Image via @LaczyNasPilka on Twitter
Later today Poland will take on Austria at the Olympiastadion in Berlin as they participate in their second group game of Euro 2024. With both sides suffering narrow defeats despite playing well against more favourable opponents last time out, it’s sure to have a “winner takes all” flavour given that these are now the two teams in Group C battling it out to be one of the best third-placed sides.
With only minor injury concerns from Sunday’s match against the Netherlands, Michał Probierz has confirmed in yesterday’s press conference that he has his full 26-man squad fit and available for this afternoon. This means we will likely see a return for Paweł Dawidowicz, and we will certainly see Robert Lewandowski in the starting line-up. This is the starting XI that I personally expect to see:
It’s likely that Dawidowicz will replace Bartosz Salamon, who ably deputised in the first group game, and Lewandowski will take the place of the very promising Kacper Urbański, who I would expect to see from the bench at some point. Adam Buksa played very well on Sunday, not just with his goal but with his work-rate, so I expect him to keep his place in the side. The one slightly contentious choice might be Jakub Moder in for Sebastian Szymański, but Moder had a good second half against the Dutch and Szymański didn’t have his best outing in a Poland shirt on that occasion.
As much as this is a very short preview article, I think it is just worth saying that there has been a lot of talk about how likeable this current Polish squad is. I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment, given how disliked they were after the debacle of the World Cup and the various other love/hate feelings that have reigned over the national side in years gone by, really up until Michał Probierz helped bring about a change in that after his first few games as Selekcjoner. We’re at the point where we can say that the results (almost) don’t matter, because good on the whole as those results have been, it’s the football that Poland have played under Probierz which just keeps getting more and more watchable.
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