Poland v Republic of Ireland background

Poland and the Republic of Ireland go into their final UEFA EURO 2016 Group D game having drawn all of their previous competitive encounters and with an automatic finals berth hanging in the balance.

• A win for either side will ensure automatic qualification for the finals, with the losers entering the play-offs. Should Germany avoid defeat at home to Georgia, a 0-0 or 1-1 draw would bring automatic qualification for Poland but a draw of 2-2 or higher would send Ireland through.

• If Germany lose, any draw will put both Poland and Ireland into the top two positions and send Germany into the play-offs, with Ireland winning the section on a three-way head to head.

Previous meetings
• Shane Long levelled at the death as the Irish snatched a 1-1 draw against Poland in their Group D meeting in Dublin on 29 March.

• The sides have thus drawn all three of their competitive fixtures to date, since both their matches in EURO '92 qualifying ended level – 0-0 in Dublin and 3-3 in Poznan.

• Poland's overall record in 26 games against Ireland is W10 D10 L6. It was 0-0 when they last met in Poland, in a Poznan friendly on 19 November 2013.

Form guide
• Poland are unbeaten in six competitive home qualifiers (W4 D2) since a 3-1 loss to Ukraine in March 2013.

• Ireland have lost only one of their four Group D away matches so far – 1-0 in Scotland. They drew in Germany and beat Georgia and Gibraltar in the others.

Disciplinary
• The latest booking list is available here: http://www.uefa.org/disciplinary/disciplinary-cases/booking-lists/index.html.

Trivia and links
• Ireland defender Seamus Coleman turns 27 on 11 October, the day of the Republic's trip to Warsaw.

• Robbie Keane has scored 67 international goals and needs one more to catch West Germany's Gerd Müller and become the joint-fourth highest-scoring European in international football history. The top three are Ferenc Puskás (84 goals), Sándor Kocsis (75) and Miroslav Klose (71).

• The nations' clubs have met in eight UEFA competition fixtures, with the Irish sides having the record W2 D1 L5. Most recently, Legia Warszawa overcame Saint Patrick's Athletic FC in last season's UEFA Champions League second qualifying round, winning 5-0 in Dublin after a 1-1 draw in Warsaw.

• In 11 UEFA age-group competition encounters with Ireland, Poland's record is W7 D2 L2.