Matty Cash is living his best life with Poland after reaching the World Cup round of 16 – and said to bring Kylian Mbappe.
The Aston Villa full-back is watching the Poles in Qatar and has faced one superstar before in Lionel Messi and now another is next.
Poland will meet France in their Round of 16 tie on Sunday in the country’s first knockout tie since 1986 after taking second place in Group C qualification on Wednesday night.
But the Slough-born star – who pledged international allegiance to Poland in 2021 – admitted he was relishing a huge test of his own abilities.
Speaking to White and Jordan, he said: “It’s obviously surreal [getting through]it’s an amazing time for everyone to really make history.
“It’s been around 30 years since the country last qualified for a World Cup, so it was an amazing day for everyone yesterday and I’m really looking forward to facing Mbappe!”
Poland’s 2-0 loss to Argentina on Wednesday night was still enough to qualify them for the next round, beating second-placed Mexico on goal difference.
Cash said he wasn’t sure what happened in his country’s last group stage encounter, but said the Argentines dominated thanks to the presence of players like Messi at their sides.
As soon as Messi’s name was mentioned, host Jim White asked him to explain what it was like to come up against him.
And Cash revealed a special moment with the footballing icon which was engineered by his Villa team-mate and Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
“I tell you that the best thing about it is that at the end of the match, Emiliano Martínez approached me and he said to me ‘Cashy, I have a present for you'”, a he declared.
“And I was like, ‘what could this be?’ He said follow me into the tunnel, so I went into the tunnel with him and he went into the locker room, he said “wait there”.
“Then he came out with Messi’s shirt for me. It was amazing, it doesn’t get better than that.
“No, seeing him up close in real life I think he walked past me at half-time and I was like ‘woah, that’s Messi’.”
Poland’s knockout tie against the reigning world champions kicks off at 3pm GMT at Al Thumama Stadium, which you can listen to live on talkSPORT.
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