Good afternoon and welcome to our live blog from day eight at Euro 2024. Poland face Austria at the Olympiastadion in Berlin in the second round of games in Group D.
It’s essentially a case of winner stays in contention, as both sides lost their opening matches. Ralf Rangnick’s industrious Austria side went down 1-0 to France on Monday, but will line up as marginal favourites for this encounter.
With their high-energy, proactive pressing game, they pushed the pre-tournament favourites hard, with Christoph Baumgartner having a golden opportunity well saved by Mike Maignan. Though they struggled to contain Kylian Mbappe, they looked impressive were unlucky to concede an own goal.
RB Leipzig defensive midfielder Nicolas Seiwald stood out, with Borussia Dortmund’s Marcel Sabitzer also showing his flair in midfield. There is great optimism about the national football team in Austria and a fair few pundits have picked them as Euro 2024 dark horses. Time to show their mettle in the German capital, where it’s started tipping down.
“We have to win – it is absolutely clear to us,” the former Manchester United manager said. “To beat Poland, we need the same mix of aggression and compact play as we saw against France, but also joy on the pitch, optimism to move up the pitch and score.”
Meanwhile, after losing 2-1 to the Netherlands in their Group D curtain-raiser and ranked lowest from the four sides of their groups, at 28th in the world, Poland need all the help they can get.
A fit Robert Lewandowski could change the game for them. Their veteran talisman returned to training but is in a race against time to recover from a thigh injury and make the starting line-up.
“There is a big difference if you have the best player in the world on the bench or you have him on the pitch,” Poland manager Michał Probierz said of the Barcelona striker yesterday.
Lens striker Adam Buksa did a fine job of deputising for Big Lew against the Netherlands, putting Poland in front with his glancing header. Premier League watchers will also be well-acquainted with their back line, given Jan Bednarek (Southampton) and Jakub Kiwior (Arsenal) are at centre-back.
With four of the third-placed teams going through into the knockout stages at Euro 2024, every point matters.
Kick-off is at 5pm UK time. Team news to come shortly.