Diary / Jonathan Wilson / 13 June 2008 / Leave a comment

Watching Poland's tournament fall apart gives Jonathan Wilson a sense of deja vu.

It's heartening to see that it's not just England who can react ridiculously to footballing setbacks. After four days of almost constant train travel, I had what was effectively a day off yesterday, sitting in Bern and watching the two matches on Swiss television.

Poland, I thought, were broadly outplayed and, but for an excellent performance from Artur Boruc and some poor finishing from Martin Harnik, would have been beaten comfortably. As it was, they led 1-0 going into injury time when the referee Howard Webb ensured that England would make a decisive impact on the tournament by awarding Austria a penalty, from which they equalised. Almost immediately my phone beeped with a text message from a friend who commentates on Polish television. "That cheat Webb's robbed us," it said.

Given the Polish tabloids last week ran mock-ups of their coach, Leo Beenhakker, holding aloft the bloodied heads of Germany's manager, Joachim Low, and their captain, Michael Ballack, it is fair to assume they will be replicating the tone of the "What an Urs hole" headlines that followed England's exit from Euro 2004 after the Swiss referee Urs Maier, now a German TV pundit, had - quite rightly - disallowed Sol Campbell's header.

I texted back, inquiring whether if you want to avoid conceding penalties in the last minute, it wouldn't be better simply to stop grabbing handfuls of opposing players' shirts. Before the vital free-kick was taken, Webb stopped play, walked into a crowded box and clearly issued a warning about manhandling the opposition. Seconds later, the ball was swung in, Mariusz Lewandowski hauled down Sebastian Prodl, and Webb had the courage to point to the spot. "The conclusion is that we are effectively out of the competition," moaned Beenhakker. "The referee saw something nobody else has seen and probably he wants to show he is a big boy. I've been in the game for 43 years and never had a problem with a referee but I really, really can't understand it."

To which the only response is: look at the replay and grow up. "Webb is not welcome in Poland," came another text. I refrained from suggesting it's just as well then he's unlikely to have to go there for the Euros in four years' time, given the ongoing problems over just about everything relating to Poland and Ukraine's co-hosting of the 2012 tournament, and the increasing likelihood Uefa will take it from them. I did however send back a text pointing out that Poland's goal had been against the run of play, offside, and scored by a Brazilian.

Roger Guerreiro is not the only Brazilian in the tournament. Germany have one, Turkey have one and so too would Croatia, but for Eduardo's broken leg. Italy have an Argentinian. Poland have repeatedly pointed out that there are three Polish-born players in the Germany squad, but all of them - Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Piotr Trochowski - moved to Germany at an early age and have German heritage. Kevin Kuranyi, similarly, although born in Rio de Janeiro, has a German-Hungarian father.

Eduardo moved to Croatia when he was 14, and has since married a Croatian girl. Mehmet Aurelio moved from Brazil to Turkey in 2001 and, having completed the statutory five-year residency requirement, was given Turkish citizenship. There is, just about, a legitimacy to their nationalities. Roger, though, only moved to Poland in December 2005. He is likely to leave Legia Warsaw for either Russia or Israel this summer; his is very much a nationality of convenience. And that, frankly, is cheating. Beenhakker angrily dismisses criticism - and there has been much, it should be said, in Poland - by insisting "that's just the modern world". If it is, then it is hard to see how international football can continue.

Poland can reach the quarter-finals [65.0], but they will need to beat Croatia convincingly in Klagenfurt on Monday [2.4] and hope that Austria overcome Germany [11.5] by a lesser score in Vienna. An Austrian win and poetic justice for the shameful fix between the nations in the 1982 World Cup that eliminated Algeria seems unlikely.

A lot of English newspapers have been officially supporting Poland in the tournament - presumably because the editor has a Polish au pair/ cleaner/ plumber - and their reward looks like being a very familiar narrative arc. High hopes, a disruptive injury to a key player, an anticlimactic early defeat, a childish rant about a referee doing his job and then an embarrassing exit. Perhaps Poland, having met England in just about every tournament since records began, have taken on our characteristics.

Tags: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Jonathan Wilson Euro 2008 Diary, Poland