Hi there and welcome to our live text commentary of the second match in the Under-21s European Championship in Poland. Tonight we see the host nation welcome Slovakia Under-21s to Lublin as the visitors aim to spoil the party for the Poles. We weren't there to see Slovakia boss Pavel Hapal enter the stadium, but here is how he might've done it:

Without further ado, let's get cracking on some team news, shall we?

Poland Under-21s XI: Wrabel; Jaroszynski, Kedziora, Bednarek, Linetty, Stepinsky, Lipski, Frankowski, Jach, Dawidowicz, Kapustka

Slovakia Under-21s XI: Chovan; Ninaj, Skriniar, Valjent, Lobotka, Mihalik, Chirien, Rusnak, Mazan, Zrelak, Bero

There's a bit of pressure on the Poles tonight; not because it's set in their country, and the Polish people will be utterly devastated if they don't win the competition, but because it's their first appearance in this tournament since way back in 1994 and they'll want to oversee a very respectable return. Players competing in this competition had to be born in or after 1994 to be eligible, which means that quite a lot of Poland's squad won't have been born the last time they graced this tournament. I'm beginning to feel very old.

Slovakia, meanwhile, have only been in this competition twice and this is their first appearance since the year 2000. They were the host nation that year, hence their qualification, but they did not disgrace themselves and finished fourth after losing a third-place playoff to a Spain team which boasted Carles Puyol and Xavi.

Billy no club! It'll be interesting to see Poland's number 10 Patryk Lipski tonight. The 23-year-old is currently without a club after cancelling his contract with Ruch Chorzow. A good tournament could open all sorts of doors for him: Barcelona? Bayern? Chelsea? Probably some other Polish club which we've never heard of, but a door all the same.

Full time: It's finished 0-0 in the Group A curtain raiser between England and Sweden. Plenty of drama in that one - including a penalty save from the man with hands worth £30 million sobs. Click here for Sports Mole's report on that one in Kielce.

It's a sold-out match at the 15,000-seater Arena Lublin, and Slovakia have plenty of fans in attendance. They've also been given the backing from a member of the senior side in former Rangers winger Vladimir Weiss, who has taken time out from mocking Celtic fans on Twitter to lend his support to the youngsters.

Drzime palce mladi!!!@sfzofficial @UEFAUnder21

— Vladimir Weiss (@VladiW7) June 16, 2017

Right it's getting serious now. Eight minutes to go until kickoff in Lublin! Thank god it's only eight minutes because there's some odd pre-match show going on: There's men juggling red balls on the side of the pitch, loads of lads with saxophones in the stands and a choregraphed dance number from upwards of 70 people in the middle of the pitch. Red seems to be the primary motif, which is apt because it's bloody awful.

Polish fans are notorious for their passion, and being a bit scary, and they're certainly making a lot of noise as they shout, 'POLSKA!' in unison. They're up for this.

Here come the players. The Polish lads are roared on to the field by their thousands of fans, but Slovakia also have a lot of numbers with them. I know this because their national anthem was belted out.

Kickoff! And we're off, my friends. Poland Under-21s, dressed in white shirts and red shorts and playing from left to right, kick us off amid lots of noise and lots of clapping. Great atmosphere, it must be said.

Well I never. What a fantastic start for the host nation. We mentioned Lipski before the match because the young man has no club at the moment, but he's certainly put himself in the shop window here. It's a wonderful cross from captain Kedziora and Lipski catches Valjent sleeping and heads into the top corner.

It's a decent response from Slovakia and one of the Polish thumps the ball away to safety after the visitors caused a bit of problems in the hosts' box. Just seen the Poland goal again and it actually came off his shoulder, taking a bit of the gloss of what looked a fine header, but he won't care and neither will the 13,000 Polish fans in the ground.

That has definitely woken up the visitors, who have been the better side since the goal. They're knocking it around very nicely, as if they didn't concede within 62 seconds of kickoff.

Oh god. The referee has bottled it here. One of the Slovakian lads - I think Albert Rusnak - was taken out of it in the final third but no free kick given. In the ref's defence, I wouldn't want these Polish fans to dislike me for any reason.

Referee has another decision to make here as Mihalik goes to ground rather easily under a challenge from Kedziora and no free kick given. It was right this time. But it's still all Slovakia. The visitors haven't fashioned any chances as of yet, but they're in the driving seat.

Poland finally get back into a little bit and Frankowski's drilled cross across the face of goal is diverted behind for a corner, which comes to nothing. Promising for the hosts who have been a little, well, poor since the goal.

We have a game in Lublin, lads and lasses. Slovakia equalise through Martin Valjent, who drills home from a tricky following a tidy lay-off by Robert Mazan. Valjent was arguably at fault for the opener, so it's nice for him to redeem himself.

Chance! Huge let-off for Polish keeper Jakub Wrabel, who fumbles Mihalik's swerving effort, but the Slovakian striker can't direct his rebound on target. The visitors have turned this one upside down and, to their credit, they deserve their equaliser. Slovakia been the better side since Poland's opener.

The Polish fans, to their credit, haven't stopped singing. Their team is being outplayed at the minute but they're as noisy as ever. We said there was big pressure on the Poles before kickoff and that's really telling at the moment.

Fifteen minutes until the break and Poland, at the moment, will be desperate for it. They're not under immediate danger but you get the impression that Slovakia will get more dangerous as the half grows.

Poland striker Mariusz Stepinski is cutting a frustrating figure at the moment. He has chased a lot of long balls and lost causes so far in this 34 minutes but to no avail. It's been route-one from Poland for the most part but Slovakia are dealing with the long-ball tactic pretty comfrotably.

This is great play from Slovakia's Stanislav Lobotka, who teases a couple of Polish defenders before dropping a fantastic ball into the hosts' box, but Jaroslaw Jach's crucial header denies Rusnak a free header from five yards out. Good defending. Slovakia asking questions.

There'll be plenty of scouts at this competition, and one man who has certainly caught the eye is Jaroslav Mihalik. All the Slovakian lads have looked pretty decent, but he looks a cut above the rest.

Poland get lucky and win a free kick which will relieve the pressure that Slovakia have been applying. Make no mistake, the hosts are second best.

Shot! We haven't had many shots in this one, and if the future ones are like this then they need no bother going for goal as Linetti blasts well over the bar from about 25 yards. Row-Z and Jim.

Good first half which has yielded two goals. Slovakia well on top for most of the first 45, but the visitors had to come from behind when Patryk Lipski headed home within a minute of kickoff. But Slovakia responded well - really well, in fact - and found a decent equaliser through Martin Valjent.

Restart! Right so we're back underway. Slovakia, by far the better side in that first half, kick us off once again and can they go on to spoil the host nations' curtain raiser? At the moment they'll certainly fancy their chances. Poland need improvement.

Chance! We said Poland needed to improve and this is certainly a promising start. Stepinski accelerates away from Slovakia's back four following an easy flick-on from a team-mate, but he fluffs a one-on-one with Chovan.

Lipsky drives a low ball across the face of goal and somehow there's no white shirt there to tap home. It's a really good start to the second half by Poland. Slovakia look a bit rattled early on.

The visitors need to find a way of getting Mihalik back into the game. He ran the show for Slovakia in the first half but he's barely had a kick since the restart. He can make things happen, but not without the ball.

Sub: Kaputska, of Leicester City, does that universally-known 'bring a sub on for me' gesture toward the bench and he goes off, but remains to be seen who came on.

Actually, scrap that. Kaputska is still on as he tries to run it off. He did temporarily leave the field and head to the dugout, but perhaps he just needed to receive a message or something. Who knows.

Really good header from Milian Skriniar who denies Frankowski a goalscoring chance with a key intervention. Poland just starting to warm up. Bizarrely, we've seen absolutely nothing of Slovakia in this half.

The good news, if you're Slovakian, is that the Blues are slowly but surely starting to come into it now. They're 20 minutes late in this half, but thankfully for them it's still 1-1 and they'll feel somewhat optimistic about an upset. If their final 25 minutes is as strong as it was in the first half then Poland could struggle to leave here with a point.

Where did Poland get their goalkeeper? Wrabel is known as the Polish Neuer in a nickname which has to have come from one of Wrabel's family members. He's useless. He fumbled a routine shot in the first half and now he horribly misjudges the flight of the ball, but he gets away with it.

Shot! Moneta screws well wide with his left foot from outside the box. It's a good game, this. It could go either way. You wouldn't put the mortgage on a draw.

Fifteen minutes to go and this one remains on a knife edge. It's a ding-dong battle, if we want to nick a tired phrase, and it's very difficult to call. I think Slovakia might nick it though. They look a lot better at the back than Poland do, and I think the hosts' defence - or keeper, who is horrible - could concede one more big chance before the night is out.

Chance! Oh my word it should be 2-1 to the host nation, ladies and gents. The ball falls nicely for Linetti from about eight yards out, but he thrashes wide of Chovan's post and shouts something in Polish - presumably a curse word. He knows it was a big chance. Polish tails are up.

What did we tell you? Safranko leads a swift counter-attack and ultimately rolls the ball past Wrabel. We said we fancied Slovakia to get one more goalscoring chance and they've taken it with aplomb....but don't rule out Poland yet.

Save!!! Sorry but what a save. Different class. Chovan just might have preserved three points for Slovakia as he leaps to his far post to tip a Jach header off the crossbar. It looked to be sailing into the top corner but Chovan had other ideas. Top drawer.

Brilliant defending from Valjent who heads off his own line. Poland applying the pressure now ahead of the last five minutes.

That's that, my friends. Safranko's goal is enough to down Poland as the host nation crash to a 2-1 defeat. Cheers for joining us and we'll see you next time.