Poland's World Cup dream in tatters after Montenegro draw

Poland's Grzegorz Krychowiak sinks to his knees after final whistle goes in Warsaw: photo - PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski

In the 94th minute it appeared captain Jakub Błaszczykowski had scored the winning goal, giving his side three crucial points in the group, after goals from Montenegro's Dejan Damjanovic (11th minute) and Poland's ace striker Robert Lewandowski (15th) in the first half.

Jakub Błaszczykowski (centre) and Paweł Wszołek (left) thought they had scored the winner in the 94th minute - until officials ruled it offside: photo - PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski

But after players cavorted down by the corner flag and the crowd at the National Stadium in Warsaw went wild, the referee disallowed, what looked on the TV replays, to be a perfectly good goal as being offside.

Joy then turned to devastation, as the 1 – 1 draw left Poland with only a slim, mathematical chance of advancing to the World Cup finals in Rio next summer.

England are now level top of Group H with Montenegro – although with one game in hand – after they rolled over Moldova 4 – 0 at Wembley Stadium.

Poland play group minnows San Marino on Tuesday and then meet Ukraine and England in Kharkov and London respectively.

When asked at the post-match press conference whether he would now resign as national team coach, after Poland's dream of reaching the finals in Brazil were now in ruins, national team coach Waldemar Fornalik said, "I have no such plans.”

"We knew we had to win and were only interested in victory, so we cannot be satisfied,” he added. (pg)