Lewandowski points to ‘Respect’ symbol in response to fans jeering the knee protest

Poland captain Robert Lewandowski defended the England team last night after fans booed their act of taking the knee.

With a lively crowd in attendance over in Warsaw we were always going to see some drama unfold when Poland went toe to toe with England, knowing that a win for the Poles would make the race for top spot in Group I very interesting.

Lewandowski steps up

Before the game even kicked off, though, there was a big talking point in the form of the “taking the knee” protest. The Three Lions have opted to continue the movement prior to kick-off and this time around, it earned a series of boos from sections of the home support.

While it wasn’t necessarily unexpected, it did prompt the aforementioned Lewandowski to touch his “Respect” armband to indicate that supporters shouldn’t be booing England players for taking a stand.

The end goal for many is to well and truly kick racism out of football but as we know, that tends to be easier said than done – especially after some of the gross fallout from the Euro 2020 final earlier this year. It’s always great to see high level players get involved in what’s happening but in reality, there’s still a long way to go.

The aim is to eradicate this issue to the best of our abilities and until UEFA starts to introduce some real sanctions into the mix, that just isn’t going to happen.

The two European juggernauts wound up playing out an entertaining 1-1 draw with their push for World Cup qualification continuing next month.

Featured image credit: Getty