Poland must win big against Croatia, then get help to advance to knockout stage at Euro 2008

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.

Poland needs to believe, 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.