Sobiech earns Poland victory against Latvia

Co-hosts Poland continued their preparations for UEFA EURO 2012 with a 1-0 friendly victory against Latvia.

With just over two weeks until his team kick off next month's final tournament against Greece, Franciszek Smuda, who still has to cut three players from his squad, fielded a mixture of first-choice and reserve figures against Latvia.

Key men such as Robert Lewandowski and Wojciech Szczęsny, who only arrived at the team's Lienz training camp on Tuesday, were not included, but Poland still prevailed thanks to Artur Sobiech's goal eight minutes from time.

It could have been different for Latvia after just seven minutes, though, when Artjoms Rudņevs, top scorer in last season's Polish First Division at KKS Lech Poznań, was denied by Łukasz Fabiański's splendid stop. Smuda's side attempted to mount a swift response, but Adrian Mierzejewski's shot produced only a corner.

Rafał Wolski went a little closer midway through the first half, but Fabiański, the back-up to Szczęsny at Arsenal FC this term, showed his quality remains intact with a series of solid saves. His hard work was nearly rewarded at the other end but Marcin Wasilewski's header struck a post.

Though Poland increased the tempo after the interval, they were struggling to carve open the Latvian defence, Adam Matuszczyk's 68th-minute shot one of only a handful of noteworthy openings. That all changed on 82 minutes, however, when Sobiech headed in Kamil Grosicki's delivery to secure victory.

Next up for Poland are further friendlies against Slovakia on Saturday and Andorra on 2 June, before they open UEFA EURO 2012 against Greece in Warsaw on 8 June.