Moder on the dancefloor and England can’t stop his moves
Twice now Jakub Moder has played for Poland against England and twice now he has looked absolutely brilliant. After scoring at Wembley back in March, the Brighton midfielder was one of the stars of the show as the Three Lions dropped their first points of World Cup Qualifying when drawing 1-1 in Warsaw.
Whereas Graham Potter has stuck Moder at left wing back for much of his Albion career so far, Poland boss Paulo Sousa used him in the sort of central position where he thrived at Lech Poznan.
Moder caused so many problems for a full strength England that it makes it even more maddening that he has become one of the main victims of Potter Selection Roulette since January.
Poland began the game stronger with Moder having their first chance on 15 minutes. Robert Lewandowski played Moder through with his effort drawing a decent stop from Jordan Pickford.
England weathered the storm and grew into the tie. Not even some half time handbags could knock them out of their stride and it came as no surprise when the visitors took the lead with 18 minutes left.
The identity of the scorer did not come as a shock, either. Harry Kane reminded everyone of his world-class talent when hitting a dipping drive which beat Wojciech Szczesny, a player whom the Daily Star Saturday football crossword setters used to include with startling frequency as they knew nobody could spell his bloody name.
England thought they were heading back with all three points until Moder magic helped create a 92nd minute equaliser.
It is rare to see Kyle Walker ever left in a muddle but Moder managed it. Walker was spun in circles, obliterated and sent back to the Etihad Stadium by Moder, leading to Lewandowski crossing and Damian Szymanski heading home at the far post.
Moder finished the game with stats which read 86 percent accuracy from the 29 passes he made, 100 percent completion of long passes and one successful dribble.
He contributed defensively too, making two clearances, two successful tackles and one interception in an all-action display showcasing what a talent the Seagulls have on their hands.
A couple of post-game Tyskie on the flight back to Brighton were well earned by Poland’s best central midfielder, who can now look forward to returning to left wing back or the bench when the Albion go to Brentford on Saturday.
We should probably mention the other Brighton players involved in the final round of September internationals, aside from Moder.
In the absence of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne, Leandro Trossard started for Belgium in their 1-0 win over Belarus.
Dennis Praet scored the only goal of the game when sweeping home a cross from Sergey Chernik. Trossard might have doubled the lead had Dodi Lukebakio opted to square the ball to the unmarked Vampire of Genk rather than selfishly shooting from a tight angle.
Shane Duffy followed up his goal scoring heroics against Kazakhstan in the Republic of Ireland’s previous game with another colossal performance in a 1-1 draw with Serbia.
Teenage goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu was just ahead of Duffy as the star of the show, making 10 saves either side of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s opener for Serbia.
A Nikola Milenkovic own goal with four minutes remaining earned the Republic a share of the spoils. A good result on paper, although the draw does mean that they have now not won a competitive game in 16 attempts – a run stretching back more than two years.
Jayson Molumby came off the bench in the 66th minute to replace Josh Cullen. There was no Aaron Connolly for the Republic as he missed out through injury.
That will be of serious concern to Potter. Brighton are now left with only Danny Welbeck and Neal Maupay as striker options following the decision to loan out three and sell one centre forward whilst making no additions during the summer 2021 transfer window.
One of those strikers out on loan is Andi Zeqiri, who was a 77th minute introduction for Switzerland in their 0-0 draw with Northern Ireland. Another is Abdallah Sima, who played for the opening hour of Senegal’s 3-1 win over Congo before being replaced.
Enock Mwepu meanwhile missed out on Zambia’s 2-0 defeat to Tunisia. It was agreed that he should not travel to Zambia for the game as he would have faced a 10 day quarantine period on his return, ruling him out of the Brentford game.
