Against the Netherlands, SAINTS defender Jan Bednarek’s Poland team opened their EURO 2024 campaign with a late 2-1 defeat.
Adam Buksa gave Poland an unexpected lead with a header against the flow of play, and despite Bednarek’s best attempts to block, Cody Gakpo equalised. The Netherlands, led by former Saints manager Ronald Koeman, wasted opportunities to score additional goals until Wout Weghorst gave them the lead on minute 84. Bednarek performed at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion for an entire ninety minutes. The 28-year-old cleared seven obstacles and made one block. Next up for Poland is France, who begin their campaign on Monday, June 17, against Austria.
Bednarek’s loss came after fellow Saints players Che Adams and soon-to-be-ex-player Stuart Armstrong lost badly to Germany in the opening match of EURO 2024. After Ryan Porteous of Watford was given a red card, Scotland was reduced to 10 men and defeated 5-1 at the Allianz Arena in Munich.Adams’ game was prematurely curtailed by that sending-off, as he was replaced at halftime by center-back Grant Hanley. Adams, who has yet to sign a new contract despite receiving an offer from the Saints, had a difficult evening. He was only able to muster 13 touches as Scotland was unable to hold off the hosts.
Armstrong made his matchday squad debut for the first time since his injury at Cardiff City when he was picked as one of the substitutes. He didn’t enter the game off the bench. At the moment, Scotland is bottom of Group A. Their next match is against Switzerland, who defeated Hungary 3-1 on Wednesday, June 19, to start the competition.