Polish football fans enjoy quite a peculiar relationship with their national team. They’ve long ago accepted that supporting Poland only leads to disappointment. One of their songs you’ll hear from fans throughout matches literally translates as ‘nothing ever changes’.
There’s another saying connected with the team when it plays tournament football too: the first game is the ‘opener’ the second is ‘for it all’ the third is for ‘honour’.
So, the first game is written off because it won’t go well, the second is a must-win because they messed up the first game and the third game is for saving face because they’ve probably already been eliminated or, it’s to rescue slim chances of advancing to the next round.
Poland play Netherlands first, then Austria, then France. Nothing ever changes indeed.
MANAGER: Michal Probierz
CAPTAIN: Robert Lewandowski. Following Poland’s Last 16 exit at the 2022 World Cup, it looked like Lewy’s Poland day were over. Thankfully he’s stuck with the team and despite scoring his lowest tally in league football this season for Barcelona (19 in 35 La Liga matches) since his first season at Bayern Munich, he’s changed his game a bit to become more of a team player.
STAR PLAYER: That man Lewandowski again. He scored three goals in eight qualification games for the tournament, while at the World Cup in Qatar he bagged two after nine in nine over that qualification campaign.
HOW THEY GOT THERE: Poland were lucky to make it to the Euros it must be said. They finished third behind Albania and the Czech Republic in Group E, winning three, drawing two and losing three. They thrashed Estonia 5-1 in their Playoff semi-final and then went to a penalty shootout with Wales where Juventus’ Wojciech Szczesny saved Dan James’ penalty to earn a 5-4 victory in the shootout.
HOW WILL THEY DO: Probierz likes to play with a 3-5-1-1 formation with the aim of flooding the midfield to stifle opposition teams. He’s got a good domestic record in cup competitions too so it’s certainly a system that works. That said, it didn’t have much success at the World Cup when Argentina and France rang rings around them.
However, a team with Lewandowski, Szczesny, Jakub Kiwor and Piotr Zielenski cannot be totally dismissed, it’s just that they’re a bit short of talent in the middle of the park, despite them playing a formation where they pack that area.
You’d have to think that their second game, remember the ‘for it all’ above, against Austria will be the making, or breaking, of both sides.
BEST BET: There’s no two ways about it, this is a tough group for Poland. They’re not in form like Austria, nor have the star power of the Netherlands or France. They probably won’t play enough games for Lewandowski to bother the Golden Boot charts either, and in all probability your best bet from a Polish perspective is for The Eagles to finish Bottom of Group D.
POLAND EURO 2024 FIXTURES
Group D
Sunday, June 16: Poland v Netherlands, 2pm (Volksparkstadion, Hamburg)
Friday, June 21: Poland v Austria, 5pm (Olympiastadion, Berlin)
Tuesday, June 25: France v Poland, 5pm (Westfalenstadion, Dortmund)
POLAND EURO 2024 SQUAD
GOALKEEPERS: Marcin Bulka, Lukasz Skorupski, Wojciech Szczesny, Oliwier Zych.
DEFENDERS: Jan Bednarek, Bartosz Bereszynski, Pawel Bochniewicz, Pawel Dawidowicz, Jakub Kiwior, Tymoteusz Puchacz, Bartosz Salamon, Sebastian Walukiewicz
MIDFIELDERS: Kamil Grosicki, Piotr Zielenski, Przemyslaw Frankowski, Sebastian Szymanski, Jakub Moder, Damian Szymanski, Nicola Zalewksi, Bartosz Slisz, Michal Skoras, Jakub Piotrowksi, Taras Romanczuk, Kacper Urbański
FORWARDS: Adam Buksa, Robert Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Milik, Krzysztof Piatek, Karol Swiderski.
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