated.