Taking to the court for France: 31-year-old Nikola Karabatic and his younger brother, 27-year-old Luka.

Taking to the court for Poland: 36-year-old Bartosz Jurecki and his younger brother, 31-year-old Michal Jurecki.

Communication between Luka and Nikola often works without words. They not only play together in the national team, but since the beginning of the 2015/16 also at PSG Handball in France.

In the early days of their career Bartosz and Michal played together in Poland at Koscian and Glogow. Then their ways parted, both played in Germany, but for different clubs in the Bundesliga. In 2010 Michal joined Polish champions Kielce. After having played at SC Magdeburg for almost 10 years, Bartosz returned home and joined Glogow again in the summer of 2015.

It is not so long ago that Luka and Nikola faced the two Polish brothers. It was at the EHF EURO 2014 when France beat Poland 28:27 in the preliminary round. Back then Nikola's performance - goalwise - outdid the Polish brothers altogether. His eight goals compared...

... to the three that Bartosz and the two that Michal added to Poland's tally. However, the story at TAURON Arena on 19 January is bound to be a different one.

Not only will Poland be supported by the vast majority of the 15,000, the team will also take its confidence out of the fact that they left the court victorious in both games they played despite struggling at times. The 29:28 opening win against Serbia was followed by a 24:23 win against FYR Macedonia on 17 January.

Also for Nikola and Luka there is little to worry about to date. 10 really strong minutes at the end were enough to bring down FYR Macedonia 30:23 in the opener, while they fully dominated the second game against Serbia, winning 36:26 in the end.

The head-to-head statistics, maybe much to Michal's dismay, do not speak in Poland's favour. Their last victory in a competitive match against France dates back to 1994; of all four EHF EURO encounters, France won all four.

However, there is nothing that says that Poland do not have the abilities to make France stumble. And only after 60 minutes have been played, the question which team leaves the court victorious will be answered.

But what is for certain is that Michal Jurecki and his brother Bartosz will do everything in their power to lead Poland to victory, ...

... while Nikola and his brother will do everything to prevent this. The last words in this will be spoken on 19 January at 20:30 hrs in Krakow's TAURON Arena.