Lewandowski had gone back to Chicago, and Poland lost to Bosnia for the first time on an 84th-minute penalty

Poland had never lost to Bosnia and Herzegovina until Monday night. Ivan Bašić’s 84th-minute penalty at Bilino Polje in Zenica settled their Nations League Group B4 game 1-0, and Poland are now four points behind Bosnia with two matches left.

The penalty came out of a VAR review. French referee Jérémie Pignard, on his Nations League debut, ruled that Jan Bednarek had held the substitute Jovo Lukić, and Bašić drove his left-footed kick high to the right.

No Lewandowski, no Džeko

Both teams were without their most famous striker. Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick in Poland’s 6-0 win over ten-man Romania in Warsaw on 2 October, but he was booked in that game, his second yellow card of the campaign, which ruled him out of Zenica. He left the camp the next day and went back to his club, Chicago Fire. Mateusz Żukowski of Magdeburg took his place and his No. 9 shirt, the only change to Jan Urban’s starting line-up.

Bosnia, for their part, were playing their first game after Edin Džeko’s farewell. Their record scorer bowed out in the same stadium three days earlier, a 1-1 draw with Sweden, finishing with 152 caps and 73 goals.

Poland had the ball, Bosnia had the moment

On the run of play Poland had reason to feel hard done by. They had more of the ball and more of the shots, and put four on target to Bosnia’s one. Wiktor Nowak forced a good save before half-time and Sebastian Szymański had an effort blocked, while Bosnia had a goal ruled out for offside early in the second half. After the penalty, Poland never really threatened.

Urban did not hide his anger. “The ball wasn’t reaching the player, it was a fight for position,” he said at his news conference. “We deserved much more. The hosts had one shot on target and we lost.”

He has a point about the shots. But a team that creates that much and scores nothing over 90 minutes is leaving itself open to exactly this kind of night, and without Lewandowski Poland looked short of someone to finish what they built.

Sweden stay top

Sweden won 1-0 in Bucharest on the same night, Viktor Gyökeres scoring the only goal early on. It was his seventh Nations League match in a row with a goal, a record for the competition. That leaves Sweden on 10 points, Bosnia on eight, Poland on four and Romania without a point.

Only the group winners go up to League A, and the runners-up go into a promotion play-off. Bosnia travel to Sweden on 14 November and host Romania three days later. Poland finish away to Romania and at home to Sweden.

Follow all the Nations League results