It’s crunch time for Michał Probierz and his Poland side who must win in this final European Championship Qualifying (ECQ) encounter to stand any chance of appearing in Germany for the finals next summer. A victory alone might not be enough for Poland to make their fifth consecutive Euro finals appearance, as even defeating the Czech Republic would be in vain if their visitors follow it up with a likely win over Moldova next week.
The Poles have only themselves to blame as they haven’t been able to string together back-to-back victories in this ECQ cycle (W3, D1, L3). Despite their lack of consistency though, no side has beaten Poland in ECQ home action in over 17 years (W15, D4) which should at least raise confidence here, with five of the last six victories in that sequence also yielding clean sheets.
This could be a very special night for the Czechs, whose national association have put on a special express train to the Polish capital to bring thousands of their fans to watch Jaroslav Šilhavý’s side in action. That’s because a win here combined with anything but a Moldova win will secure an eighth straight appearance at the Euro finals, although they must focus on improving their own patchy ECQ away form (W2, D1, L4) before worrying too much about permutations.
That away form features three defeats without reply, a sequence which began in the last ECQ cycle. Even so, the away side seem to have a hold over Poland, with three victories across four all-time competitive H2Hs and another result either way should be expected here, as these two nations have never played out a draw across their nine prior meetings overall (CZE: W5, L4).
Players to watch: Despite his legendary all-time top scorer status for Poland with 81 goals, Robert Lewandowski is yet to find the net in five prior H2Hs (W1, L4) – he’s never faced any side more often without scoring! Keeping up with Lewandowski in this ECQ cycle with three goals is Czech midfielder Václav Černý, who enters this round after netting the team opener in two of his last three games for club side Wolfsburg.
Hot stat: Both teams have scored in just one of Czech Republic’s seven ECQ away games since the beginning of 2019.
