Zielinski: I requested a substitution because I had a heel problem; I am willing to play as a defensive midfielder

Poland defeated Scotland 3-2 in the first round of the UEFA Nations League. In an interview with Polish media TVP Sport after the game, Polish midfielder Zielinski evaluated the victory of the game and talked about his position as a defensive midfielder.

Evaluation of this game

"Every victory in the national team is extra sweet, but this game could have gone differently. If the second half started better and scored the third goal, everything would have gone well. In the end, we had to fight to the end, and the most important thing is that we won the game."

Reason for being substituted

"I had a problem with my heel, so I asked for a substitution. When I felt uncomfortable, I told the coach 'substitution in five minutes'. Now I feel okay."

Played as a defensive midfielder

"I knew this might happen a long time ago. Assistant coach Mira came to Milan and asked me if I was willing to play in this position if it was really necessary. I said no problem. We have a lot of creative players in the midfield. Today our midfield was light, technical and great."

On the creativity of the midfield

"I have never played with such a creative lineup in the national team. Sometimes I played with Szymanski or Urbanski, but today our midfield was the most creative, the most technical and the lightest. I laugh when I say this because it is really pleasant to play with these technical midfielders. If you look at Scotland, they don't have such players in the midfield."

Scotland had more possession

"Yes, but we got the ball back and scored the 2-0 goal. I played beautifully with Nikola, we worked well together. It was a simple game: pass, run, he ran into space again, I passed to him, he did well and created a penalty. We need to look for these chances. Let everyone pass and run, so that everyone can play more easily."

Where the team needs to work

"We need to start the second half in a better way. It's true that the opponent might press forward, but we just need to control the first 15 minutes of the game and it will go much smoother. In the end, we made things difficult for ourselves unnecessarily, but fortunately in the end we won the game."