Arkadiusz Milik broke the resistance of Northern Ireland and earned Poland their first UEFA European Championship finals win at the seventh time of asking.<\/p>\n
If Poland were irked at not having led at the break after a one-sided first half then that annoyance will have\u00a0dissipated with the Ajax forward\u2019s 11th international goal, a low shot beyond Michael McGovern from just inside the penalty area six minutes into the second period.<\/p>\n
The task facing the debutants was apparent early on.<\/p>\n
Poland, with their full-backs overlapping and Milik operating in a free role behind Robert Lewandowski, swarmed all over their opponents, dominating possession and territory.<\/p>\n
The possession figure was as high as 75% at one stage during a first half in which Milik, after\u00a0\u0141ukasz Piszczek skipped around Gareth McAuley, fired over and left-winger Bartosz Kapustka, 19, stung the palms of McGovern.<\/p>\n
The wave of white shirts did not relent after the restart and the breakthrough Adam Nawa\u0142ka\u2019s team had been threatening eventualy arrived when Milik struck, sweeping Jakub B\u0142aszczykowski\u2019s cutback into McGovern\u2019s bottom left-hand corner.<\/p>\n
Key player:<\/strong> Grzegorz Krychowiak (Poland)<\/p>\n Attack v defence <\/strong><\/p>\n It was always going to be difficult for Northern Ireland to contain Milik and Lewandowski, who got 51 league goals between them this season \u2013\u00a0not to mention the fact the latter managed a record-equalling tally of 13 in qualifying. Michael O\u2019Neill\u2019s men did a laudable job, however, scrapping manfully and lunging into challenges, until the pressure finally told, their run of not conceding ending at 321 minutes.<\/p>\n Lafferty all alone <\/strong><\/p>\n Northern Ireland\u2019s historic qualification was built around the seven goals of Kyle Lafferty, who overcame a groin injury sustained in training this week.<\/p>\n Chances for the Norwich forward, an isolated presence in a 4-5-1 formation, to make it eight for the campaign were non-existent as the Green and White Army failed to register a shot on target.<\/p>\n The run is over <\/strong><\/p>\n Thirty years to the day since their last match at a final tournament \u2013\u00a0a 3-0 defeat by Brazil at the FIFA World Cup in Mexico \u2013\u00a0Northern Ireland suffered a similar fate as Poland put the breaks on an unbeaten run dating back to March 2015.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: UEFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Arkadiusz Milik broke the resistance of Northern Ireland and earned Poland their first UEFA European Championship finals win at the seventh time of asking. If Poland were irked at not having led at the break after a one-sided first half then that annoyance will have\u00a0dissipated with the Ajax forward\u2019s 11th international goal, a low shot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n