Poland topped their qualifying group and found themselves in the top tier of the UEFA Nations League, so they have been playing some of the higher level teams at this competition on a relatively regular basis. Though that does mean that they come here having only won 1 of their last 7 games, and they were unimpressive in recent draws against Russia and Iceland. English football Fans will recognise names such as Lukasz Fabianski (West ham), Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus), Mateusz Klich (Leeds United) and Jakub Moder (Brighton), though undoubtedly their star man is striker Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich) who will need to be at his goal scoring best if Poland are to have an impact at this tournament.
Slovakia reached the last 16 at the 2010 World Cup and 2016 European Championship’s, so they are a country that know what it takes to make it out the group at major tournaments. After finishing 3rd in their qualifying group they had to qualify through the play-off’s, They beat The Republic Of Ireland in the semi-finals, though needed penalties to do it, and in the final they didn’t quite need penalties as they beat Northern Ireland in extra time. Recent results for Slovakia don’t inspire much confidence. Draws with Austria, Bulgaria, Malta, Cyprus and a 2-0 defeat to The Czech Republic all point to this being a tough tournament for Slovakia.
Slovakia have shown themselves to be no mugs on the big stage, but the Poland team have a touch more class and we fancy them to come out on top here. The most likely result is Poland winning a close game 2-1 with Robert Lewandowski finding the net and proving to be the difference on the day.
