BERLIN - German playmaker Michael Ballack and Ukraine marksman Andriy Shevchenko, two of the game's greats, should take their opening bows on the 2006 World Cup stage on Wednesday, a day which could spell doom for Poland.

Ballack missed the hosts' opening 4-2 victory over Costa Rica on Friday but should be back to face Poland in Dortmund while Shevchenko would hope to pass a late fitness test and appear in Ukraine's World Cup debut against Spain in Leipzig.

Poland's hopes hang by a thread on only the sixth day of competition and, ironically, two Polish-born players could well be their executioners.

Beaten 2-0 by Ecuador on Friday, Poland know defeat at the hands of Germany would end their chances of advancing to the second round.

By a curious twist of fate, the German twin strike force of Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski were both born in Poland but moved to Germany as children.

Klose scored twice in Germany's opening match 4-2 victory over Costa Rica.

The omens do not look good for the Poles as they have not beaten Germany in 85 years of trying but, if there are crumbs of comfort, it could be in Germany's poor record against European opponents.

It is 10 years since Germany beat a European team at the World Cup or European Championship finals, their last victory coming in their 2-1 victory over the Czech Republic in the final of Euro 1996.

KNEE INJURY

Shevchenko has been nursing a knee injury but has been training with his Ukrainian team and will face Spain in the first match for both teams in Group H providing he passes a fitness test just before the game.

Spain, who are on the longest unbeaten run of the 32 finalists, not having lost in 22 games, are likely to be without captain and top scorer Raul. The striker may well sit on the bench after failing to rediscover his goal touch following a knee injury.

Tunisia and Saudi Arabia meet in an all-Arab encounter in Munich and will be the last two teams to open their World Cup finals campaign.

The Tunisians, the only one of five African nations at the finals who have taken part before, seek also to be the first to avoid defeat. Ivory Coast, Angola, Ghana and Togo all lost their opening games.

Saudi Arabia, in their fourth consecutive finals, are conscious they must do much better than their opening game in Japan four years ago when they were crushed 8-0 by Germany.

In Tuesday's matches, champions Brazil opened their campaign quietly with a 1-0 victory over Croatia in Group F in Berlin, thanks to a superb strike just before halftime from Kaka.

The 1998 champions France labored to a disappointing 0-0 draw with Switzerland in Stuttgart in Group G, their fourth successive match without a goal at World Cup finals since they won their title.

Togo, whose players have been involved in a pay dispute and whose coach walked out last week only to return the day before their first World Cup finals game, almost pulled off a surprise when they took a first half lead over South Korea thanks to Mohamed Kader Coubadja.

But they eventually lost 2-1 in Group G after their captain Jean-Paul Yaovi Abalo Dosseh was sent off in the second half, the Koreans scoring through Lee Chun-soo and substitute Ahn Jung-hwan.