Poland defender Jakub Wawryzniak has backed Robert Lewandowski to prove he is the best striker in the world by ruining the Republic of Ireland's dream of automatic qualification for Euro 2016.
The 27-year-old Bayern Munich striker goes into Sunday night's final Group D qualifier at the Narodowy Stadium in Warsaw having scored a staggering 14 goals in his last four and a half games for club and country.
The last of those came in Thursday's 2-2 draw in Scotland, in which he claimed both Polish goals, prompting Scotland manager Gordon Strachan to suggest he is currently the hottest marksman in world football.
Asked for his own assessment at his pre-match press conference on Saturday evening, Poland boss Adam Nawalka said: "I do have to say that this question was asked a number of times quite recently and I do have to confirm that for the time being, Robert Lewandowski is the best number nine in the world."
Before the press conference could continue, Wawryzniak, sitting to the coach's right, added: "And should anyone have doubts, we really do believe that tomorrow, Robert Lewandowski will confirm exactly that."
Lewandowski's stock has risen sharply since his move to Bayern from Borussia Dortmund last year and worryingly for defenders, Nawalka believes there is still more to come.
He said: "Robert Lewandowski is developing all the time, he makes progress continuously and I do not think there is anyone that could stop him."
Lewandowski is likely to prove key to Poland's hopes of fending off Ireland as the pair battle it out for automatic qualification with Martin O'Neill's men having rekindled their own hopes with their shock 1-0 victory over world champions Germany on Thursday evening.
Victory for either side would send them to France next summer, while a 0-0 draw would put the Poles through and a high-scoring one would do the same for the Irish once the head-to-head record is taken into account.
Nawalka said: "I have to say that the result (against Germany) was a big surprise for us, but both teams represent a really high level of football and actually in this group, being a very difficult one, every result is possible.
"The German team had maybe a bigger ball possession and had more chances, but at the end of the day it all comes down to the number of goals scored and in this aspect, the Irish team was better, which is why we know tomorrow's game will be difficult for us.
"But we are prepared for that and we will do our job."
Nawalka will be without injured duo Maciej Rybus and Arkadiusz Milik with Wawryzniak and striker Artur Sobiech likely to get the nod instead.
However, Poland, who like Ireland are already guaranteed a play-off place at worst, are determined not to leave anything to chance.
Wawryzniak said: "We are of course calm, we are of course sure that we will give our best during tomorrow's game, but our team has proven that we have an identity, we can count on every single player in our team, which is why we will continue to do that.
"I am pretty sure that tomorrow evening, we will meet again here and be happy due to our result."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here