Poland Vs Netherlands: The Eagles Without Lewandowski

Lewandowski/Theeaglesonline

JAKARTA Poland faced a tough test when they started their work at Euro 2024. The Netherlands as one of the favorite teams to win will be tough opponents in the group's first match.

The Eagles begin their Group D versus Netherlands elimination will take place at Volksparks Stadium, Hamburg, on Sunday, June 16 at 20.00 WIB. Their dream of finding points against Oranje is clear if they see their efforts to play, in this tournament.

Poland advanced to the Euro finals this year through the playoffs. That was after they finished third in Group E in qualifying, behind the Czech Republic in second place and Albania in the top spot.

That is clearly a grim note when compared to the Dutch journey to the tournament. The team comfortably finished runners up in Group B standings and came determined to win their second European title.

This is Poland's fifth straight major tournament. They arrived in their neighboring Germany with five straight wins, so the hope of advancing to the knockout phase was also high.

But this hope was hit by Robert Lewandowski's recent injury. The situation that prevented the Eagles from playing their flagship player in the opening match against the Netherlands.

In addition, third place in the final standings of the qualifiers, which forced them to go to the playoffs, further shocked that Poland's doubts could talk a lot at the tournament. Moreover, their group is qualifying for the preliminary teams.

They then beat Estonia and Wales on a dramatic penalty shootout in the playoffs to enter the finals. The two wins did not change their image of being a non-double at Euro this year.

This month, the Eagles played two friendly games to warm up before going to Germany. Two games each against Ukraine and Turkey ended in wins and five different players scored.

It gave hope that Lewandowski's absence would not be too dangerous. However, history does not side with Poland, which has won only two of the 14 games at the Euros to date.

In addition, their track record against the Netherlands is also so dark. They have a record of never winning in 12 matches since 1979 ahead of the first clash with the Netherlands in a major tournament tonight.

On the other hand, this year is the eleventh time the Netherlands have played at the Euros. Of that number of appearances, they were recorded as having lifted the trophy of this tournament when it was last held exclusively in Germany in 1988.

After that Oranje has never reached the last four in 20 years. Therefore, Ronald Koeman's current team, who are full of good players, clearly really want to improve the record.

In order to get to the knockout stages, the first match against Poland was very crucial for the Koeman squad. The reason is, after this they will face the superior team France and the Austrian Black Horse team.

Three points against Poland they should have had. After a 4-0 win over Canada last week, the Netherlands continued their warm-up by destroying Iceland with the same score earlier this week.

In addition, they have also won four of their previous six matches. The only exceptions occurred when they faced top teams, France and Germany.

The positive result made the Netherlands more confident in opening their campaign. The absence of midfielder Frenkie de Jong in midfield doesn't seem to be an important issue for the team.

Formation Estimated

Poland (3-6-1): Szczesny; Bednarek, Dawidowicz, Kiwior; Slisz; Frankowski, Zielinski, Piotrowski, Szymanski, Zalewski; Swimerski

Netherlands (4-2-3-1): Verbruggen; Dumfries, Van Dijk, Ake, Van de Ven; Schouten, Marijuman; Simons, Reijnders, Gakpo; Depay