Polski Sport

The Polish national team is hoping for a decent showing in their third Euro campaign this summer in France. The team which had played in seven FIFA world cup were more than elated when they finally qualified for their first UEFA European championship in 2008. They got their second opportunity when they co-hosted with Ukraine four years later. After a hard-fought qualification round, the Polish squad would be embarking on their third Euro campaign this summer.

The Polish team had participated in 13 qualification rounds before their eventual qualification in 2008. The qualifying effort involved fending off attacks in encounters with bit names such as Portugal, Serbia and Belgium. After topping the qualifying group, the team failed to impress as they finished bottom of the group in the tournament jointly hosted by Austria and Switzerland.

In the next campaign four years later, the Polish team co-hosted the tournament with Ukraine but performed poorly again. Bialo-czerwoni didna��t win any game in the tournament despite being host. Poland did not go beyond the group stage. It was a big disappointment for the host as fans and the world had anticipated for a much better showing. It was much different for the countrya��s first team when compared to the 1970s and 1980s when forwards like Grzegorz Lato and Zbigniew Boniek helped the country to reach four successive World Cup tournament even winning third place in West Germany 1974 and Spain 1982.

The Polish team qualified for the tournament in France with the help of record-equaling qualifying competition with 13 goals from Robert Lewandowski.

The team is drawn with Germany, Northern Ireland and Ukraine. Since qualifying for the mundial in France, Poland has played a couple of international friendlies with Iceland winning by 4-2, defeating Czech Republic by 3-1 and Serbia by a lone goal before demolishing Finland with five unreplied goals.