Poland captain Bąk on familiar ground

He may play his club football in Vienna, but Poland's stand-in skipper, Jacek Bąk, is determined to upset the locals as his side take on UEFA EURO 2008™ co-hosts Austria at a venue that has proved a happy hunting ground for the Biało-czerwoni before.

Żurawski loss
Veteran defender Bąk is the man charged with taking the captain's armband after Maciej Żurawski was effectively ruled out of the finals with strained quadriceps suffered in Sunday's 2-0 Group B defeat by Germany. At 35 and with 96 international caps under his belt, he certainly has the requisite experience, and playing his club football in the Austrian Bundesliga with FK Austria Wien gives him an added edge. "It is an honour for me to be captain but it's such a pity that Maciej is injured and we have to do without him," said Bąk, now in his 20th year in professional football having made his debut for Polish top-flight side Motor Lublin aged 16. "I just hope this will turn out to be a happy stadium for me."

Call for improvement
Of late, it has been a happy venue for Poland. Ekstraklasa side KS Górnik Zabrze may have lost out to Manchester City FC in the 1970 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final there, but getting to that stage in itself was a major achievement. Then, in 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying, a Poland side including Bąk claimed a 3-1 victory against Austria at the stadium. Four years later, and the centre-back is hoping to repeat the feat. "It's a beautiful stadium, I have won some games here at club level too and I hope to win more," Bąk said, before revealing that he hopes better communication will be the key to avoiding the errors they made in their first finals outing. "We know that we cannot make the same mistakes against Austria as that would mean this is our last game or, at least, our last meaningful game, if we lose. So we need to speak and communicate more. Our mistakes came from a lack of communication and we can't allow them to happen again against Austria."