Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski admitted, on Friday, that the “reckless” missile that killed two people shocked the Polish national team, which is in Qatar for the World Cup finals.
On Tuesday, a rocket landed in the Polish village of Przevodov, 6 km from the Ukrainian border, killing two people.
NATO and Warsaw reported that the missile, which raised fears of an escalating Russian invasion of Ukraine, was launched by Ukraine’s air defense in an attempt to intercept the Russian attacks.
The Polish national team left the capital, Warsaw, on Thursday, heading to Qatar, escorted by F-16 fighter jets in the country’s airspace.
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⚽ Two F-16 fighters of the Polish Air Force escorted the plane with the national team to the #FIFA World Cup in #Qatar2022 pic.twitter.com/EmGKg40xNK— ????️ War in Ukraine ???? (@EUFreeCitizen) November 18, 2022
Lewandowski and his teammates were in Warsaw preparing for a friendly match that they won Wednesday over Chile 1-0 when the missile landed and “it was not an easy moment. Everyone was waiting for explanations, waiting for some information,” according to what the Barcelona striker said Friday from Doha.
“Unfortunately, it (the missile) injured people and caused deaths. It is certainly a very difficult situation,” he added.
Lewandowski acknowledged that fears diminished after indications emerged that the missile was not a direct attack by Russia on Poland, which supports neighboring Ukraine in repelling the Russian invasion.
“After the situation became clearer, we became a little calmer… At the same time, we had to refocus on what we were doing,” the 34-year-old added, hoping “that (the incident) would not happen again.”
Poland will play its first match in the World Cup against Mexico, on Tuesday, at “Stadium 974”, in Group C, which includes Argentina and Saudi Arabia.
Poland relies mainly on Lewandowski, who scored 76 goals in 134 matches with the national team, which makes opponents focus their defense on him personally, but the Barcelona striker believes that this may be in the interest of the team.
The Pole, who scored 18 goals in 19 matches with his new team Barcelona this season, said in this regard, “I am ready for the opponents to focus on me. Defenders will stick to me during the match and other players (in Poland) will take advantage of the fact that I will drag players (from the opponent’s team) with me.” in order to obtain more space for penetration.
“This may also be our strength, to be able to use those spaces on the field left by competitors who focus on me.”
The former Bayern Munich top scorer is in the World Finals for the second time in his career, and the 34-year-old refused to speculate whether Qatar 2022 would be his last final, saying with some irony, “We haven’t started yet the World Cup and you want me to talk from now on about its end.”
“I don’t know if it will be the last World Cup, but I am preparing as if it is the last,” he stressed.
Lewandowski failed to score in any of the three matches that Poland played in the group stage in 2018, but that will not make him obsessed with breaking the jinx because “if we, as a team, create more chances to score, then me and the other strikers will get more chances to score.” The identity of the scorer does not matter, what matters is the victory of the team.”