The co-host, which took a point from its opener against Greece on Friday, is preparing to face a Russian side buoyed by a 4-1 win over the Czech Republic.
Poland boss Franciszek Smuda has admitted that he would settle for a draw in Tuesday's Euro 2012 Group A clash with Russia.The co-host picked up just a point from its tournament opener against Greece on Friday, after failing to build on a dream start given to the team by striker Robert Lewandowski within 17 minutes.
Russia, by contrast, justified its status as Euro 2012's dark horse with a resounding 4-1 victory over Czech Republic and Smuda has confessed that a draw with Dick Advocaat's troops would be a decent result for the Poles.
"We know that we will play against a very good opponent," he told reporters at his pre-game press conference on Monday. "They are well prepared and they have some very good footballers.
"We must play our own football and try to get the ball back faster than in the game against Greece. I would accept any result bar a loss. There was a lot of pressure on us in the first match. Now it is important not to lose and to add more points."
In light of the impressive demolition of the Czechs, Smuda does not believe that Russia will make any alterations to its starting lineup.
"I think that Russia will begin with the same team," he opined. "They could bring in [Roman] Pavlyuchenko or [Pavel] Pogrebnyak for [Alexander] Kerzhakov up front, but generally you don't change a winning lineup."
Smuda, though, is more preoccupied with his own lineup and he insists that his team will cope much better with the sense of expectancy surrounding it this time around.
"The pressure for the opening game was really huge because we thought we had to win," he reasoned. "We didn't want to fail. Now we want to win, but we don't want to lose. We know we have one point, and because of this we will have a chance until the very end [of the group stage].
"I guarantee that we will battle for 90 minutes. It will be a match of a very high tempo."
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