Wales v Poland: Outgoing Wales manager Mark Hughes says he will not allow thoughts of his departure to overshadow tonight's crucial qualifier against Poland at the Millennium Stadium.
Having taken only two points from their first three games, Wales badly need to win the Group Six encounter in Hughes's last match in charge before he concentrates full-time on his job as Blackburn Rovers manager.
"I may not always show my emotion but I do get emotional like the rest of us," said Hughes, who guided Wales to the brink of qualifying for their first major championship in almost half a century before losing to Russia in the Euro 2004 play-offs.
"A lot of time and effort has been put into this by myself, my players and the backroom staff and there will come a point tomorrow when it comes to an end.
"That will be a sad day for me but things have to move on and Wednesday is more important in terms of still wanting to be in a position to qualify."
Hughes's side have come in for criticism after being outclassed in the 2-0 defeat by group leaders England last Saturday. The manager, though, says the team have a golden opportunity against Pawel Janas's Poles, who lie second in the group with six points from three games.
"We were disappointed with the result against England but sometimes on occasions like this people don't realise the quality of the opposition we're up against," he said. "This game was always the more important of the two because we were always more likely to have to overcome Poland to get the play-off place (for finishing second), so this was bigger."
Hughes said full back Rhys Weston is available after overcoming the hamstring injury which ruled him out of the England game but centre back Andy Melville is definitely out with a calf strain.
Midfielder Robbie Savage is also set to start following his one-game suspension. Striker Craig Bellamy says Wales's hopes of qualifying are at stake tonight.
"There are no doubts we must win because if we don't it could be all over for us already," he said.
The Poles arrive lifted by their 3-1 win at Austria on Saturday when they finished with 10 men. Arkadiusz Radomski misses out tonight after his red card in that match, when the Poles were indebted to several fine saves by goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek.
Dudek has pleasant memories of the Millennium Stadium, having kept a clean sheet for Liverpool there in their 2003 League Cup final win over Manchester United. The Poles also won the last time they visited Wales, 2-1 in a World Cup qualifier in 2001.
PROBABLE LINE-UPS
WALES: Jones; Weston, Gabbidon, Delaney, Thatcher; Davies, Speed, Savage, Giggs; Hartson, Bellamy.
POLAND: Dudek; Bak, Rzasa, Baszczynski, Hajto; Krzynowek, Kosowski,Mila, Gorowski; Frankowski, Zurawski.
Referee: Alain Sars (France)
