Poland – Slovakia | 14/06/2021 EURO

Coming into the tournament amid a grim run of form, Poland kick off their Euro 2020 campaign against Group E outsiders Slovakia on Monday, in St Petersburg. As the Eagles enter the finals with their only win this year coming against lowly Andorra, the pressure is on coach Paulo Sousa to start with a win in Russia’s cultural capital.

Taking part in their fourth European Championship on the bounce, Poland will fancy their chances of progressing out of a wide-open Group E. However, after finishing last in their group in both the 2008 and 2012 edition, and with winning just once in 2021 so far (D3, L1), the Poles will need to reinvent themselves if they’re to recreate their 2016 heroics of reaching the quarterfinals.

Poland will be hoping to get off to a winning start here but they’ve only achieved that feat once in their last nine major tournaments (D4, L4). Scoring in seven of their last eight fixtures will have boosted confidence however, but with both teams scoring in five of their last six internationals, their failure to keep clean sheets has been their weakness of late. Falling behind could prove fatal here considering Poland have never scored more than one goal in their 11 games at the European Championships.

Slovakia, the dark horses to emerge from Group E in qualifying, have progressed to the ‘round of 16’ stage in both of their previous major tournament appearances – the 2010 World Cup & Euro 2016. In both, the ‘Falcons’ failed to win their opening games (D1, L1) so a slow start again here may not be terminal.

Unbeaten in their last five internationals (W1, D4) and with six of their last seven games seeing the same HT/FT score, the early stages of this group clash could be crucial. This being their first meeting with Poland in a major tournament, Slovakia edge the H2H (W4, D1, L3), winning their last encounter 0-2 in 2013.

 

Date: 14/06/2021
Time: 19:00
Venue: Gazprom Arena (Saint Petersburg)
Pick for this match:
“1” – @ 1.70( Betwinner )

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