New Poland coach Roman Jaszczak expects a tough start to UEFA Women's EURO 2013 qualifying when Russia visit Raciborz on Wednesday.
Jaszczak, who led the club he founded, KKPK Medyk Konin, to three Polish Cups, took over from Robert Góralczyk at the start of this year with the national team hoping to build on their promising FIFA Women's World Cup qualifying performance – when only a loss in Ukraine cost them a play-off place. With Italy also in Group 1, reaching their first women's final tournament will not be easy for Poland and Jaszczak knows this opening home game is already crucial.
"I was quite happy when I saw Greece, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina as our opponents, but then my face dropped when Italy and Russia were drawn too," Jaszczak said. "I regard Italy and Russia as favourites to claim the top places but we will not make it easy for them.
"For us the game against Russia in Raciborz will be vital. A good result will lift our morale and we will then have easier opponents in Greece and Bosnia and Herzegovina to gather valuable points from, before we face Italy in Poland and go to [FYROM]."
Russia played at the 2009 EURO finals, beating Poland 3-1 at home and 4-1 away in qualification, but had a disappointing World Cup campaign and since then have changed coach twice, with former Olympique Lyonnais trainer Farid Benstiti appointed after last month's 1-0 friendly loss in Belgium. "We spied on Russia in their friendly against Belgium and saw they are strong going forward but at the same time we saw their weaknesses in defence," Jaszczak said. "Our task is to find a way through and to score against them."
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