Wales will look to make the most of home advantage and qualify for their third successive European Championship when they take on Poland in the playoff final in Cardiff. Rob Page’s side will be looking to emulate their class of 2016 and 2020, but they face formidable opposition on paper in the form of Poland, who have the likes of Robert Lewandowski, Piotr Zielinski, Jakub Kiwior and Wojciech Szczesny in their ranks.
The Poles haven’t missed a single Euros since 2008, but they were in serious danger of missing out on this edition after a lacklustre qualifying campaign that saw them even lose to Moldova. It resulted in the Polish federation sacking manager Fernando Santos after just six games in charge.
The Poles eventually limped to third place in the group behind Albania and Czech Republic, both of whom qualified automatically, but were given a lifeline by the playoff system, and thrashed Estonia 5-1 in their playoff semifinal to book this clash against Wales. Maksim Paskotsi’s first-half dismissal hurt the Estonians, and Poland scored four after the interval to register a comfortable win.
The winner of this Wales-Poland tie will qualify for Euro 2024 and will be placed in Group D for the Championships. That means they’ll play one of the favourites for the tournament in the form of Didier Deschamps’ France, World Cup quarter-finalists the Netherlands and Austria, who lost only once in qualifying.
Wales scored four goals in their win over Finland, with Harry Wilson playing a key part. It was also a landmark game for young Ethan Ampadu, who became the youngest from the country to hit the 50-cap milestone (he’s just 23!).
Wilson’s early third minute shot was parried by Finnish keeper Hradecky, but David Brooks was on hand to put away the rebound, giving Wales a crucial early lead to settle the nerves. Wilson also had a role in the second goal, faking a shot to deceive the Finns before Neco Williams netted with a lovely free kick.
Teemu Pukki (who else!) pulled one back for Finland on the stroke of half time, but Brennan Johnson restored Wales’ two-goal advantage immediately on the other side of the interval. Ben Davies had a goal disallowed but a mistake from Miro Tenho saw Dan James catch the latter in possession, and he rounded the keeper before slotting into an empty net to put the result of the game beyond doubt.
Poland beat Wales home and away when the two sides met in the UNL two years ago. But this is a young Welsh side brimming with talent, and they’ve had previous playoff success- they beat Austria and Ukraine to qualify for the World Cup.
Wales v Poland (Cardiff- Tuesday; 19.45)