Poles will be a 'handful', warns Kerr

Republic of Ireland boss Brian Kerr has warned England, Wales and Northern Ireland not to under-estimate Poland when the World Cup qualifying campaign gets under way.

Kerr’s side played out a goalless draw with the Poles in a friendly in Bydgoszcz on Wednesday but the Irish manager felt their opponents were below par.

Poland will open their bid to reach the 2006 World Cup with a trip to Belfast on September 4, just four days before they take on England at home.

Wales will come up against the Poles for the first time in campaign when they tackle them in Cardiff a month later.

Kerr said: “I think Poland will be disappointed with the way they played against us as I do feel they were near their best team.

“They didn’t move the ball around with the kind of fluidity they would have liked, but you could see that they do have a pattern of play, they have good passers at the back and use the ball well from the back and play diagonal passes to the wide front men.

“I am sure that when they come to the World Cup qualifiers they’ll be better and have a bit more passion about them.

“They will be a handful certainly for any team coming to Poland, there’s no doubt about that.”

Poland will also be Sven-Goran Eriksson’s final opponents in the group when they visit England in October 2005. Northern Ireland and Wales face return games against them in March and September of that year respectively. The six-team Group B is made up by Austria and Azerbaijan.

The Republic of Ireland are in a group with France, Switzerland, Cyprus, Israel and the Faroe Islands.