Sports Mole previews Monday’s friendly clash between Poland and Turkey, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Two teams in the final stages of their preparations for Euro 2024 will lock horns in an international friendly on Monday evening, with Poland welcoming Turkey to Warsaw.
The hosts will open their European Championship campaign against Netherlands on June 16, while Turkey’s challenge at the competition in Germany will begin against Georgia on June 18.
Match preview
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Poland beat Ukraine 3-1 in a friendly on Friday to make it four straight successes, and the national side will now be eyeing another positive result in their final game before Euro 2024.
Michal Probierz‘s side will open their Group D challenge against Netherlands on June 16, while Austria and France are also present in what is a very interesting and indeed difficult section.
Poland’s second game in the group is against Austria on June 21, before facing France four days later, and it is possible that the Blues could rest a number of their stars if they have already qualified for the next round.
The White-Reds have only played in the finals of the European Championship on four previous occasions, being eliminated in the group stage in 2008, 2012 and 2020, but they did make the quarter-finals in 2016.
Poland have enjoyed the better of their meetings with Turkey, winning 11 of their previous 17 fixtures, but the two teams have not locked horns since October 1993, when Turkey recorded a 2-1 victory in a World Cup qualification fixture.
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Turkey, meanwhile, will enter this contest off the back of a goalless draw with Italy on Tuesday, and they now have another difficult friendly before the start of their Euro 2024 campaign.
Vincenzo Montella‘s side will play in Group F at Euro 2024 alongside Georgia, Portugal and Czech Republic, with their section opener coming against the former on June 18.
Turkey’s best performance in the finals of a European Championship proved to be in 2008, when they reached the semi-finals, but they have been knocked out in the group stage of the last two tournaments.
The Crescent-Stars were not present at the 2022 World Cup, meanwhile, but this is a talented group of players, and they will be expecting to claim a top-two spot in the section to advance to the knockout round.
Turkey are winless in their four matches ahead of this contest, but their last success was a standout one – beating Euro 2024 hosts Germany in a friendly towards the end of last year.
Poland friendly form:
Poland form (all competitions):
Turkey friendly form:
Turkey form (all competitions):
Team News
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Poland’s squad is headlined by their captain and all-time leading goalscorer Robert Lewandowski, who has found the back of the net on 82 occasions for his country during a wonderful career.
There is a lot of experience in the Poland squad, including goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, and midfielders Kamil Grosicki and Piotr Zielinski, with all three expected to be important players this summer.
Head coach Probierz is set to recall Lewandowski, Szczesny and Grosicki to his side, with the trio starting on the bench against Ukraine, but the hosts suffered a huge blow last time out, with Arkadiusz Milik picking up a knee injury which will rule him out of the European Championship.
As for Turkey, head coach Montella finalised his 26-man squad for the competition on Friday, with Dogan Alemdar, Cenk Ozkacar, Berat Ozdemir, Can Uzun, Abdulkadir Omur and Oguz Aydin being cut.
The visitors will also be without Ozan Kabak, Caglar Soyuncu and Enes Unal, as all three have been ruled out of the competition due to injury problems.
Cenk Tosun and Kerem Akturkoglu should both feature in attacking areas for the away side here, while Real Madrid attacker Arda Guler is also set to come into the XI, as Montella prepares to make changes from the side that started the goalless draw with Italy.
Poland possible starting lineup:
Szczesny; Walukiewicz, Salamon, Kiwior; Skoras, Zielinski, Romanczuk, Grosicki; Buksa, Lewandowski, Szymanski
Turkey possible starting lineup:
Bayindir; Celik, Demiral, Bardakci, Muldur; Calhanoglu, Ayhan; Guler, Yazici, Akturkoglu; Tosun
We say: Poland 1-1 Turkey
This should be an intriguing match, with the start of Euro 2024 just around the corner. Poland are in the better form, but Turkey defended impressively against Italy last time out, and we are expecting the spoils to be shared in Monday’s contest.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.