 During nearly half of the qualifying campaign, Błaszczykowski was out of the national squad due to injury.He marked his return when coming on as a substitute in a qualifying match against Georgia, where the former Polish captain provided an assist against Georgia for the current captain, Robert Lewandowski, who scored a hat-trick in the final five minutes of the match in a 4–0 win.He scored a penalty against Gibraltar in an 8–1 victory and played in all the remaining games of qualification.