A must-win encounter for Poland as the White and Reds face Sweden in Saint Petersburg for their final match in Group E

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UEFA Euro 2020’s Group E is still massively wide open with all four teams separated by three points.

Poland and Sweden will be hoping that they can get into the Round of 16 as group winners and runners-up, but it looks like a tricky task for Paulo Sousa’s men who need a win from this encounter.

Janne Andersson’s side only need a point to book their place in the knockout stages of Euro 2020. Sweden have already collected the favourable four points if they were to fall down to third place, therefore, creating a less stressful environment in the Sweden camp.

Last time out for the White and Reds, they faced three-time European Champions Spain in Seville. The game was already set up to be a Spanish passing masterclass but it did not turn out that way.

Sousa’s men held their own with their resolute defending and fantastic teamwork seeing the Poles go toe-to-toe with an international giant.

In the 25th minute, La Furia Roja opened the scoring. Gerard Moreno played the ball into the path of Alvaro Morata who slotted the ball beyond Wojciech Szczesny to give Spain a 1-0 lead. At first, the decision was that the striker was offside, but after an intervention from VAR, the goal was given and it fired up Poland even more.

The Poles continued to battle strong, and nine minutes into the second-half, they found the leveller. Kamil Jozwiak delivered a wonderful ball onto the head of Robert Lewandowski with Poland’s all-time record goalscorer heading the ball beyond Unai Simon and into the bottom corner of the goal.

With that result, Sousa’s men clinched their first point of Euro 2020 after they failed to get any during their opening game against Slovakia.

Sweden faced the Slovakians on matchday two after they held Luis Enrique’s Spain side to a 0-0 draw in their opening game of the tournament.

The game was poised to remain as a goalless encounter with Sweden and Slovakia exchanging blows but either side failed to found a breakthrough.

That was until Martin Dubravka brought Robin Quaison down in the penalty box with 15 minutes to go in the match.

Emil Forsberg perfectly dispatched the penalty from 12 yards as Sweden went on to win 1-0. They earned all three points which saw them jump to the top spot in Group E.

The last time Sweden and Poland faced each other was back in 2004. The Swedes came out on top as they put in a dominant display to brush the Poles aside.

Henrik Larsson gave the Blue and Yellows the lead in the 41st minute as Sweden headed into half-time with the 1-0 advantage.

Andreas Jakobssen and Marcus Allback added a further two goals for the hosts with Damian Gorawski able to get a late consolation goal as Poland were beaten 3-1 by Sweden.

The White and Reds have not won in the last seven meetings against the Swedes and will be hoping that they can break this bad run of form against the Scandanavian side.

A win would be very beneficial for both sides with a win for Poland potentially allowing them to qualify in the top two spots in Group E.

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