UEFA Nations League: Poland come from behind to beat Wales as tournament kicks off

Poland's Robert Lewandowski (right) vies for the ball against Wales in their UEFA Nations League match. (Photo: Reuters)

Poland came from behind to snatch a 2-1 win over Wales on Wednesday (June 1) at the start of the Nations League and deny the visitors a morale-boosting result ahead of their weekend bid to reach the World Cup finals for the first time in 64 years. Substitute Karol Swiderski scored five minutes from time to ensure victory for the World Cup-bound Polish in the League A Group Four match after Wales had taken an early second-half lead.

Poland begin their #NationsLeague campaign with a home win over Wales

Who impressed?

— Finalissima (@EURO2024) June 1, 2022

Jonny Williams struck home a driving right-footed shot from outside the penalty area as an under-strength Wales went ahead in the 52nd minute in Wroclaw before Jakub Kaminski equalised 20 minutes later. Wales rested Gareth Bale, Ben Davies and Aaron Ramsey with an eye on qualifying for their first World Cup since the 1958 finals in Sweden, when they meet either Scotland or Ukraine in their playoff in Cardiff on Sunday. The identity of their opponents will be known later on Wednesday.

Belgium no longer intimidated by Dutch, says Toby Alderweireld

Belgium defender Toby Alderweireld said he and his team mates are no longer intimidated by the prospect of taking on northern neighbours the Netherlands who they face in Friday’s Nations League derby. The former Ajax Amsterdam and Tottenham Hotspur centre back has returned to the Belgium squad for the first time in eight months and is looking forward to the League A Group Four clash in Brussels, given his past connection with the Dutch.

The Netherlands have been historically more successful than their neighbours having finished runners-up at the World Cup three times, while Belgium had only once reached the semi-final prior to the last tournament in Russia.

“Maybe the intensity of the rivalry is a little less, certainly from our point of view. We used to look up to the Netherlands but that’s gone now,” Alderweireld told a news conference on Wednesday.

Belgium have spent most of the last three years top of the FIFA rankings and reached the World Cup semi-final four years ago while the Dutch failed to qualify for Russia 2018. “Now I think it is foremost a clash between two big footballing countries. I’m really looking forward to it and we certainly want to win,” he added.