Poland head coach Franciszek Smuda admits the pressure of opening the tournament on home soil took its toll on his players. On Friday the Poles took the lead against Greece, who were reduced to 10 men in the first half, but were pegged back after the break and were fortunate not to lose after goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off and their opponents missed a penalty.

“The pressure for the opening game was really huge because we thought we had to win,” said Smuda. “We didn’t want to fail. 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.”

Today Poland come up against Russia, who present an entirely different prospect after their 4-1 win over the Czech Republic, and Smuda stressed his players have to focus on their match and not worry about the other encounter in Group A.

“We have to play our well but we have to be more organised in the event that we lose possession,” he added. “We cannot worry about this . We can only think about our fixture. Any result is acceptable for us in this match – except a defeat.”

Russia coach Dick Advocaat insists he has no concerns about the form of Aleksandr Kerzhakov, who misfired badly in their opening win over the Czech Republic.

The Zenit St Petersburg forward set a European Championship record with seven shots off target but his replacement Roman Pavlyuchenko scored within nine minutes of coming on.

“I would choose Kerzhakov again. You make choices and you stick with them,” said Advocaat.

Referee:

Wolfgang Stark (Germany).

Substitutes from:

Sandomierski, Wawrzyniak, Kaminski, Wojtkowiak, Dudka, Matuszczyk, Mierzejewski, Rybus, Wolski, Brozek, Sobiech.

Suspended: Szczesny.

Coach: Frantisek Smuda.

Substitutes from: Akinfeyev, Shunin, Sharonov, Granat, Nababkin, Semshov, Izmailov, Glushakov, Kombarov, Pavlyuchenko, Pogrebnyak, Kokorin.

Coach: Dick Advocaat.