In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine War, the Polish national football team was escorted by F16 fighter jets on their way to the Middle-Eastern country as they flew to Qatar for participating in FIFA World Cup. Poland would begin their World Cup campaign against Mexico on November 22.
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar will be held starting November 20 to December 18.
The reason for being escorted by F16 fighter jets is because of the tensions around the Ukraine-Russia border amid the ongoing war between the two countries. Since, Poland shares its border with both Ukraine and Russia, extra care was taken and two F16 planes can be seen flying alongside the squad.
Interestingly, Poland would be guiding the team into their first FIFA World Cup knockouts for the first time since 1986.
The footage was posted by the official Twitter account of the Polish team and has already been viewed over 5.7 million times. The Poland national team’s official Twitter account posted: “We were escorted to the southern border of Poland by F16 planes!”
The team, in another post, said, “Thank you and greetings to the pilots!”
Poland will start their campaign in the Group C clash against Mexico on Tuesday. The Robert Lewandowski-led side then takes on Saudi Arabia on November 26, before squaring off against Lionel Messi’s Argentina in an anticipated clash on November 30.
Here’s the list of Poland’s 26-man squads playing in the FIFA tournament:
Keeper Bartlomiej Dragowski misses the World Cup after suffering a serious ankle injury and has been replaced by FC Copenhagen keeper Kamil Grabara.
Goalkeepers: Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus),Lukasz Skorupski (Bologna), Kamil Grabara (FC Copenhagen).
Defenders: Jan Bednarek (Aston Villa), Kamil Glik (Benevento), Robert Gumny (FC Augsburg), Artur Jedrzejczyk (Legia Warsaw), Jakub Kiwior (Spezia), Mateusz Wieteska (Clermont), Bartosz Bereszynski (Sampdoria), Matty Cash (Aston Villa), Nicola Zalewski (AS Roma).
Midfielders: Krystian Bielik (Birmingham City), Przemyslaw Frankowski (Lens), Kamil Grosicki (Pogon Szczecin), Grzegorz Krychowiak (Al-Shabab), Jakub Kaminski (VfL Wolfsburg), Michal Skoras (Lech Poznan), Damian Szymanski (AEK Athens), Sebastian Szymanski (Feyenoord), Piotr Zielinski (Napoli), Szymon Zurkowski (Fiorentina).
Forwards: Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona), Arkadiusz Milik (Juventus), Krzysztof Piatek (Salernitana), Karol Swiderski (Charlotte FC).
