Wales will go all out to beat Poland tomorrow evening (KO:7.45pm) and the country has a national anthem that beats all comers hands down. The players found it so inspirational that the much wanted early goal helped settle the nerves against Finland. However, Poland will come looking for blood, you can bet on that.

Let’s take a look at what they have and who leads them these days.

Robert Lewandowski Is the first name to conjure with, albeit the Swans Ben Cabango did a superb job on him back in September 2022 when Poland sneaked a 1-0 win against Wales. That side doesn’t match up to today’s squad, be that by having more experience, or different personnel. Poland head coach, Michał Probierz has been in charge for five games, winning three and drawing two, that’s a sixty percent win rate. Elevated from the Under 21 side where in his ten games in charge he lost just the two he was an automatic choice. Probierz isn’t a loser even though he finds himself in charge of a side battling in a play off with Wales, and away from home come kick off tomorrow evening.

The 5-1 defeat of Estonia was crushing at the PGE Narodowy Stadium, Warsaw on Thursday evening. Kuba Piotrowski and Nicola Zalewski were stand out performers. The head coach was delighted with the performance and you would expect that,”I liked the performance, That we not only crossed the ball but also created opportunities in the central zone of the field, we shot from there and scored a goal with a shot from outside the penalty area”

Aston Villa’s Matt Cash was injured in the game as was Karol Swiderski, both are considered doubtful but are desperate to play. In Lewandowski’s defence he worked hard all night and is always going to take defenders away from focal points of attack, he didn’t score but he was a nuisance all evening. Przemyslaw Frankowski (below) scored on twenty two minutes and really after that with nigh on eighty five percent possession the win was a formality. Much like Wales the Poles could have scored so many more goals.

But as head coach Probierz says, “We were the ones who brought the opponent to the state they were in. From the very beginning, we played in a good style, we were able to create goal-scoring opportunities, we quickly scored a goal. Nicola Zalewski took advantage of the opponent's mistakes, and since then we played with an advantage The most important thing for us is to advance to the final and the joy of what will happen next”

He was pushed on his selections for tomorrow night but remained stoic, “It is difficult to talk about the line-up for the match against Wales now because we need to watch their match and analyse both our meeting and the opponents' first. And most importantly, all players need to return to fitness”

Read our feature on the last time Wales beat Poland just a mere fifty one years ago, in fact it was the only time. It’s a sad tale to an extent but we are sure as ever you will enjoy reading this offering from the Indy.

That’s here —> ⚽️ Trev seals it

Whatever happens there will be drama, that’s for sure, these days internationals for Wales are more real than watching Premier League football. It still has the players being driven to win by a desire to do just that, not money. Okay, their lives are enriched by playing for their country but don’t think they get much more than an appearance fee. The riches can come later, but really these days it’s qualification for Wales that is the success. Just being there, in amongst the best sides in Europe, that’s the reward. Ever lasting memories, so here’s to another one for the fans tomorrow evening.

Come on Cymru !

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Photographs licensed from Reuters

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