Leo Beenhakker says Poland can continue their "miracle" of reaching Euro 2008 by beating Austria and moving into week two of the tournament.The 65-year-old has been in charge at Ajax and Real Madrid during his career and rates Poland's progress up there with his finest achievements, but the dream could be over if Austria defeat them at Ernst Happel Stadium on Thursday.

The co-hosts have been encouraged by their performance in defeat to Croatia, but Beenhakker has confidence in his own side.

"I can guarantee my team will be ready for it," said the Dutchman. "It's a match to stay in the tournament.

"We know all the possibilities Austria have with their players and I'm not worried about it."

Poland have been hit by injuries, with skipper Maciej Zurawski likely to miss the rest of the tournament after straining his quadriceps in the defeat to Germany.

Jacek Bak will take the armband in the absence of Zurawski but the former Celtic striker will stay with the squad despite his hopes of playing in the tournament being slim.

Beenhakker said: "He is not happy, as you can imagine but he told me, 'I'm the captain and I stay here and stay with the team'."

Beenhakker is likely to make other changes from the starting XI of the opening match and acknowledged Roger Guerreiro had played his way into contention with his impact as a substitute last time out.

"He changed the game against Germany, I saw that," Beenhakker added. "I'm happy that more and more people are convinced he is a good player for the national team."

Beenhakker is wary of the advantage playing at home will be for Austria.

He feels his side have more quality, but added: "We have to show it.

"Austria again showed it's a very difficult opponent to beat because it's not a normal situation. Many times you see local teams in their own countries playing at a higher level based on the atmosphere and support.

"You see it in every sport, like the Olympics. We realise we have a very tough game."

Austria coach Josef Hickersberger is heading into the clash with optimism after his side almost upset Croatia in their first match, although he is not underestimating Poland.

"We both have to win in order to have a chance of the quarter-finals," Hickersberger said.

"We will do our utmost to win the match.

"Against Croatia we did well in the second half and want to do just as well tomorrow. We are convinced we have a team that can play well against Poland and also win.

"Poland qualified for the last two major tournaments, they are a very strong team and the task is very difficult. They have an excellent generation of football players."

Defender Sebastian Prodl added: "We have confidence after the performance against Croatia so we are optimistic.

"We were defeated but we gained self-confidence, the whole of the country could see we can play at that level."

Prodl also hopes home advantage can play a part as it did against Croatia.

He said: "The fans contribute a lot to our success. We could see from the warm-up that the whole country are behind us. Maybe they weren't for the last year but they are now.""

Hickersberger has concerns over Joachim Standfest and Roland Linz but the pair should be passed fit to play.

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