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Football Wales will battle Poland for a place at Euro 2024 as the two nations contest their play-off final tie in Cardiff on Tuesday night. This is very familiar territory for the hosts, who beat both Austria and
Ukraine on home soil to end their long 64-year exile from the
World Cup two years ago and are now looking to repeat that feat to qualify for their fourth major tournament out of the last five. Euro 2016 semi-finalists Wales - who finished third behind
Turkey and Croatia in qualifying for this summer’s finals in
Germany - got the first half of the
Job done on Thursday night, when they brushed aside Finland 4-1 thanks to goals from David Brooks, Neco Williams, Brennan Johnson and Dan James. But they are set to face a far tougher test now against a Poland team that dismantled 10-man Estonia 5-1 in Warsaw after efforts from Przemyslaw Frankowski, Piotr Zielinski, Jakub Piotrowski and Sebastian Szymanski, plus an own goal from Karol Mets. Poland have not failed to reach the finals of a major tournament since the 2014 World Cup in
Brazil and last missed the Euros in 2004, but endured a disappointing qualifying campaign this time around as they trailed behind Albania and the Czech Republic. The winners of this clash will be placed in Group D at Euro 2024 along with
France, the Netherlands and Austria, facing the Dutch first up in Hamburg on June 16. Wales vs Poland is scheduled for a 7:45pm GMT kick-off on Tuesday March 26, 2024. The match will take place at the Cardiff City Stadium. TV channel: In the
UK, Wales vs Poland will be televised live on Viaplay Sports and Welsh language channel S4C. Live stream: Subscribers can also catch the contest live online via the Viaplay Sports streaming service and, in the Welsh language, on the
BBC iPlayer and S4C Clic. Live blog: You can follow all the action on matchday via Standard Sport ’s live blog. Rob Page made two changes to his Welsh team against Finland, with Luton captain Tom Lockyer - whose football future remains uncertain after he suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch in December - replaced in defence by Chris Mepham and Brooks chosen to join Harry Wilson and Johnson in attack, with the likes of Kieffer More and Dan James on the bench. Jersey publishes proposals for possible assisted dying law Offenders to be made to clean up vandalism ‘within 48 hours’ Home Secretary vows to hold perpetrators to account by updating law on spiking First look at exceptional new
London properties for sale in 2024 Captain Aaron Ramsey remained an unused substitute after returning earlier than expected from a calf injury to play 18 minutes off the bench in Cardiff’s derby defeat by Swansea last weekend, only his fourth club appearance since mid-September. Tottenham’s Ben Davies captained Wales again instead. Wales did not appear to suffer any fresh injury blows against Finland, but were without the likes of Joe Low, Ben Cabango and Wes Burns, who all withdrew from the squad in the build-up to the game. It seems doubtful that Page will want to tinker too much with a winning formula against Poland, with his attack looking dangerous and Ethan Ampadu and Jordan James developing a promising relationship in central midfield in Ramsey’s absence. However, following some hairy moments against below-par Finland, he may want to tighten up in defence against a decent Poland side who put five past Estonia and are led up front by the talismanic Robert Lewandowski. Poland were without
Juventus striker Arkadiusz Milik against Estonia due to a muscle injury, with Karol Swiderski joining Lewandowski in attack instead. Aston Villa full-back Matty Cash will miss out after picking up a hamstring injury on Thursday night. This should be an intriguing tussle between two inconsistent sides that can mix it with the best in Europe on their day and scored nine goals between them in their semi-final ties. Despite the loss of inspirational leader Gareth Bale to retirement last year, Wales rose to the big occasion once again in front of a passionate home crowd who will have an enormous role to play again on Tuesday. Page’s men are far stronger at home generally than they are on the road, and the same can be said of Poland, who have a long unbeaten run in qualifiers in front of their own fans. But as bizarre as it sounds given the emphatic final scoreline, there were elements of that first-half performance from Wales against Finland that will give their head coach cause for concern and will surely be seized upon by Poland if they are repeated in the final. We expect a close and incredibly tense game that really could go either way, but with the slight edge given to Lewandowski and Co. Poland to win, 2-1. Wales’ only previous win in 10 attempts against Poland came all the way back in qualifying for the 1974 World Cup. They have lost all but two of the nine meetings since then after a pair of draws in 1991 and 2000, including six losses in a row in this century. These two teams last met in the 2022 Nations League, when at home Poland only just saw off a Wales team who rang the changes ahead of their World Cup play-off final against Ukraine. Swiderski then hit a second-half winner in Cardiff later that year to condemn Wales to relegation. Wales wins: 1 Poland wins: 7 Draws: 2 Wales to qualify: 4/5 Poland to qualify: Evens Odds via Paddy Power, subject to change. MORE ABOUT Have your say...