Poland, bidding to reach the European Championship knockout stages for the first time, will take nothing for granted when they face neighbours Ukraine in their final Euro 2016 Group C match today.

Ukraine lost their first two games and cannot progress but Poland, second in the standings after beating Northern Ireland 1-0, will reach the last 16 if they overcome their co-hosts of Euro 2012.

“Third matches tend to be different from the first two,” Poland assistant coach Hubert Malowiejski said.

“I don’t agree Ukraine play for nothing. They play for honour what is important for them. We are prepared for very dangerous opponent full of Shakhtar, Dynamo Kiev and Sevilla players.”

Poland have not beaten Ukraine in their last five meetings, including two defeats in 2014 World Cup qualifying, and they will be without first-choice goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny due to a thigh injury.

Lukasz Fabianski, who deputised for Szczesny in Poland’s 0-0 draw against Germany last week, will replace him again and he is confident about his team’s organisation.

“Why are we playing better in defence than before? One of the reasons is the fact that we have lots of information about the opponents so we know better how to neutralise them,” Fabianski said.

Fans’ respect and honour

Ukraine lost 2-0 to both Germany and Northern Ireland, the latter defeat coming as a bitter disappointment against a team ranked six places below them.

“We understand the fans and we are very sorry,” defender Olexandr Kucher said.

“Now we have to win their respect back in the game against Poland. Of course, this match has no tournament meaning for us but we have to finally show some positive football and get a result. This is most important so far. We will fight for our prestige.”

Ukraine midfielder Ruslan Rotan was at a loss to explain the poor show against Northern Ireland.

“It is difficult to say now because we are full of emotions at the moment. The fact that we failed to progress to the round of 16 is definitely a bad result for us, as we wanted more. But we have to look forward,” he said.

“We have to play the next game for our honour, for the honour of the whole country.”

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