Poland face Russia in the first of two friendlies ahead of the upcoming European Championships

Paulo Sousa’s men welcome Stanislav Cherchesov’s Russian side to Estadio Municipal de Breslavia in Wroclaw for a friendly match ahead of UEFA Euro 2020.

The White and Reds have a mixed record under Paulo Sousa so far but the game against Russia could be a great confidence booster if the Poles can get the win.

With the Euros only a matter of weeks away, both national teams will look to trial and test their tactics and formations ahead of the major tournament.

Both sides were in action during the March International Break as they kickstarted their campaign in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qualifiers.

Poland faced Hungary, Andorra and England in their first three matches with Russia facing Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia.

Sousa’s men were able to get one win, one draw and one loss out of these fixtures with the Poles playing some impressive football especially against Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions, it was a valiant defensive display, but they conceded in the dying embers to lose that match 2-1 at Wembley.

Those results from the first three matches in qualifying Group I saw Poland place in fourth place, two points behind Albania in third, three points away from second place Hungary and five points behind group leaders England.

The Russian’s dispatched Malta with relative ease and were able to beat Slovenia 2-1. All the goals were scored in the first-half but Cherchesov’s were able to hold onto the lead throughout and take a perfect record into their final qualifying match against Slovakia.

Travelling to the Anton Malatinský Stadium, confidence was high in the Russian squad as they were the only team in their group to have a maximum number of points after matchday two.

Slovenia managed to stun the visitors as they came out 2-1 victors and not only ruined Russia’s perfect record in qualifying but came out of the match as the only unbeaten team in Group H after matchday three.

That result still kept Russia in second place, level on points with group leaders Croatia and a point ahead of Slovenia in third.

Russia and Poland will face each other for the first time since Euro 2012, when the two faced each other in Group A of the tournament.

The spoils were shared as the White and Reds came from behind to secure a point in Warsaw. Alan Dzagoev opened the scoring in the 37th minute as the midfielder turned in Andriy Arshavin’s free-kick to give Russia a vital advantage at half-time.

A spirited performance from Poland in the second-half saw them level things up through captain Jakub Blaszczykowski. The Pole escaped Yuri Zhirkov and unleashed a beauty that flew into the top corner of Vyacheslav Malafeev’s goal.

There’s only been four meetings against the two sides including the Euro 2012 match. Poland have one win each with the other two matches ending in draws.

Confidence will want to be gained from these friendlies and a win for each side ahead of the upcoming Euros could be a fantastic booster heading into the prestigious European tournament.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt

[columns]
[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”15″ heading=”Internationals” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]
[column size=”1/2″][blog type=”timeline” posts=”10″ cats=”1072″ heading=”News” heading_type=”timeline” /][/column]
[/columns]