Poland need to win… and win big against Croatia

Poland needs a big victory against Croatia and a lot of help in tomorrow’s other Group B match to keep alive its hopes of advancing to the quarter-finals at the European Championship. Poland must win in Klagenfurt over Croatia, which has already secured top spot in the group, by three or four goals, and needs Austria to beat Germany in Vienna in order to advance. “The only thing we can do is try to win our match with Croatia, and for the rest we are in the waiting room,” Poland coach Leo Beenhakker said. “I’ve always learned that you have to put your time and your energy in the things you can manage, what you have in your hands. We don’t have the result of Germany-Austria in our hands, we only have more or less the result of our own match in our hands, so we are focused on our own match.”

It’s a match that means everything for Poland — and nothing for Croatia. Coach Slaven Bilic’s team has already wrapped up a spot in the knockout stage with wins over Austria and Germany. With that in mind, Bilic has indicated he will change his lineup to rest most of his top stars for Croatia’s quarter-final match against either the Czech Republic or Turkey. “We are going to field the strongest team possible, but we are not going to take risks,” Bilic said. “The criteria will be yellow cards, those who are injured, and those who are drained from the past two matches.”

Five Croatia players, including star midfielder Luka Modric, have yellow cards and are unlikely to play tomorrow to prevent the possibility of getting a second yellow and missing the quarter-finals.

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Midfielder Dario Srna, defenders Josip Simunic and Robert Kovac, and strikers Ivica Olic and Mladen Petric are all likely to join Modric on the bench. Defender Dario Knezevic, who came on as a substitute against both Austria and Germany, said he hopes to start against Poland.

“We are first in the group and it doesn’t pay to make risks,” Knezevic said. “We are not under pressure to win.”

Poland is, and to win big. But the Poles have not shown at the tournament that they possess the firepower to score heaps of goals, let alone to do so against a talented Croatian side that outclassed pre-tournament favorite Germany.