While many international sides will trudge back into qualifiers for the 2016 European Championships still suffering from a World Cup hangover, Gibraltar's players are preparing for the biggest game of their careers to date.

The tiny British Overseas Territory, home to just 30,000 people, face a Poland side spearheaded by Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski in their first ever competitive international on Sunday.

Years of campaigning to become a UEFA member was finally rewarded in May 2013 thanks to the Court of Arbitration for Sport despite complaints from neighbours Spain due to the ongoing political row over the sovereignty of Gibraltar.

Plans for an 8,000 capacity new stadium are already in place, but for the meantime with the possibility of games being played on Spanish soil a political no-go, their adopted home for the immediate qualification campaign will be the Estadio Algarve in Faro, Portugal.

That was where they held the top-50 world ranked Slovakia 0-0 in their first match since being welcomed into the UEFA structure in November.

Since then coach Allen Bula has seen a mixture of results and performances from his mainly amateur squad.

A 4-1 defeat to the Faroe Islands in March was a sign of how difficult they may find it to compete in a group also comprising world champions Germany, Scotland, Republic of Ireland and Georgia.

However, they scored their first full international win with a 1-0 success over Malta in their last outing in June.

Preston North End's Scott Wiseman and Liam Walker, who plies his trade with Israeli Premier League club Bnei Yehuda, are the only full-time professionals left in Bula's squad following the retirement of former Stoke City defender Danny Higginbotham at the end of last season.

Indeed 16 of the 21-man squad to face Poland play in the local Gibraltan league, while midfielder Aaron Payas and striker Anthony Hernandez are currently without a club.

"I'm looking at the long-term. I need the right balance and the right players to give us more professionalism on and off the field, and help our local players who have been there for quite a lot of years," said Bula.

However, despite their paucity of resources, Bula has high expectations that his men can shock some of the more established nations in the group over the next year.

"We want to have a dignified run through the qualifiers, to give a good account of ourselves against Germany in particular, and also perhaps try to finish fourth or fifth within the group. That would be a tremendous achievement."