Poles fail to impress against Macedonians

Poland's dreams of making an impression at their first ever appearance at a European championship finals looked anything but likely after a 1-1 draw with Macedonia in a warm-up match on Monday.

While coach Leo Beenhakker will point to the fact that he played mostly a second string side, those players will have done little to ease their nerves ahead of the veteran Dutchman cutting his squad back to the obligatory 23 on Wednesday.

The Macedonians had shocked their opponents when Goran Maznov gave them the lead from a freekick on the stroke of half-time after a chaotic and dull first-half.

The Poles, who have another chance to impress Beenhakker in Tuesday's clash with Albania, had little fluency or speed on or off the ball and had to wait till seven minutes from the end to level the match and that only through a penalty by Radoslaw Matusiak.

Poland – who will co-host Euro 2012 with Ukraine – start their Group B campaign at Euro 2008 against Germany on June 8 in Klagenfurt and then have matches against co-hosts Austria and finally with Croatia.