POLES APART
Lewandowski & Co will put Northern Ireland to sword
WATCHING Poland v Northern Ireland promises to be such a chore that one of the Poles has offered to do it for me for £6 an hour.
Northern Ireland, with players such as Kyle Lafferty and Jonny Evans, are surely making up the numbers in France.
Poland, with players like Wawrzyniak, Jodlowiec, and Starzynski, are surely making up the names.
It’s clear, from comments during the week, that paramount in Irish thinkingg is the avoidance of defeat.
Centre- back Evans said:d: “That’s not true. Paramount t in Irish thinking is a movie studio.”
Manager Michael O’Neill claims Northern Ireland will be everyone’s worst nightmare at the Euros. Fans of every other r country nodded vigorously.sly. Fans of Northern Ireland noddedodded even more vigorously, as did Polish fans, once taught.
Somehow the Irish are ranked 25th in the world – for the previous 50 years they were ranked 25th in Ireland.
O’Neill says his players left their egos at home, probably along with their passports, and that the players have been happy to fly on budget airlines, especially given the Ryanair flight to their French base landed just a handy three hours away in Kazakhstan. “The key is not to be beaten in the first game,” said O’Neill. “You’ve got to get something on board in the first game,” but, sadly, only one carry-on bag, measuring no more than 55cm x 35cm x 23cm. The Irish group makes O’Neill shudder but so have other Irish groups in the past – notably Boyzone and Westlife. After Poland, Ukraine lie in wait, unless Russia has annexed it by then, and then it’s Germany in Paris. “OurOur biggest challenge is how to stif le names like Robert Le Lewandowski,” said O’Neill, b but that’s not strictly true. I rel and ’ s bi g ge st challenge is how to spell names like Lewandowski. The Irish have been told to go out all out for second p place, but aren’t sure if that me means in the group or in the matc matches. This will be a low-scoring game, but only for Ireland. The Poles finished only a point behind Germany in qualifying, losing just one of their 10 games. And I will be amazed if they don’t collect three points in Nice this evening. In fact, I fancy them to collect four. The Poles are hovering around 8-11 and my advice is lump on, wait 90 minutes or so, and then go and collect.