Lewandowski saves Poland as Spain’s Morata misses rebound of redemption

At the final whistle Poland's players headed towards the stands and celebrated renewed opportunity while Spain departed to whistles, wondering how they had failed to win again and why this keeps happening to them. Even Alvaro Morata scoring the opening goal he so badly needed was not enough, a tense evening instead finishing with a draw that leaves la seleccion edgy and this group wide open. Robert Lewandowski scoring a second-half equaliser, Gerard Moreno hitting a penalty against the post and Wojciech Szczesny making a desperate late save summed it all up. That was how close it had been, how close it is in Group E.

After all the whistles and criticisms, the finger of blame pointing his way, Morata gave Spain the lead here, but his redemption would remain incomplete because while he scored one, he didn't score two, three, or more when he might have done. No one else did either, nerves frayed as Spain again discovered there was no way through and Poland resisted the late pressure to take these two teams, Slovakia and Sweden into next Wednesday when anything can happen.