Robert Lewandowski says he was misunderstood when he appeared to criticise his Poland team-mates after their loss to Colombia, but says he had no chances to score in their World Cup campaign.
After starting the tournament with a loss to Senegal, Adam Nawalka's team's early elimination from the World Cup was confirmed by a 3-0 defeat to Colombia.
Lewandowski appeared to blame the quality of his team-mates after the match when he told Polish TV: "I was alone, we fought, I fought, I did everything I could, but fighting is not enough to win World Cup matches, you also have to have quality, and we had too little of that.”
However, the Bayern Munich striker says he was not calling anyone out, insisting their problems were down to other issues in the squad.
"I did not want to express myself negatively about my team-mates, that was misunderstood," he told Sport Bild.
"I always stand behind my team-mates and the coach, and say nothing negative about my team-mates.
"We had a lot of injury problems before the World Cup and many of our players did not play regularly because of problems at their club. That is the reason for our elimination."
Lewandowski has had seven attempts in his first two games, getting only three on target, and feels he would have done better had he been given better service.
"I had no chance to score," he added. "I would be angry if I had chances and missed. I'm a striker who lives off of assists."
And, despite their upset, the 29-year-old is out to end on a high as Poland conclude their campaign against Japan on Thursday.
"I'm proud to be captain of this team and what we've achieved with it over the past four years," he added.
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