Poland Euro 2016 team profile: Robert Lewandowski pivotal to hopes of maiden knock-out appearance

World ranking: 27

Best European Championship finish: Group stage – 2008, 2012

How they qualified: Poland reached their third consecutive European Championship finals by finishing second behind Germany in Group D. The Republic of Ireland were third.

Fixtures: Group C – Northern Ireland (12 June), Germany (16 June), Ukraine (21 June)

Squad –

Goalkeepers: Artur Boruc, Lukasz Fabianski, Wojciech Szczesny

Defenders: Thiago Cionek, Kamil Glik, Artur Jedrzejczyk, Michal Pazdan, Lukasz Piszczek, Bartosz Salamon, Jakub Wawrzyniak

Midfielders: Jakub Blaszczykowski, Kamil Grosicki, Tomasz Jodlowiec, Bartosz Kapustka, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Karol Linetty, Krzysztof Maczynski, Slawomir Peszko, Filip Starzynski, Piotr Zielinski

Strikers: Robert Lewandowski, Arkadiusz Milik, Mariusz Stepinski

Expectations: Despite being reunited with familiar foes and reigning world champions Germany, Poland should be confident of progressing to the round of 16 in France. The White and Reds hardly boast a stellar record in this competition, however, failing to qualify at all until 2008 and subsequently finishing bottom of the group with no wins and one goal to show for their efforts in Austria/Switzerland. They automatically booked a spot at Euro 2012 thanks to their role as co-hosts, but fared no better on home soil and again failed to register a single victory en route to another miserable early exit.

Pivotal to their hopes will be the form of captain and talisman Robert Lewandowski. The number nine has enjoyed another superb season for Bayern Munich, reinforcing his reputation as perhaps the most-feared and prolific frontman in Europe by becoming the first player to score 30 goals in a single Bundesliga campaign since 1977. He also netted 13 times in qualification to finish as top scorer ahead of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thomas Muller.

Premier League representation comes in the goalkeeping department, where the experienced Artur Boruc of Bournemouth and Arsenal's Roma loanee Wojciech Szczesny will both be competing to oust Swansea City number one Lukasz Fabianski.

Manager: Adam Nawalka – A failure to qualify for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil saw the end of Waldemar Fornalik's two-and-a-half year tenure. He was quickly replaced by another former Polish international in Nawalka, who earned 34 caps during his career as a long-serving midfielder for Wisla Krakow.

Boasting considerable experience in the Ekstraklasa, the 58-year-old took charge of Jagiellonia Bialystok, Wisla and GKS Katowice before a three-year stint with Gornik Zabrze. Nawalka achieved his sole brief of qualifying for Euro 2016, beating Germany in Warsaw along the way and suffering just one competitive defeat, to Joachim Low's side last September.

IBTimes UK prediction: Round of 16 - If Lewandowski is on fire, then Poland could prove dark horses. However, his goals alone are unlikely to carry them any further than the first knock-out phase.