Lewandowski certainly put in the effort for Poland in the first couple of games, completing 29 of his 35 passes against Austria last time out, and having a great time in the middle of the park battling for and winning the ball. At the crucial moment though, it was him who was grappling a little bit too hard in the penalty area, catching the ref’s eye and gifting the opposition a spot kick. A look at his CPI heat map tells us that he really should stick to what he’s good at, dominating play in the centre circle, as the small time he spent defending cost his team dear.

Crossing practice must surely have been on the cards in both camps ahead of tonight’s match. Already on these pages we have extolled the virtues of wide play and the importance of decent crosses. A quick look at the cross success chart, however, shows that the two teams in tonight’s crucial match are, quite frankly, poor at getting the ball in from the flanks. They should either get better at it, or carry on lumping it forward in the hope that someone gets on the end of it. Not quite Championship winning tactics.

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