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The Polish coach Jerzy Engel and his players have poured scorn on suggestions that they have a weak defence.

The war of words is hotting up ahead of Group D's opening game between the host nation and Poland, after the Korean press highlighted Poland's poor defensive displays in their warm up games.

"It must be a joke," said Schalke defender Thomasz Hajto.

"Korea are the team with the weak defence. We are not afraid of our rivals although we appreciate them all.

"But our team was the first one to qualify from the whole of Europe."

His team-mate Marek Kozminski agreed: "One of our defenders won the UEFA Cup [Feyenoord's Tomasz Rzasa], and other ones play for some of the biggest teams in the world.

"It's possible we are not as fast as the Korean players, but they are not as well built as us.

"We have other qualities and we will use them - so we'll see who are the best next week."

Engel preferred to take a more cautious line, however, admitting that Korea were a side the Poles knew relatively little about.

"We are watching many videotapes of all our possible opponents, including Korea," said Engel.

"Korea are a difficult team to beat and are not very well known throughout the world, so we must watch them as much as we can.

"The most important thing during the match against Korea is not to give them much free space.

"We saw what they can do in their last warm up match against France.

"And when we are at the field we must think only about the flow of the game and ignore the fact that Korea will be fiercely supported by a big crowd of people."