Janczyk joy at Polish revival

Poland striker Dawid Janczyk believes the setback of losing their opening match at the UEFA European Under-19 Championship provided a valuable incentive for his team-mates after his hat-trick earned a 4-1 victory against Belgium to revive home hopes of reaching the semi-finals.

Boniek comparisons
The Polish No11 came into the finals carrying the weight of expectation having been compared to legendary former international Zbigniew Boniek but, together with the rest of the side, was largely disappointing in Tuesday's first Group A game as the Poles slid to a 1-0 defeat by Austria in Poznan. Nevertheless the Legia Warszawa forward, whose five goals helped his club to the Polish title in 2005/06, insists that early reverse served as a spur for the meeting with the Belgians.

'Lot of motivation'
"Obviously I'm very happy with how the Belgium game went," the 18-year-old said. "Both myself and my team-mates felt we let down the spectators at the Stadion Miejski when we played Austria, so we had a lot of motivation to improve the bad image of our team that performance gave. Against Belgium we demonstrated that we are not as bad as some people may have thought."

Tiredness factor
Janczyk, described as "a tremendous striker" by his coach Michał Globisz after Thursday evening's display, offers an explanation for his showing against the Austrians, saying: "I was perhaps a bit tired when I arrived here in Poznan to link up with the national team. I'd been training hard with Legia in France and I don't think I'd had enough sleep over there. That created a difficult situation and meant I failed to meet expectations when we played Austria."

Czech conclusion
Having put that right in no uncertain terms, Janczyk is looking forward to an exciting conclusion to Group A where all four teams have three points from two games. The attacker was withdrawn in Wronki after tormenting the Belgium defence for 65 minutes yet has no doubt about his availability for Sunday's decisive fixture against the Czech Republic in Grodzisk Wielkopolski. "I came off because I felt a pain in my ankle, so I asked to be substituted to avoid making the problem worse," he said. "But I will definitely be ready to face the Czechs, as this match will decide everything."