Poland vs Thailand

This was Poland’s B team/experimental team playing the rather diminutive Thai team in the second match of the King’s Cup in Thailand.

Poland led most of the attacking in the first half, but it didn’t pay off until just before the interval.

In the 43rd minute, Kamil Glik, playing in his first international match for Poland, scored the opening goal during a mad scramble right in front of the Thai goal following a Polish free kick.

The second Polish goal came in the 52nd minute.

It was scored by Patryk Malecki after a Polish cross sailed into the Thai penalty area.

The resulting loose ball was poked home by Malecki — his first goal as a Polish international.

Disaster for Poland in the 84th minute.

Slawomir Peszko inexplicably received a second yellow card after it appeared he was fouled.

The mysterious reasoning by the referee for the sending off became clearer in the context of subsequent decisions by the refereeing staff.

Incredibly only two minutes later, 10-man Poland scored their third goal of the match.

Marcin Robak was the scorer after receiving a short cross in the area and pounding home a shot that left no chance for the Thai keeper Kawin Thammasatchanon.

In the 90th minute, Thailand were awarded a penalty so laughable that it brought smiles to players on both sides.

As is so often the case, the weakly hit penalty shot was easily blocked by the keeper.

However, the referee awarded a retake of the penalty for some presumed infraction.

Second time was the charm and Thailand scored from the spot.

Big surprise — the referee allowed the goal to stand.

The Peszko sending off, along with the phantom foul leading to a penalty and the retake of the missed spot kick was one of the most grossly obvious cases ever of a referee deliberately attempting to influence a result.

And so Thailand got on the scoreboard in the end, thanks solely to the African refereeing staff in this match, and not on any merit of the Thai team.

On a more positive note, it is worth mentioning how refreshing it was to see Poland and yet again Slawomir Peszko attempting numerous shots from distance.

Peszko’s industriousness at trying the long ball rubbed off on his teammates — a very encouraging development indeed.