Poland beats Northern Ireland 1-0 for its first Euros win

Northern Ireland Michael McGovern also kept the score down when he fended off a powerful shot from 19-year-old winger Bartosz Kapustka.

“The whole atmosphere was one of great excitement, great joy – all the Northern Ireland fans and Polish fans were having a tremendous experience, a tremendous time together”, Foster said in a statement on Monday.

It did not prompt a collapse from O’Neill’s side, though he appreciated the need to now pose more of an attacking threat, eventually introducing Washington with 25 minutes to go.

Moments later Milik missed a golden opportunity to give Poland the lead.

It was a momentous occasion for Northern Ireland, coming 30 years to the day since their previous appearance at a major worldwide tournament, however they failed to register a shot on target throughout the 90 minutes. The team defended well for long periods of the game but were undone when Arkadiusz Milik found the net five minutes into the second half.

Jakub Blaszczykowski cut in off the right before slipping an inside ball to the onrushing Milik, who only needed one touch before poking the ball through Craig Cathcart’s legs and past stopper Michael McGovern.

Northern Ireland, though, managed to hold out until half-time and you wondered if in the year of the minnows this would be their day after 30 years of waiting.

Milik’s excellent finish early in the second-half gave Adam Nawalka’s Polish side their first win in seven attempts in this competition, as Northern Ireland failed to earn pick up a point in their first match at a major worldwide tournament for 30 years.

Coach Adam Nawalka, meanwhile, will take encouragement from Poland’s historic victory, but is likely to be slightly troubled by Lewandowski’s underwhelming showing.

Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny showed superb guts to come out of his area and claim a late cross, but he clattered into team-mate Lukasz Piszczek for his troubles, although both came out of the clash all right to carry on.

O’Neill recognised he was playing with fire by sticking rigidly to such an ultra-defensive set-up and at half-time withdrew McNair for Stuart Dallas and moved to 4-5-1.

“But Poland are a strong team”.

The defeat ended Northern Ireland’s 12-game unbeaten run after they had topped their qualifying group for the tournament in France.

A wayward overhead kick from Kyle Lafferty in the 76th was the closest Northern Ireland came to equalizing.

“The team has realized that we won’t win as individuals”, midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak said through a translator.