Robert Lewandowski broke his World Cup duck on Saturday and explained his emotional celebration was due to the possibility of this being his last finals.
This is only Lewandowski s second World Cup with Poland, but he is now 34 years old and did not score a single goal at Russia 2018.
That barren run continued in the opening match against Mexico, in which the Barcelona forward saw a penalty saved.
But Lewandowski assisted Piotr Zielinski s strike against Saudi Arabia and grabbed the second himself in a vital 2-0 win to move Poland top of Group C.
The former Bayern Munich man was clearly overcome with emotion as he embraced his team-mates.
The older I get, the more emotional I get, Lewandowski said. I m aware when it comes to the World Cup, it might be my last World Cup.
He added: When you play for the national squad, you have to focus on the results, but some per cent of my identity also wanted me to have good statistics.
I always wanted to score at the World Cup, and this dream came true.
Poland coach Czeslaw Michniewicz said of Lewandowski s emotion: I was not surprised, because I know how deeply he lived the last match. The whole team supported him a lot.
GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLL! ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI GETS HIS FIRST CAREER WORLD CUP GOAL!!!!!
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona)
We are very happy together with him, just as we were very sad together with him after the penalty.
Michniewicz added one player will not win the match alone , but that was an assessment Herve Renard disagreed with, as the Saudi Arabia coach attributed Poland s victory to Wojciech Szczesny.
A penalty save from Salem Al Dawsari at 1-0 kept Poland in front in a game Saudi Arabia controlled for long periods.
Despite the result, Renard is not giving up hope, saying: We are still alive, so we ll play until the last second of our World Cup. If that s next time or another time, we won t give up.
Saudi Arabia are second in the pool, a point behind Poland, ahead of Argentina playing Mexico later on Saturday.
I hope [the Saudi fans] won t give up, Renard said. When you are fans, you need to support your team when it s a fantastic day. But you also need to support your team to make history in the third game. I would like to see one more time a green stadium.
