Michael

Swiderski comes on for Urbanski and Slisz comes on for Romanczuk for Poland.

Moder has come on for Szymanski for Poland at the start of this 2nd half.

Szczesny saves from a header by Dumfries.

Depay has a shot go inches past the far post and out.

Gakpo has a shot from inside the area fly over the bar.

Verbruggen makes an excellent save from a shot by Kiwior!

Gakpo scores with a deflected shot from outside the area! The Netherlands equalise and the deflection gave Szczesny no chance. Poland 1-1 Netherlands

Depay has a snap shot fly over the bar.

van Dijk with a powerful volleyed shot at goal is excellently saved by Szczesny in the Polish goal.

Poland score through a header by Buksa!! Buksa headed the ball towards the far post and into the net from Zielinski's cross from a corner! Poland 1-0 Netherlands

Reijnders with a shot inside the area that goes narrowly wide of the post.

Gapko has a shot aimed at the near post but it's well saved by Szczesny.

Looking at the line-ups, Poland's Lewandowski, Swiderski and defender Dawidowocz have not been fit enough to play. There is a surprise start for Romanczuk in the Polish midfield, a player who is actually mainly Ukrainian and only got Polish citizenship relatively recently in 2018. Romanczuk is 32 years old and yet only has 3 international appearances for Poland. I think it's a bit of a gamble from the Polish manager to start him in such a big match, but we will see how he performs. 19 year old teenager also starts in what will be only his 3rd international appearance for Poland, so it will be interesting to see how he plays. While the striking responsibilities amid the forwards injury crisis that Poland have falls to Buksa. Buksa is very much your traditional target man. The Netherlands start with Gakpo and Simons, as well as Depay as their main forward. In defence van Dijk marshals the back line, while de Vrij, Ake and Dumfries complete the defensive line-up. The manager is still preferring de Vrij over de Ligt, which I find quite surprising, but Koeman an ex-defender himself, will have his reasons. All in all, it will be exciting to watch this Dutch side play today.

I completely disagree with your claims that Kramaric is bang average. He has been a key player in this Croatian national team for the last decade. He has 28 international goals for Croatia and plenty of assists. He is also still banging in the goals both for the national team and at club level, including a hattrick this season against Bayern Munich. He is still quality on his day. Budimir on the other hand is much more of a late developer. Budimir who is 32, was part of the Croatia squad at both Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup, but he only made very few appearances for Croatia at those competitions and only as a substitute. The Croat manager decided to start him against Spain and Budimir had a very poor match. Budimir is a centre forward who is decent in the air and who mainly scores in and around the 6 yard box. You will rarely ever see him score from outside the area, he's a decent penalty taker as well. But he would be one of the players I'd replace to be honest, if I was the Croatia manager. I think the Croatia should bring in more younger players into the team to compliment the older ones. They need more youth and pace in the team in my opinion. Younger players like Ivanusec, Sucic and even Vlasic should be given more of a chance in the team in my view.

Here is to hoping Dutch keeper Verbruggen has a good match today.

The Netherlands are heavy favourites to win today's match against Poland according to the bookies. Some on this forum have also said they think the Netherlands are serious contenders for the title. But I think this Polish side is being a little underestimated. Poland were pretty erratic and not great for much of their qualifying phase for these Euros under Fernando Santos. However, Poland then sacked Fernando Santos and replaced him with Michal Probierz on September 20th, 2023. Since then, Poland have not lost a single international and their performances have gradually improved, as Probierz has gotten to find out his best possible team and formation. But Poland have been recently jinxed with injuries to their best strikers. Juventus forward Milik was ruled out of the whole Euro 2024 competition with an injury he picked up in a friendly match against Ukraine, just a week before the Euros kicked off. Then both their star forward Lewandowski as well as striker Swiderski also got injured in their final friendly match against Turkey. Moreover, their key defender Dawidowicz also got injured against the Turks. Although Lewandowski and Swiderski were still selected for Poland's Euro squad, they are both unlikely to be fit enough to play against the Netherlands. Despite these injuries, Poland's midfield seems to have enough grit and creativity to create chances for the reserve strikers that do end up playing against the Netherlands. Although the Dutch will probably have most of the possession, with the possession football they love playing so much, the Poles could do some serious damage on the counter attack, as they have good pace and passing skills in their team to punish the opposition. The Poles are pretty good at set pieces as well. The Dutch rightfully start as favourites, given the array of talented players that they have in their squad. I am particularly looking forward to seeing Xavi Simons play in his first Euros for the Netherlands and other players like Gakpo and Dumfries should play a major contribution to the Netherlands success throughout this competition. But I don't think that we will see the Netherlands thrash Poland, like Germany did to Scotland and Spain did to Croatia. I don't think the Netherlands will win with more than a 2 goal margin and we could potentially see a draw in this game.

Cheers!

Where is the preview for today's Poland vs Netherlands match?

So sad, he was so young and to die so early is tragic. He was a Montenegrin international goalkeeper, he had the world at his feet. R.I.P.

Yes, very sad and very sudden. They say he died after a short illness, one wonders what that illness was? Because for a guy who was only 54, a former top level athlete and a person who looked in good shape/health, it's shocking that he's passed away at that relatively young age.

The latest news is that Mykolenko will be unlikely to have fully recovered from his injury to play in Ukraine's opening match against Romania. That will most likely mean, that Zinchenko will be moved from his preferred position of central midfield, to the left-back position to cover for the injured Mykolenko. Zinchenko's midfield position, is likely to go to Shaparenko. So Shaparenko will likely start in midfield against Romania and Ukraine will hope that his impressive dribbling and passing abilities have an impact in their opening match.

Yeah, I've been saying this for a while now. Many were saying how dangerous this Croatia side are and I think it's based on their good performances in recent World Cup's, semi-finalists at the 2022 World Cup and finalists at the 2018 World Cup. But one has to look at the current team when analysing teams. For me, they have way too many older players in the team. Like I pointed out earlier, 5 of their 6 midfielders and attackers that started for Croatia yesterday, were in their 30's. This to me showed against Spain, as the Spanish were first to most of the 2nd balls. Also, Croatia's centre back pairing of Pongracic and Sutalo are just not good enough at this level for me. You're not going to win or go far at a major international competition with that centre back partnership in your team. I think Ukraine for example, would smash that Croatia team that started yesterday, yet many have been raving about Croatia before this competition started, but no mention of the likes of Ukraine. I might be called bias, but I am sure Ukraine would take that Croatia team apart, just how Spain did yesterday. As for Spain, they should have been named as one of the favourites to win this competition at the start. Yet somehow they seem to have been overlooked by the pundits and general public. I personally think it's to do with the fact that they have way too many older players in the offensive half of their team. They need to have more of a balance between the older players and younger players. Modric and Perisic for example are 38 and 35 years old respectively, and they both played yesterday. Christ, Spain had a 16 year old out on the field yesterday, who had electric pace, he was leaving many of the older Croatian players in his wake. I think Croatia still have the quality in the midfield and attack, they just need to find more of a balance in there and have more younger players in those positions for a bit more pace. It's only really Lovro Majer who is the much younger player in those positions, the rest are in their 30's. I wouldn't say that they lack really good strikers either, both Budimir and Kramaric are proven goal-scorers. Again, they weren't getting the necessary service yesterday and I put a lot of that down to the age and lack of pace in the team. Also as I mentioned earlier, their defensive pairing of Sutalo and Pongracic are just not good enough if you want to go far at a major competition for me. I can think of many teams at these Euros who have a stronger centre-back pairing than those two.

Albania are supposedly the 2nd weakest team in this competition, with Georgia the alleged weakest, going by the FIFA rankings and going by what the bookies say. But I personally think most of the teams in this competition are tough. It takes top class performances like we saw from Germany and Spain to blast teams and thrash them in this tournament. Spain are going to top this group, I have little doubt about that. I can see weaknesses in this Italy team, but they are very strong in certain areas as well. It was a top class goal by Barella today. Spain will probably beat Italy. It's Croatia who Italy are battling in this group, as they are both likely to finish 2nd and 3rd in this group respectively.

I thought Italy played okay and getting the 3 points is the priority for most teams in this competition at the group stage. I am not satisfied with little, I am a realist. I also don't think you can compare this Italy team to Germany. Germany are a stronger side in my opinion and that's why they managed to outclass Scotland yesterday. I don't think Albania were Garbage either, they played quite well. Sure, an England or a France or a Germany might have won more convincingly against a team like Albania, but not all teams are as strong as them.

It finishes 2-1 to Italy and the defending champions will be happy to have gained the 3 points. Italy 2-1 Albania