Lukas Podolski was born in Poland but plays for Germany, and Thursday's match between the countries at the European Championship promises to be another emotional experience.

World Cup winners Germany lived up to their billing as as one of the clear favourites for Euro 2016 with a 2-0 victory over Ukraine in their opening game.

Euro 2016 has been something of a feel-good tournament for Germany so far and Joachim Low's men are certainly optimistic they can keep that going when they face Poland on Thursday night.

The German machine showed itself to be functioning perfectly as die Mannschaft brushed aside Ukraine in their opening game. You can follow their clash against Poland with DAN RIPLEY.

Szczesny suffered the injury in the first half of his side's victory over Northern Ireland following a collision with teammate Lukasz Piszczek, but managed to complete the 90 minutes.

Sportsmail's Martin Keown offers his assessment of Tuesday's two early games at Euro 2016 as Northern Ireland look to secure progress to the last 16 and Poland try to beat Germany to top spot.

Poland will hope Robert Lewandowski can fire them to an automatic top-two qualification spot for Euro 2016 when they face Ukraine on Tuesday afternoon.

Poland reached the knockout stages of the European Championship for the first time in their history following a 1-0 victory over neighbours Ukraine in the Stade Velodrome, Marseille.

The contrast in difficulty is summed up by the fact that the bottom half has nations with a total of 20 major titles (11 World Cups and nine Euros), while there is a total of none in the top half.

On a crazy final day of the Euro 2016 group stage in France, teams from the British & Irish isles were left waiting until the very last moments to find out their last-16 fate in the tournament.

One of Belgium, Croatia, Hungary, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland and Wales are guaranteed a place in the final - none of whom have a major international honour to their name.

The underwhelming group-stages are over and Euro 2016's knockout round is underway. Here, Sportsmail columnist MARTIN KEOWN gives his verdict on Saturday's last-16 games.

Switzerland and Poland have both reached the knock-out stage of the European Championship for the first time after finishing runners-up in their respective groups.

Poland are through to the quarter-finals of a European Championship for the first time in their history after defeating Switzerland 5-4 on penalties in Saint Etienne following a 1-1 draw.

Fernando Santos took his Portugal side's practice session at the Centre National de Rugby in Marcoussis on Monday. The training base was a happy one after their last-16 win over Croatia.

After 17 days and 44 matches, Euro 2016 has now reached crunch time with eight teams left to battle it out for glory in France as the tournament reaches the finishing straight.

Despite Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo so far failing to produce a string of consistent displays, Portugal have recovered from a slow start to earn a place in the quarter-finals.

With seven games of the tournament remaining, kicking off with Poland's quarter-final clash against Portugal on Thursday night, three players sit top of the standings with three goals each.

The Bayern Munich forward is the most fouled player at Euro 2016 and Nawalka thinks his star striker has been marked too tightly in France.

The Portugal squad travelled to Marseille the day before the contest, with a number of the squad's senior players posing for a photograph while en route to the southern French city.

Lewandowski hasn't lit up Euro 2016 and will need to regain his form from qualifying if Poland are to have any chance of getting past Portugal on Thursday.

Cristiano Ronaldo will not be the only superstar on show on Thursday night in Marseille. But Poland's manager, players and supporters are relying on Robert Lewandowski finding his shooting boots.

Portugal will need Cristiano Ronaldo firing on all cylinders on Thursday night if they are to overcome a stubborn Polish side in Marseille.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal are through to the semi-finals of Euro 2016 despite failing to win a game in normal time in the tournament so far.

IAN LADYMAN AT STADE VELODROME: Cristiano Ronaldo has been here before and made the wrong call. Portugal exited Euro 2012 on penalties to Spain without their great talisman taking a kick.

Poland’s star player Robert Lewandowski was recovering on Friday from a ‘brutal’ end to his side’s run at Euro 2016. The striker's goal was not enough to see his side overcome Portugal.

Laura Garza, a Mexican national living in Texas, has been indicted by a grand jury on two counts of voter impersonation and ineligible voting, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

An FBI informant was acting as 'secret spy' in the Trump election campaign, but he was not planted. A retired professor working for the Government met with three Trump aides in 2016.

The tweets were the US President's latest attempt to use reports that an FBI informant met with three of his campaign advisers to accuse the bureau of pursuing political ends.

Crystal Mason, a 43-year-old tax fraud convict and mother-of-two, voted in the 2016 election while on supervised release - unaware that she was ineligible under a Texas law.

President Donald Trump is taking a much tougher line on Russian President Vladimir Putin in a new television interview than he did just days ago in Helsinki at Putin's side.

Former Ecuadorian President Rafeal Correa has said he was aware WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was interfering with the 2016 US Presidential election from the embassy in London.

Calling on voters to ‘reject a media and political elite that has bled our country dry’, he added: ‘It’s going to be amazing. We’re going to drain the swamp,’ speaking in vital swing state North Carolina.

In an apparent attempt to intimidate voters, at least a dozen trucks and other vehicles were caught on video parading around early polling stations in Florida waving Confederate flags on Monday.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump reunited with their families on the campaign trail Monday evening at a pair of swing-state rallies that marked the end of their respective presidential campaigns.

The U.S. election is finally here. When and where can Australians follow the results? What are the key battleground states, and how does the U.S. system work?

The 2016 US election has officially begun, with Hillary Clinton coming out on top in the first results to come back - the nine-person community of Dixville Notch.

Bitter, divisive and utterly fascinating, the presidential election will be decided today as millions go to the polls. Both candidates will be in New York to vote and await the results.

The U.S. election is finally here. When and where can Australians follow the results? What are the key battleground states, and how does the U.S. system work?

Donald Trump warned of errors hitting the voting system and called it 'rigged' in an intervention which lays the ground for a challenge to the result - and the possibility he may not concede defeat.

In an exit poll by Fox News, Clinton just edges out Trump as a better commander in chief, at 49 per cent to his 46 per cent. But the Republican wins on the economy, at 48 per cent to 46.

US cybersecurity company Cylance showed how by physically accessing the machine the number of votes could be altered and the names of candidates changed.

With the Rio Olympic Games just around the corner, Sir Chris Hoy - the most decorated Olympic cyclist of all time - has picked out his top 10 British athletes to watch out for.

Team GB will be targeting another clutch of medals as the Olympic Games enters its 11th day in Rio. Join Sportsmail's LUKE AUGUSTUS for all the action from Brazil as it happens.

It has been a memorable week for Team GB at the Rio Olympics after they took their golden tally to 24 with 58 medals overall with stellar performances from the likes of Laura Trott and Jason Kenny.

Over the last two weeks the Olympics have provided moments of brilliance, joy and excitement across 28 sports in Rio. Sportsmail brings you the best 50 images from the games...

Cycling champion Laura Trott looked deserving of a fashion medal as she walked the red carpet earlier this evening with her new husband Jason Kenny at the Pride of Britain Awards.

They've been nominated for the International Group BRIT Award and Eagles Of Death Metal singer Jesse Hughes looked thrilled to be at the event at London's 02 arena on Wednesday night.

The ISIS terror cell which carried out the Paris and Brussels attacks had intended to target the Euro 2016 football summer tournament in France, it was claimed.

A number of soldiers, heavily armed and wearing balaclavas, were seen inside the Palais de Congres in Paris watching over as the draw was made, a month after the terrorist attack.