Coach: Pawel Janas
Tactics: Strong and workmanlike.
Star Player: Grzegorz Rasiak
Verdict: Matched England for much of qualifying but Poland still look like nothing more than tournament fillers. Will give their all but a lack of real quality should stunt their progress. Tottenham striker Rasiak is strong in the air but he alone is unlikely to take the Poles into the last 16 despite a favourable draw.
Ten things you didn’t know about Poland
1. Poland has 9,300 lakes
2. The military two-fingered salute (no, not that one) originated in the Polish army
3. There is a Polish superstition that if you hear news of your own death, you will live to a great age
4. Despite being more commonly associated with Russia, vodka (or ‘wodka’) was invented in Poland more than 500 years ago.
5. Ignace Paderewski, one of the greatest concert pianists of all time, was also Prime Minister of Poland.
6. Bonnie Prince Charlie was half Polish
7. Poland's Stella Walsh (Stanislawa Walasiewicz) won the women's 100-meters at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, becoming the first woman to break the 12-second barrier. When she was killed in 1980 as an innocent victim in a robbery attempt, an autopsy declared her to be a male, thereby earning her the immortal nickname ‘Stella The Fella’
8. Poland is the world’s biggest exporter of beetroot
9. Poland has the last wild bison in Europe
10. The Polish city of Zywiec is the last entry in the Rand McNally International Atlas
