The second match of the three at the Euro 2024 tournament on Friday takes us back to Group D where the two teams who lost their opening outings meet in Berlin when Poland face off against Austria.
Although these two lost their opening game, they only went down by one goal so there are still many ways that they can get through to the next stage of the competition but a win here would certainly make life much easier.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the ITV1 channel with the build-up beginning at 4.15pm ahead of the 5pm kick off in Berlin.
Poland
There was a lot of negativity around Poland heading into the tournament and it was understandable why when you consider how tough they were to watch in qualifying and also the fact that they didn’t have a single shot on target in their play-off final with Wales but they immediately reminded us that qualifying and the main event are different things with a much more positive and better performance against the Netherlands, albeit one which still yielded defeat.
When you consider that they were much more positive without Robert Lewandowski in that game then that certainly bodes well for them here. They will hope that they can carry a much more ruthless edge to their attacking play if they are going to get back into the tournament but there was a lot more to like about Poland in that first game than many expected there to be. Their task now is to show that they can play like that again.
Austria
Austria were being spoken about as dark horses heading into the tournament and there won’t be too many who had that opinion who will be rethinking their thought process even after a defeat in the opening game. They more than held their own against the tournament favourites France in the first match and although they lost, they will know that if they can repeat that showing in their last two matches there is a good chance that they will get the points they need to go through.
If there is a criticism of the Austrians in that first game it is that they missed a couple of huge chances. That might be down to who they were up against but the pressure is only going to mount on those opportunities until they win a game so it will be interesting to see how they can deal with that here. The big positive was that they kept a decent France side down to relatively few strong chances and in terms of opposition that was the strongest they will face in this group.
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Team News
Robert Lewandowski has returned to training as he was expected to do ahead of this match so he is likely to come in from the start. Karol Swiderski may need to settle for a place on the bench as a result of that.
Austria coach Ralf Rangnick has not suggested he has any new injury concerns so his side could be unchanged after putting in a positive showing after Marko Arnautovic didn’t really do enough in his cameo to force his way into the side.
Betting
When you consider that neither of these teams can really afford to lose another game at this tournament, I’m a little surprised that the goal line for this one is 2.25 goals in a competition which certainly hasn’t been the lowest scoring of all time. Poland actually created a number of chances against the Netherlands, opportunities that you would imagine that Robert Lewandowski would gobble up so his return here will do the goal chances no harm.
Poland didn’t look great at the back though and you would imagine a high pressing and controlled Austria side will get at them if not at will then certainly regularly enough to threaten. With neither being able to afford to lose this one, particularly Poland with France to come, then should one goal come the other is going to need to open up a little more to get back into the game and with it the tournament so I’m happy to be on over 2.25 goals in this one.
Tips
Back Over 2.25 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.01 with Bet365
