Poland vs England cancelled due to waterlogged pitch
The much-awaited Poland against England World Cup qualifier was called off, Tuesday evening, due to a flooded pitch and will now be played at 17.00 CET, Wednesday.
A deluge of rain fell in Poland's capital from around 4.30 in the afternoon and didn't stop falling long after the scheduled 9 pm local time kick off.
Puddles on the pitch turned to small lakes and when the Polish team tried to pass balls during a warm up it resembled water polo more than football.
As the rain continued to fall, fans were left for over one hour after the scheduled kick-off time waiting for a decision, as match officials appeared every so often throwing a ball onto the rain-soaked pitch, to see it roll and bounce even more life-less than it did half an hour before.
The brand new National Stadium in Warsaw, constructed to host Euro 2012 matches this summer, was designed to include a roof, which could be put in place in case of extreme downpours.
Whistles and anti-Polish football association chanting were heard from sections of Polish fans as the roof failed to close.
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The decision on when to hold the cancelled match reportedly split the two sides: the Poles did not want to play on Wednesday as many had Polish first division club matches to play on Friday. England players were in favour of a match on Wednesday.
"We are ready to play, and we have a hotel we can use again tomorrow if required," Adrian Bevington, Managing Director of Club England told reporters.
Poland's injured captain, Jakub Blaszczykowski told the TVP broadcaster: "The bottom line is always the health [of the players] and in such circumstances it would be hard to play and would be too risky. This is obviously not a comfortable situation for us because we were prepared mentally and physically to play the match on Tuesday."
He added that some players had not wanted the re-scheduled match less than 24 hours away, “but they have to adapt”.
"It's a disaster for the Polish FA who had a big crowd in tonight,” England's coach Roy Hodgson said.
"We've got a problem now of having to re-prepare. Our players have to do things all over again. No-one's a winner in this situation. The weather is beyond everyone's control.”
In the other Group H match, Montenegro beat Ukraine away from home 1 – 0.
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A deluge of rain fell in Poland's capital from around 4.30 in the afternoon and didn't stop falling long after the scheduled 9 pm local time kick off.
Puddles on the pitch turned to small lakes and when the Polish team tried to pass balls during a warm up it resembled water polo more than football.
As the rain continued to fall, fans were left for over one hour after the scheduled kick-off time waiting for a decision, as match officials appeared every so often throwing a ball onto the rain-soaked pitch, to see it roll and bounce even more life-less than it did half an hour before.
The brand new National Stadium in Warsaw, constructed to host Euro 2012 matches this summer, was designed to include a roof, which could be put in place in case of extreme downpours.
Whistles and anti-Polish football association chanting were heard from sections of Polish fans as the roof failed to close.
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The decision on when to hold the cancelled match reportedly split the two sides: the Poles did not want to play on Wednesday as many had Polish first division club matches to play on Friday. England players were in favour of a match on Wednesday.
"We are ready to play, and we have a hotel we can use again tomorrow if required," Adrian Bevington, Managing Director of Club England told reporters.
Poland's injured captain, Jakub Blaszczykowski told the TVP broadcaster: "The bottom line is always the health [of the players] and in such circumstances it would be hard to play and would be too risky. This is obviously not a comfortable situation for us because we were prepared mentally and physically to play the match on Tuesday."
He added that some players had not wanted the re-scheduled match less than 24 hours away, “but they have to adapt”.
"It's a disaster for the Polish FA who had a big crowd in tonight,” England's coach Roy Hodgson said.
"We've got a problem now of having to re-prepare. Our players have to do things all over again. No-one's a winner in this situation. The weather is beyond everyone's control.”
In the other Group H match, Montenegro beat Ukraine away from home 1 – 0.
About 1st4FootballTickets.com: Thousands of football tickets are on sale on Europe's biggest football ticketing website: We have Europa League tickets such as Inter Milan vs FK Partizan tickets, Liverpool vs Anzhi tickets and tickets for Lazio vs Tottenham Hotspur. Last but not least we also have FA Cup Tickets available.
