Our prediction for this match:
Stadion Miejski we Wroclawiu will host Tuesday’s friendly between Poland and Russia, the two teams who prepare for the European Championship finals. Poland have been having their ups and downs in the World Cup qualifiers, but it has to be noted that key attacker Robert Lewandowski missed the England game with injury. The Bayern Munchen ace returns to contention, and we are positive that he will prove a handful for the opposition defenders.
The Russians, on the other hand, aim to bounce back from a 2-1 loss to Slovakia. Zenit attacker Artem Dzyuba is widely expected to lead the line for the visiting team, and given the attacking potential of the two sides, we believe that both teams to score betting option should be considered. When the two teams met at EURO 2012 they played out a 1-1 draw, which is yet another reason why we are tempted to put our money on both teams to score.
Highlighted Player (Robert Lewandowski):
After scoring 36 goals in 59 league games for Znicz Pruskow, Robert Lewandowski joined Lech Poznan in June, 2008. The 184-cm-tall attacker scored 18 goals in 28 appearances for the club in the 2009/2010 Ekstraklasa campaign and during the season he was on Borussia Dortmund’s radar.
The Polish forward signed a four-year deal with the Bundesliga side in June, 2010 and he quickly established himself as the team’s key attacker. Lewandowski was producing excellent performances with the Millionaires between 2010 and 2014 and it has to be noted that he won two Bundesliga trophies with the club (2010/2011, 2011/2012). He participated in the 2012/2013 Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund, but the Millionaires were beaten by fellow Bundesliga side Bayern Munich in the title game.
However, he betrayed Borussia Dortmund fans in 2014 as he signed a four-year deal with the Bundesliga giants. Lewandowski impressed in the 2016/2017 Bundesliga campaign as he scored 30 goals in 32 league games for Pep Guardiola’s troops. The Polish footballer represented his homeland at Euro 2016 in France and he scored one goal at the showpiece tournament in France.
Highlighted Team (Russia):
While they won the 1960 European Championship, while losing in the final in 1964, 1972 and 1988 as Soviet Union, Russia have enjoyed little success since starting to compete as an independent country in 1992.
Their best result up to date is the third-placed finish at the Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, while the team failed to get past the group stage at the World Cup finals in three attempts. However, with Russian Premier League getting stronger by the day, the national team have started to improve as well, and they now finally seem capable of matching the world’s top sides.
The new generation includes high-quality footballers such as Alan Dzagoev, Aleksandr Kokorin, Artyom Dzyuba and Oleg Shatov, while the likes of Igor Akinfeev, Sergei Ignashevich, Roman Shirokov and Yuri Zhirkov are nearing the closing stages of their careers. But, with plenty of exciting talent coming through the ranks, future definitely looks bright for the Russia national team.