MOTD: Euro 2016 Live

Poland v Northern Ireland

Review

by Jack Seale

If your football knowledge centres on English Premier League highlights, the Northern Ireland squad sheet suggests they’ll fail in France. Gareth McAuley and Jonny Evans are a fine centre-back partnership and Steven Davis is a useful attacking midfielder…. surely that’s not enough? But Northern Ireland have the one quality international teams covet: something special happens when they don the shirt. Take striker Kyle Lafferty, a failure at club level for relegated Norwich City who scored seven times as NI won their qualification group.

The green and whites need Lafferty on form if they’re to survive a tough Group C. Poland know how to play to the strengths of cold-blooded Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski.

Summary

Poland v Northern Ireland (Kick-off 5.00pm). Gary Lineker presents coverage of the opening match in Group C, as the teams face each other at the Stade de Nice. This will be the first-ever European Championships match for Northern Ireland, and their first appearance at a major tournament since the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, and is certain to create a high amount of interest back home. They begin their campaign against a nation whom they have a favourable record, having won four of the nine previous meetings between the two, with Poland having won three times and the other two ending in draws. The Poles are themselves appearing at just a third European Championships, and only qualified as co-hosts alongside Ukraine four years ago, and they are yet to progress beyond the group stage in either of their two previous attempts. The most recent encounter between these countries took place in 2009, when a World Cup qualifier ended in a 1-1 in Chorzow, which followed a 3-2 victory for the Northern Irish in Belfast. With commentary by Guy Mowbray and Gerry Armstrong, and analysis by Rio Ferdinand and Neil Lennon.