Szymon Marciniak vs Fernando Santos. It was hot. “He admitted his mistake”

There are more and more indications that Fernando Santos will take over the Polish national team after Czesław Michniewicz. – On Monday afternoon, a plane landed at the airport in Warsaw, from which the Portuguese coach got off. However, it was not Paulo Bento, but Fernando Santos, the former coach of Portugal. According to Sport.pl, Cezary Kulesza will present him at Tuesday’s press conference

Marciniak vs. Santos. It was hot. “He admitted he was wrong”

Szymon Marciniak, our best Polish referee, who officiated the last final of the World Cup: Argentina – France, had an interesting story with Fernando Santos. In 2019, Marciniak refereed the qualifying match for the European Championships: Portugal – Serbia. The second part was controversial. One of the Serbs blocked a shot in the penalty area with his hand and Marciniak whistled a penalty kick. A moment later, however, he changed his decision and ordered the Serbs to start the game from their own goal. The Polish referee could not use the VAR analysis because he was not used in these games. The Portuguese were furious with Marciniak, they believed that they had been wronged.

The Polish referee after the match apologized to Fernando Santos for his decision. – Referee Marciniak after the match invited me to jointly analyze the situation with the penalty kick. He watched the replay and admitted his mistake. He apologized to me. It’s no consolation because everyone saw that it should have been eleven,” Santos said.

Meanwhile, Rafał Rostkowski, a former international referee, had a different view on this controversial situation.

– Exhibit from the match Portugal – Serbia. The ball, after headering the Portuguese, first hit the Serb’s face, and only then his hand. In such a situation, the offense cannot be whistled. The decision to cancel the penalty kick was the right one,” he tweeted.

Portugal’s Fernando Santos reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup, losing to Morocco. The 68-year-old coached the national team since 2014 and won the gold medal at the 2016 European Championships in France. Previously, he was a coach in the Greek national team for four years, so he meets the condition of experience in the work of a coach.

With Greece he advanced to two more major tournaments. At Euro 2012, he exited the group ahead of Poland and was eliminated in the quarter-finals after losing 4-2 to Germany. Two years later, he advanced to the World Cup in Brazil, where he also made it out of the group ahead of Ivory Coast and Japan.

Cezary Kulesza, in an interview with Sport.pl before the weekend, when asked about the new coach, said: – According to our information, he wanted a big name and a coach who has experience in working with great players. That’s why in the last week there were talks with three candidates, but they were finalized with Santos. Bento and Petković were to wait until the weekend with the president’s decision. They didn’t know they were already in reserve at the time.

Santos is about to tie up. The Polish federation is able to offer the Portuguese from 2.5 to 3 million euros a year. Perhaps Michał Probierz will be his assistant.