Ukraine and Poland seek winning finish
Friday, January 1, 2016
Article summary
Ukraine and Poland co-hosted UEFA EURO 2012, but warm relations may be put on hold for a day or so as they come together in their final Group C fixture.
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Ukraine will look to extend a five-game unbeaten run against Poland in their final UEFA EURO 2016 Group C match.
Previous meetings
• Ukraine's record in seven fixtures against Poland is W3 D2 L2 (W2 D1 L1 in competitive games).
• This is the sides' first UEFA European Championship encounter.
• Poland and Ukraine were co-hosts of UEFA EURO 2012; neither team progressed beyond the group stage.
• Poland won the teams' first two meetings, including a 3-1 victory in Kyiv that helped them qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but Ukraine are undefeated in the last five. They did the double over their neighbours in 2014 World Cup qualifying.
• Andriy Yarmolenko scored in both contests – a 3-1 win in Warsaw and a 1-0 success in Kharkiv.
EURO facts – Ukraine
• Ukraine are featuring at their second EURO. They co-hosted UEFA EURO 2012 but qualified this time round via a play-off success against Slovenia.
• Ukraine's biggest international success to date is making it to the quarter-finals of their only World Cup, in Germany in 2006.
• Two Ukrainian clubs have played UEFA games in Marseille. Dnipro lost 1-0 to Marseille in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup third round, while Shakhtar won 2-1 at Stade Vélodrome to reach the 2009 UEFA Cup semi-finals. Andriy Pyatov and Olexandr Kucher played for the Pitmen.
EURO facts – Poland
• Poland are appearing at their third successive EURO final tournament, but have yet to make it through the group stage. They failed to win a game in their first two finals campaigns: W0 D3 L3.
• Poland's greatest success on the international stage to date is winning bronze medals at the 1974 and 1982 World Cup finals.
• Poland's Robert Lewandowski was the top scorer in qualifying with 13 goals, matching a competition record set by Northern Ireland's David Healy in UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying.
• Poland scored 33 goals in qualifying – two more than their nearest rivals, England.
• Poland have played in Marseille once before, defeating the United Arab Emirates 4-0 in a friendly in May 1990.
• The two Polish clubs to have visited Stade Vélodrome for UEFA games both lost: Górnik Zabrze 2-1 to Marseille in the 1971/72 European Champion Clubs' Cup first round and Lech Poznań 6-1 to the same opponents in the 1990/91 competition.
Coach and player links
• Yevhen Konoplyanka (Ukraine) and Grzegorz Krychowiak (Poland) won the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League together with Sevilla; they had been on opposite sides when Sevilla beat Dnipro in the 2015 final.