Żmuda's Poland through behind Austria

Władysław Żmuda went to four FIFA World Cups as a player and could be coaching Poland at the UEFA European Under-17 Championship after steering his side through behind Austria from qualifying round Group 4.

Comfortable win
Mini-tournament hosts Poland lost their first game 4-2 to Austria, who beat Israel 2-0 in their next game to ensure their Elite round place. Having defeated Armenia 4-1 in their second match, Poland needed another victory against Israel to make sure of progress and did so in style, winning 7-0.

'Great success'
"I think we have achieved a great success here," Żmuda told uefa.com. "We started the tournament with a 4-2 loss against Austria and it is never easy to come back if you are hit so hard at the beginning. Fortunately, we showed we are strong enough to fight back and it really means our team is mentally strong."

Austria top
Austria had trailed 2-1 at half-time to Poland in their first game but Dominik Burusic, Philipp Prosenik and Raphael Holzhauser turned the match in their favour. Israel took the early lead with a 6-1 defeat of Armenia, Haytham Halabi scoring twice. However, they fell 2-0 to Austria with goals at the end of each half from Toni Vastic – son of Ivica – and Burusic, Omer Tchalisher being sent off in injury time to boot, while Poland overcame nine-man Armenia 4-1.

Poland delight
Armenia did end with the consolation of a 1-1 draw against Austria, Prosenik's opener cancelled out by Ararat Poghosyan. But the important game was Poland versus Israel, and the hosts were runaway winners as Michał Nalepa scored twice with further goals from Marcin Byszewski, Mateusz Romachow, Kamil Wiktorski and substitutes Kasper Przybyłko and Szymon Drewniak.

New talent
However, as he awaits the Elite round draw on 9 December and the matches in March, Żmuda said: "This team still needs some reinforcements as I am aware of the fact we would not conquer the world with this side. By reinforcements I mean young players with Polish roots playing abroad. There are some interesting guys and we will follow them."

Szromnik praised
Żmuda, in his first campaign at the U17 helm having led the U21s in 2006 qualifying, added: "The next stage of this competition will be much tougher, but we still have some time to work on some details. We should have the opportunity to organise more training camps. If I am to pick the best Polish players during this tournament, I would say our reserve goalkeeper Michał Szromnik who came in for the second match and proved he deserves his place in the starting eleven. I would say he was the Polish discovery of the tournament."