Poland

By Mitch Phillips

KLAGENFURT, June 17 (Reuters) - Poland's coach, players and supporters will have woken up on Tuesday united in their disappointment at their team's exit from Euro 2008 but none of them will have been surprised.

They left at the group stage having garnered one point and scored one goal -- and that was offside -- after three forgettable performances.

The Poles are making a habit of qualifying for major tournaments and setting off on a wave of optimism only to fail miserably once they arrive. Their coach Leo Beenhakker is still without a win at a major finals.

Beenhakker had four games with the Netherlands in the 1990 World Cup, three with Trinidad and Tobago at the 2006 World Cup and now three with Poland and never managed better than a draw.

FIGHTING CHANCE

Once the draw for the finals was announced optimism grew further as a group containing Germany, Croatia and Austria seemed to afford a fighting chance of progress.

"We had ambition to do better, of course, and that was a realistic thing because we showed in most of the qualifying matches that we can do much better, Beenhakker said after Monday's 1-0 defeat by Croatia.

"But over the three matches we were not good enough to handle this level."

Poland fans might claim everything turned on the late penalty that gave Austria a 1-1 draw in their second match but that would gloss over the shortcomings.

They never troubled Germany in their opener when they lost 2-0 and should have been 3-0 down to Austria but for some weak finishing and good goalkeeping by Artur Boruc.

They scrambled an offside goal by Roger Guerreiro but then showed their naivety by giving away the late penalty for holding in the box at a free kick, despite being given a stern warning about exactly that offence seconds earlier.

That result meant that they had to win by at least two goals against Croatia to have any chance but never looked remotely capable of doing so.

"Several important players were not in top form," Beenhakker lamented, adding that there were fitness problems too.

"We know by experience through qualification that some of the players had problems playing twice in four days," he said. "If you work every day with these players and see them after a match you can see who is ready for the next game.

"The only solution is to go back to the training pitch to make sure we are able to compete with these countries."