Piotr Zielinski was the lone Napoli player in action on Sunday. Zielinski played the full 90 minutes in Poland’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of France.
Though France controlled the run of play from start to finish, Poland had a fleeting chance until Kylian Mbappe scored his first of two screamers in the 75th minute.
With the match still scoreless, Zielinski had Poland’s best chance after Bartosz Bereszyński’s cutback found the Napoli midfielder at the penalty spot. Zielinski got plenty of power behind the strike but shot straight at Hugo Lloris, before Theo Hernandez blocked his second effort.
With the occasional clever turn or accurate switch of play, Zielinski was one of the few Poland players to provide any creativity in the attack. However, as he pointed out in an interview with Rai 1 after the match, France were simply too strong.
“This match was well executed, well prepared. It’s our best performance in this World Cup. Unfortunately we faced the world champions. We occasionally put them in difficulty, but you could see they’re too strong.”
