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In their final match at the World Cup, the Polish national team earned their first victory - in a closely contested battle, the Poles defeated the Costa Rican national team, who will return home without experiencing the joy of victory.
Hanover - AWD Arena stadium Referee: Shamsul Maidin (Singapore) Costa Rica 1 - 2 Poland
24' [1 - 0] Ronald Gomez 33' [1 - 1] Bartosz Bosacki 66' [1 - 2] Bartosz Bosacki
Costa Rica: Porras, Drummond (70’ Wallace), Gonzalez, Umana, Marin, Bolanos (78’ Saborio), Solis, Centeno, Badilla, Wanchope, Gomez (82’ Hernandez).
Poland: Boruc, Baszczynski, Bak, Bosacki, Zewlakow, Krzynowek, Szymkowiak, Smolarek (85’ Rasiak), Radomski (64’ Lewandowski), Jelen, Zurawski (45’ Brozek).
The match began more actively for the Poles. They tried to attack more and not give the opponents the ball. The Costa Rican defense confidently repelled all Polish attacks, while the representatives of Central America tried to attack whenever they had the opportunity. However, in the first minutes of the match, neither team created very dangerous situations.
The first opportunity to celebrate went to the Costa Rican fans. Their supported team broke through to lead in the first half. In the 23rd minute, a penalty was awarded to Costa Rica after a foul on forward Paulo Wanchope near the Polish penalty area, and Ronald Gomez took the penalty shot that goalkeeper Artur Boruc failed to stop in the Polish goal.
After the first goal, the game on the field remained largely unchanged. The Poles continued to attack, but lacked accuracy in their offense. Despite creating several more dangerous attacks, the Costa Rican players also failed to finish them accurately. Wanchope, who had scored two goals in this tournament, could not beat the opponent's goalkeeper.
With a little over ten minutes left in the first half, Poland managed to score their first goal in this tournament. After a corner kick, the Costa Rican goalkeeper stumbled trying to reach the ball and Bartosz Bosacki, standing about 11 meters from the goal, scored with a single touch.
The Polish forward Ebi Smolarek played actively. Representing Dortmund's "Borussia", he was the most active player attacking the opponents' goal. Until the end of the first half, both teams launched a few attacks, but neither could change the score.
The teams came out at the break with a tied score of 1-1.
In the second half, both teams started wanting to win the match. Both the Poles and the Costa Ricans tried to attack when an opportunity arose, but the game was somewhat sluggish.
In the first half of the second half, Costa Rica had two chances to take the lead, but attempts by Cristian Bolanos and Paolo Wanchope failed. The game livened up halfway through the half. Jacek Krzynowek tested Jose Porras with a beautiful long-range shot.
Soon after, Poland's defender Bosacki scored his second goal. Running up for a Polish corner kick, he headed a beautiful shot past Porras and put his team ahead.
After missing the second goal, the Costa Rican national team fought commendably. Paolo Wanchope broke through alone against the goalkeeper, passed the ball past him into the goal, but the referee signaled offside and disallowed the goal.
With this tempo, the match in Hanover ended without any more goals. It is worth noting that the referee showed a total of 10 yellow cards, five for each team.
The Polish national team will return home after winning their only victory in this year's World Cup, failing to live up to the hopes placed in them. The Costa Rican national team, without winning a single match, finished last in the group.
