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KLAGENFURT, Austria (AP) Poland needs a big victory against Croatia and a lot of help in Monday's other Group B match to
keep alive its hopes of advancing to the quarterfinals at the European Championship.
Poland must win in Klagenfurt over Croatia, which has already secured top spot in the group, by three or four goals, and needs
Austria to beat Germany in Vienna on Monday in order to advance.
``We know exactly our situation, and we have a lot of confidence that we can have a positive result versus Croatia,'' Poland
coach Leo Beenhakker said. ``At the same time, we have the small hope that it will be enough to stay in the tournament via
the back door.''
Croatia, on the other hand, stormed through the front door into the quarterfinals.
Coach Slaven Bilic's team has already wrapped up a spot in the knockout stage with wins over Austria and Germany. That now
allows the manager to reshuffle his lineup to rest most of his top stars for Croatia's quarterfinal match against either the
Czech Republic or Turkey.
Five Croatia players, including star midfielder Luka Modric, have yellow cards and are unlikely to play Monday to prevent
the possibility of getting a second yellow and missing the quarterfinals.
``We are not crazy to risk the second yellows,'' Bilic said. ``The other criteria for not playing are injuries and fatigue
from previous matches.''
Midfielder Darijo Srna, defenders Josip Simunic and Robert Kovac, and strikers Ivica Olic and Mladen Petric are all likely
to join Modric on the bench.
Bilic said Dario Simic, who did not take the field for Croatia in its opening two matches, will captain the squad Monday in
what will be his 99th international appearance.
``I hope I will play a good game against Poland, and strengthen my chances of playing in the quarterfinals,'' the 32-year-old
Simic said Sunday.
Up front, Ivan Klasnic is expected to lead the Croatia attack, becoming the the first player ever to take part at the European
Championship after a kidney transplant.
While fielding primarily a second squad, Bilic said he was confident the players on the field would perform.
``I have no fear that they will embarrass us. I believe in this team, like I believe all 23 players in the squad,'' Bilic
said.
Poland needs to believe, too, that it can win big against Croatia to keep its slim hopes of advancing alive.
But the Poles have not shown at the tournament that they possess the firepower to score heaps of goals, let alone to do so
against a talented Croatian side that outclassed pre-tournament favorite Germany.
Poland's sole goal in its first two matches came against Austria - widely considered the weakest team in the tournament -
and the Poles have struggled to create quality scoring opportunities, let alone finish the few it has created.
Asked whether his team is capable of beating Croatia by the necessary margin, Beenhakker said without hesitation: ``I don't
know.''
The coach has said that the need to score may force him to juggle his starting lineup, without specifying what those changes
might be.
And it's not clear what options he has.
The squad is still smarting from the loss of attacking midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski and forward Maciej Zurawski, both of
whom are sidelined with injuries.
The players who are available haven't played up to potential.
Ebi Smolarek, who led Poland with nine goals in qualifying and came into the tournament with huge expectations, has been largely
invisible up front.
An air of resignation has hung over the camp since the injury-time penalty awarded to Austria left the Poles with one point
instead of three from their second match, and took their fate out of their own hands.
Still, they say they are determined to fight as long as there is a slim hope of playing on.
``We have to show that we can win. We lost one match, we drew another, now the time has come to win one,'' defender Jacek
Bak said. ``The hope exists that we aren't playing our last game, but our second to last or maybe we'll play more, but it's
clearly a very difficult situation.''
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Associated Press Writer Dusan Stojanovic in Bad Tatzmanndorf, Austria, contributed to this report.
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