Poland World Cup 2022 squad list, fixtures and latest odds

At the Poland team meeting ahead of facing Lionel Messi, the great man was compared to alpine skier Alberto Tomba, who slalomed to Olympics gold. The Argentinian great will need to navigate his way around Poles to keep his country in the World Cup.

Czesław Michniewicz, the charismatic coach of Group C’s surprise leaders, says it will be a team effort to halt Messi at Stadium 974, following his side's 2-0 victory over Saudi Arabia. He believes the clash will be much more than a case of Messi versus Robert Lewandowski in a shootout between two forwards who have struck fear into teams for more than a decade.

“At the briefing we talked about Alberto Tomba on the slope,” said Michniewicz. “He is able to avoid everyone. So I need to put players to make a difference because if it is easy, he will score. You need more than one person to stop him.

“It is not only a battle between Lewandowski and Messi - it is not tennis, it is not one on one. They are not serving. Robert needs his team members, the same as Leo. We rely on these great strikers but the individual cannot win.

“I know all of Argentina counts on Messi, I‘ve seen fans’ fantastic cheering. There was one boy sitting next to me in the stands at the Mexico game against Argentina, cheering so much when Messi scored he hugged me as if I was his father. He knew I was Polish. That shows how enthusiastic the fans are.”

Michniewicz was asked how it felt to be treated like the King of Poland for their efforts in Qatar, where a point will see them through to the next round. His football has been pragmatic and he says there simply has not been enough time to prepare a team to attack with fluency at this mid-season tournament.

Poland World Cup 2022 squad

Goalkeepers: Bartlomiej Dragowski, Lukasz Skorupski, Wojciech Szczesny

Defenders: Jan Bednarek, Bartosz Bereszynski, Matty Cash, Kamil Glik, Robert Gumny, Artur Jedrzejczyk, Jakub Kiwior, Mateusz Wieteska, Nicola Zalewski

Midfielders: Krystian Bielik, Przemyslaw Frankowski, Kamil Grosicki, Jakub Kaminski, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Michal Skoras, Damian Szymanski, Sebastian Szymanski, Piotr Zielinski, Szymon Zurkowski

Forwards: Robert Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Milik, Krzysztof Piatek, Karol Swiderski

Who are the star names in the squad?

Undoubtedly, captain Robert Lewandowski is the star man, with more than 600 senior career goals at club and international level.

The Barcelona striker, who before joining the La Liga side played for Bayern Munich, is experiencing another goal streak this season so poses a huge threat to any opponent. Lewandowski will play the tournament wearing a Ukrainian flag captain's armband in solidarity with the besieged nation, as well as in recognition of the many refugees from Ukraine now living in Poland.

What are Poland’s fixtures?

What is Poland’s World Cup record?

Poland have competed at eight Fifa World Cups, with their debut in 1938.

Their best result was two third places, in 1974 and 1982, but since then they have only broken out of the group stage once, and failed to qualify in 2010 and 2014.

They were knocked out in the group stage at their last World Cup outing at Russia 2018.

At the Uefa European Championship, Poland's best result was a quarter-final appearance at the 2016 tournament.

Argentina | Australia | Belgium | Brazil | Cameroon | Canada | Costa Rica | Croatia | Denmark | Ecuador | England | France | Germany | Ghana | Iran | Japan | Mexico | Morocco | Netherlands | Poland | Portugal | Qatar | Saudi Arabia | Senegal | Serbia | South Korea | Spain | Switzerland | Tunisia | Uruguay | USA | Wales

Latest odds

Lewandowski to outscore his peers at the World Cup? Find the latest top scorer odds here

Poland are currently a best price of 239/1 to win the World Cup 2022.