Austria striker Roland Linz has declared himself fit for the co-hosts’ Group B game against Poland on Thursday.

‘No problem’
Roland Linz damaged ligaments in his right ankle during Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Croatia, but speaking in the euro2008.com chatroom, the 26-year-old from SC Braga said he will be ready to face Poland and then Germany. "I was able to train with the team and there was no problem, so it will be no problem being on the pitch against Poland," he said. Roland Linz also remains confident that Austria can qualify from Group B. "We have two finals now and we’re sure we can get to the next round. We trust in ourselves and we will cause an upset. Our strength is that we are a team. Free-kicks and corners are our speciality and they could be key to getting to the quarter-finals."
Attacking intent
Poland also kicked off with a defeat, 2-0 against Germany, and Roland Linz stresses the need to make a positive start against Leo Beenhakker’s men. "We not only have to defend well, we also have to score the first goal – that would make it easy." The forward told euro2008.com that Austria will strive to "put the Polish team under pressure for 90 minutes", adding that they have put the disappointment of their weekend reverse behind them. "It was very difficult for me, and the whole team, as Croatia forced us deep into our own half throughout the first period. Of course we were disheartened but the atmosphere within the squad is very good again now." 
Dutch acclaimed
Having watched plenty of games at the finals so far, Roland Linz said that the Netherlands have caught his eye, having begun Group C with a 3-0 victory over world champions Italy. "I hope we reach the quarter-finals, and if we are not going to win the title, I think Portugal, France, Netherlands, Germany and Italy all have a chance to do so. I didn’t expect the Netherlands to be so strong until yesterday, but now they have a chance. I didn’t expect them to win."

Austria 5-1 Malta
UEFA EURO 2008™ co-hosts Austria gave their confidence a major boost as they secured their first win since November in their last pre-finals friendly.

Wait over
Austria coach Josef Hickersberger made five changes to the side that faced Nigeria on Tuesday, with Alex Manninger between the goalposts and Ronald Gercaliu, Christoph Leitgeb, Ümit Korkmaz and Erwin Hoffer all given starts further forward. And although it was only 2-1 at half-time, Austria streaked away in the second period to end a six-game wait for a victory and go into the 8 June Group B opener against Croatia in Vienna on a high.

Early goals
It soon became clear the hosts were on a mission to rack up goals and with just eight minutes gone they collected their first, René Aufhauser heading in from a set-piece. Barely three minutes later, Roland Linz doubled the lead after some nice work from Hoffer.

Malta respone
Austria kept up the pressure despite their advantage and squandered numerous good chances to register their third. In fact, it was Malta who scored next when Michael Mifsud latched on to a through-pass with four minutes remaining in the half and gave his team a lifeline against the run of play.
Crucial win
The same player then came close to equalising three minutes after the break, but the game was finally taken behind the visitors when Martin Harnik was fouled in the area during a counterattack. Roland Linz converted from the spot on 67 minutes and ten minutes later Ivica Vastic profited from a lapse in Malta’s defence to make it 4-1, before Harnik added a fifth in the final minute.
Austria lineup: Manninger, Garics, Stranzl (Prödl 84), Pogatetz (Hiden 84), Gercaliu (Markus Katzer 76), Andreas Ivanschitz, Aufhauser (Säumel 76), Leitgeb, Korkmaz (Harnik 46), Roland Linz, Hoffer (Vastic 58).

Malta lineup: Hogg (Haber 46), Caruana (Frendo 46), Said, Dimech, S.Bajada, Briffa, Pace (Mallia 86), M. Mifsud (Barbara 64), Agius, Nwoko (Fenech 46), Schembri (Azzopardi 72).

Roland Linz (born August 9, 1981 in Leoben, Styria) is an Austrian football forward who currently plays for Sporting Braga in the Portuguese SuperLiga.

He started out in the youth teams of local club DSV Leoben. Aged 16 he left for Germany to join the youth team of 1860 München, one of the two big teams located in Bavaria’s capital Munich (the other one being Bayern München). Two years later Roland Linz returned to Austria to rejoin his home team DSV Leoben, this time being featured in the professional squad, to be recruited by one of the country’s major football teams, Viennese club Austria Wien, after 2 more years. It was also in Austria’s capital where the young striker had his first big successes, winning both the championship and the Austrian Cup in 2003, as well as making his debut in the Austrian national team in 2002. For the 2004/05 season Roland Linz was transferred on loan to Austrian Bundesliga side Admira Wacker, located in the southern outskirts of Vienna, just a few kilometres away from his previous club. Aged 23 he left Austria for the second time in 2004, being lent to french club OGC Nice. However he failed to establish himself in France and returned to Austria after six months already, to play for Sturm Graz for the rest of the season. After half a year in Styria’s capital, Roland Linz was back in Vienna for his second and final season with Austria Wien, again being remarkably successful winning both the Austrian championship and cup in 2006, topping it off with earning himself the league’s top scorer crown this time.

These successes, as well as several solid appearances in the national team, and a finished contract in Vienna again led to increasing foreign interest in Austria’s probably highest rated striker of the present day.

In the summer of 2006 it was announced that Roland Linz would search his fortune in Portugal in the upcoming season, thus he was signed by Boavista FC on a three years contract, but after one season and 10 goals (making him one of the top 5 goalscorers of the league), he was bought by Sporting Braga for the 2007/08 season, transferring inside of the portuguese league and moving away just 50 km from Porto.

In the UEFA Cup of 2007/2008 season, Roland Linz scored a total of 5 goals before seeing his side eliminated against German giants SV Werder Bremen where he had been in the UEFA.COM Dream team on several actions scoring against the likes of Bayern Munich, Aris FC and Red Star Belgrade all vital games with enabled Braga to more points as they moved to the next round he also made dreeam team alongside players like Luca Toni and Andrei Arshavin.

At the current moment it is likely that Roland Linz will be a main player of the Austrian national side for the 2008 European football championship in his home country.