Robert Lewandowski scored three times as Poland beat Romania 6-0 in Warsaw in the Nations League. The visitors played most of the match with 10 men. It was the 38-year-old striker’s seventh hat-trick for his country and took his international tally to 92 goals.
The game turned in the 22nd minute. Radu Dragusin, the Tottenham centre-back currently on loan at Fiorentina, was sent off. From that point Romania struggled to hold any shape against a Poland side that kept pushing for more.
Lewandowski broke the deadlock from the penalty spot and added a second soon after the restart. The scoring then spread across the team. An own goal made it 3-0, before Piotr Zielinski and Jan Bednarek both found the net. Lewandowski completed his hat-trick with the sixth.
Bednarek’s goal is a reminder that Poland’s threat was not confined to their centre-forward. A centre-back getting on the scoresheet in a rout like this usually points to sustained territorial control and repeated set-piece pressure, which an opponent a man down for over an hour could do little to relieve.
For Lewandowski, who made his Poland debut in 2008 and has since left Barcelona, the numbers keep climbing. He still looks like the obvious focal point for his national side.
The result lifts Poland to third in Group B4. Romania remain fourth.
The defeat also carries an unwanted record for Gheorghe Hagi. Now in his second spell as Romania coach, he has become the first manager of the national team to lose each of his first three competitive matches. Losing a key defender so early made an already difficult evening far worse.
Dzeko’s last night in Zenica
Elsewhere in Group B4, Edin Dzeko played his final match for Bosnia-Herzegovina, a 1-1 home draw with Sweden. The former Manchester City forward is 40. The game marked his 152nd international appearance.
Supporters in Zenica set off fireworks in the 11th minute in tribute to his shirt number. Dzeko thought he had scored late in the first half, but the goal was ruled out because the ball had gone out of play earlier in the move.
He was withdrawn after 62 minutes and left the pitch to a standing ovation, with the celebrations of his international career continuing after the final whistle.
