Poland and Slovakia take on each other at Saint Petersburg Stadium in an all-important clash set to determine their paths later on. Poland’s Paulo Sousa will be making his international tournament debut as a head coach. The Portuguese mentor won once in the three World Cup qualifiers played in March where his side were fourth in a group of six below Hungary and Albania. If Sousa fails to impress in this tournament, he might see his first international job end earlier than expected.
Euro 2020: Group E
Monday 14 June
Saint Petersburg Stadium
18:00
To Win
Poland 8/10
Draw 22/10
Slovakia 4/1
Poland
The Eagles travel to the Euros with high expectations following the impressive run the team had five years ago in France where they were unlucky to suffer a quarter-final elimination to the latter champions Portugal on penalties.
Poland failed to build on that form in the 2018 World Cup where they finished fourth in their group that had Colombia, Japan and Senegal with just one win. Team captain Robert Lewandowski broke the Bundesliga goalscoring record this season with 41 goals in 29 matches and he will be the go-to man for the Polish side.
Poland is blessed with many talented players, such as veteran winger Kamil Grosicki, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Kamil Jozwiak, Karol Linetty and Leeds’ Mateusz Klich. On the bench, they have the likes of Arkadiusz Milik and Krzysztof Piatek. I’m really expecting the Polish side to do well this time around.
Slovakia
This is only the second time Slovakia have qualified for the European championship and getting out of the group will be a big achievement for the Slovakians.
Slovakia are ranked 36th in the world, and they finished bottom of their group in the Nations League B Group 2, and thus were relegated to League C. Slovakia were also disappointing in the Euro qualifiers where Azerbaijan had conceded more goals than them, seeing the Repre make qualification after finishing third behind Croatia and Wales in Group E.
They will be looking to build on a five-game unbeaten streak coming into the Euros.
Prediction: Poland (8/10)
This is probably the banker of the first round as I do not see Poland not winning this encounter. Yes, Poland are not in the best of form coming into this match, but because of their quality in personnel, I will be banking on the Polish outfit.
Written by Banele Pikwa