Poland (FIFA Ranking 21) v Slovakia (36), Mon 14th June 17:00

Group E kicks off with this fixture ahead of Spain v Sweden, and both sides will be keen to get points on the board early on. For Poland, failure to win here leaves them with an uphill task to take a top two spot, but they’ll have to work hard to break down a fairly defensive Slovakian outfit.

Slovakia have drawn four of five unbeaten matches ahead of the tournament, though it’s not a particularly good record given that three of those stalemates came against Cyprus, Malta and Bulgaria. However, with a win over Russia and another draw with Austria, they’ll fancy their chances of picking up a point on the opening day. They did however finish bottom of their recent Nations League group, behind the likes of the Czech Republic, Scotland and Israel, scoring just five goals in six matches.

Poland have only won once in seven appearances now, with that coming over Andorra, though each of their defeats over this period came when facing elite outfits Italy, the Netherlands and England. Draws with Hungary, Russia and Iceland would suggest these two could share the spoils here, especially as the first two of those teams occupy the two spots directly beneath Slovakia in FIFA’s world rankings.

This doesn’t look like a game that will feature plenty of goal-mouth action. Poland may be able to boast Robert Lewandowski up front, fresh off the back of a fantastic campaign with Bayern where he broke Gerd Muller’s 49-year-old record for goals in a single Bundesliga season. However, the service he gets with the national side isn’t up to the same standard and Poland are also reduced in attack, as Arkadiusz Milik misses the tournament with a knee injury, while Krzysztof Piatek has a broken ankle.

Poland disappointed at the 2018 World Cup, where they managed just two goals in a group featuring Colombia, Japan and Senegal, as Lewandowski failed to get off the mark. They averaged a goal per game in their most recent Nations League campaign, albeit with four of those fixtures against either Italy or the Netherlands, but they’re a team that are much better at finding the net when playing on home turf. Away or at neutral venues, they’ve scored more than once in just four of 15 fixtures since the start of the World Cup, compared to seven of their last 10 at home.

Still, the only times both teams to score hasn’t landed across Poland’s last seven fixtures came when they failed to net past Italy, and when keeping a clean sheet with Andorra. 11 of their last 14 stalemates have seen both teams find the net, while the same is true in eight of Slovakia’s past 11 draws – including seven that finished 1-1.

Draw @ 3.7
0.5pts: 1-1 Draw @ 8.2