WORLD CUP GROUP A PREDICTION: POLAND V ECUADOR BETTING ODDS PREVIEW

Despite looking most unlikely to equal their excellent efforts when third in both the 1974 and '82 World Cup Finals, Poland's qualification campaign for this year's tournament indicated that the disappointment of failing to qualify for the 2004 Euro Championships is firmly in the past, and they should get off to a winning start when meeting Ecuador in their first Group A match.

Supporters of the Eastern European side will be mindful of the fact that Poland went into the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan before collapsing at the first hurdle. However, coach Pawal Janas has his charges playing attractive football at present. His first-choice strike pairing of Maciej Zurawski and Tomas Frankowski amassed a total of 14 goals in qualifying and that duo will prove a handful for opposition defences in this competition.

Ecuador, who are rated ten places behind Poland in the official FIFA rankings, owe their presence in this tournament to their home form during qualifying - they are at a huge advantage when playing at altitude. Indeed, of their eight away matches during the preliminaries, they only won once, which was against Bolivia, who also play at altitude, while they lost six of the eight fixtures in question.

Coach Luis Fernando Suarez looked understandably pensive after his men scrambled to a 4-3 victory over a combined university team and while they are no mugs, it's hard to enthuse about their prospects after such a lacklustre showing ahead of what will be their second appearance in this great competition.

Suarez, who emerged from the same Colombian school of coaching that produced both Gomez and Francisco Maturana, managed to steady the ship of the men from Quito by utilising a blend of experience and youth. There is little doubt that, when they out their best collective boot forward, Ecuador are a capable side - they actually finished a point ahead of Brazil when qualifying from their regional group for Japan/Korea 2002.

However, when it comes to the crunch, Poland are likely to prove too strong for the South Americans and while the top price of even money on offer in the outright match betting is appealing.