Forget about figuring out how to stop Robert Lewandowski. Wales coach Robert Page seems to have only one task before his team faces Poland in Tuesday’s playoff final for a spot at the European Championship.
Just make sure one of his key defenders doesn’t shave his mustache. Wales right-back Connor Roberts claims he has never lost a game at the club level while sporting a mustache. His streak started last season with Burnley, and continued with Leeds, and he hopes it brings luck in the upcoming match.
“I think it has played about 25 Championship games and never lost,” the 28-year-old Roberts said, “so I hope that continues in the Championship, and maybe it gives us a bit of luck on Tuesday. It’s the power of the ‘tache, isn’t it?”
Page joked that Roberts’ wife is a big fan of the mustache, implying it’s important to keep her happy. So, Roberts will be keeping it.
Even though Wales doesn’t have Gareth Bale anymore, Poland still has its superstar player in Lewandowski. The 35-year-old Barcelona striker has scored 82 goals for Poland, and only three European players have scored more.
“He is a fantastic player, absolutely,” Page said. “We’ll have to respect that, of course. But it stops there. It goes out the window. We have done some analysis on him, we will show our defenders his strengths and weaknesses, what he is capable of doing — though we already know it.”
Wales captain Ben Davies praised Lewandowski, saying he has “seen it all and scored all types of goals.”
“He is one of those strikers, you give him any sniff of a chance, and it can turn into a goal,” Davies said. “We have to be dialed in to stop him.” Wales is on a seven-match unbeaten streak and has shown that it’s more of a team effort now, even without Bale.
“It shows how far we’ve come in a short space of time,” Page said. “We’re only one tournament past Gareth’s retirement, and we’re one win away from qualifying.
“We’re a country where, if we can be there or thereabouts at the end of the campaign to qualify while we are still in this transition of introducing young players without some of the world-class senior players we’ve had, we are in a good place.”
