When is it? How can you watch it? What are the possible line-ups?
Poland and Netherlands meet in their first Group D match at UEFA EURO 2024.
Poland vs Netherlands at a glance
When: Sunday 16 June (9:00 GMT+8 kick-off)
Where: Volksparkstadion, Hamburg
What: UEFA EURO 2024 Group D Matchday 1
What do you need to know?
Poland have made it to their fifth successive EURO, but the Netherlands remain a problem team for the Poles. Indeed the latter have not won in their last 12 meetings with the Oranje (D5 L7), since a 2-0 EURO qualifying victory in May 1979, more than nine years before their 35-year-old talisman Robert Lewandowski (who will miss this game through injury) was born.
Netherlands coach Ronald Koeman was part of the Dutch side that won the last EURO to be held in Germany, beating the USSR 2-0 in the 1988 final, before any of the current squad were born. Injuries continue to be an issue – midfielders Teun Koopmeiners and Frenkie de Jong both withdrew from the squad in the build-up to these finals – but a team with Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk at the back and Lewandowski’s ex-Barcelona colleague Memphis Depay up front, remain a class act.
Possible line-ups
Poland: Szczęsny; Bednarek, Dawidowicz, Kiwior; Frankowski, Slisz, Piotrowski, Moder, Zalewski; Zieliński; Buksa
Netherlands: Verbruggen; Dumfries, De Vrij, Van Dijk, Aké; Reijnders, Schouten, Veerman; Simons, Depay, Gakpo
Form guide
Poland:
Form (all competitions, most recent first): WWDWWD
Netherlands:
Form (all competitions, most recent first): WWLWWW
Expert predictions
Piotr Koźmiński, Poland reporter
How will Poland play without their most-capped player (150 appearances) and all-time top scorer (82 goals)? Robert Lewandowski has been ruled out with a muscular injury and there are three candidates to replace him: Karol Świderski, Adam Buksa and Krzysztof Piątek. A potential surprise candidate could be Kacper Urbański, from the start or off the bench. Hope? Poland have plenty. Buksa spoke for the team when he said, “Why not be thinking about winning more than one or two matches? Greece’s success in 2004 clearly shows that lower-ranked sides can go a long way, and even win it.”
Derek Brookman, Netherlands reporter
The likely Dutch starting XI is an interesting layer cake of a selection. A keeper with only seven caps; an extraordinarily experienced and capable defence with top-level players in every position; a talented midfield who are all nonetheless making their tournament debuts; and a forward line that includes a man chasing the all-time Dutch scoring record plus the side’s top scorer at the 2022 World Cup. If Ronald Koeman finds a way to make all the ingredients blend together, the Oranje could be irresistible.
What the coaches say
Michał Probierz, Poland coach: “We know how strong the Netherlands are. We have respect for them, but we are not afraid of them. There has been progress in Robert Lewandowski’s recovery, so we hope he will come back for the game against Austria. Our tactics? If we go into the game just to survive, it won’t work. We have a plan and I hope we will stick to it. We have prepared our players well in terms of analysing our opponents; we have shown them clips from 20 Netherlands games.”
Ronald Koeman, Netherlands coach: “Every opponent [in the group] is difficult: maybe not at the same quality level as France, which is the second match, but Poland are a well-organised, strong, defensively solid team. They are physically strong and, of course, always have a number of [talented] players in midfield. So we shouldn’t assume we are just going to win the first game. We will have to be very fit and sharp for that.”