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Boniek's hat trick against Belgium in 1982 fired Poland to the semifinals. Allsport UK /Allsport |
Boniek scored twice against Mexico to secure Poland's place in the quarterfinals at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, when most people had assumed the Poles were a side in decline after their impressive third place finish in 1974.
The fact that Poland repeated that feat four years later was largely due to Boniek's blossoming into one of the deadliest strikers of the modern era. A 5-1 win over Peru earned the Poles a place in the second round where Boniek, after just one goal in the opening stage, came to life.
Against Belgium, Boniek opened the scoring with a fierce blast from the edge of the box with just four minutes on the clock and went on to complete his hat trick with one of the great individual performances in World Cup history. Unfortunately Boniek picked up his second yellow card of the tournament in the dying minutes of Poland's next game against the Soviet Union and, without its suspended talisman, Poland was no match for Italy in the semifinal. Boniek returned to help beat France in the third place playoff.
By 1986 Poland really was in decline, and Boniek too was living on past glories. Having dropped back to sweeper, his defensive deficiencies were harshly exposed first by England and then by Brazil in a 4-0 second-round defeat.
