Thread: Euro 2012 @ Desirulez

In the opening match of Euro 2012 Greeks and Poles 1-1

Poland and Greece played out a thrilling 1-1 draw that included two red cards and a penalty in the opening game of Euro 2012 at the National Stadium in Warsaw.

Franciszek Smuda's men dominated proceedings in the first half and deservedly took the lead through Robert Lewandowski. Just before half-time, Sokratis Papastathopoulos was sent off for a second bookable offence, leaving Greece with an uphill task to overturn their deficit




Fernando Santos introduced Dimitris Salpingidis after the break and the PAOK man made an instant impact, netting the equaliser shortly after the restart. The substitute later won a penalty after he was fouled by Wojciech Szczesny, who was sent off for the offence, but captain Giorgos Karagounis missed from the spot.

Ultimately, the two sides had to settle for a draw in game which offered plenty of excitement from start to finish.



Both teams employed a cautious approach in the beginning of the match, but it was Poland, spurred on by their vocal fans, who created the first chance. A cross from the right by Lukasz Piszczek caught the Greek defence by surprise, but Lewandowski failed to connect with pass.

The ball ended up in the path of Rafal Murawski, who powered a shot at goal from outside the box, but his finish was palmed over the bar by goalkeeper Kostas Chalkias. Greece's reply came in the 12th minute when Theofanis Gekas sent a header wide of the left post from inside the box with the Polish defence beaten.

Russia swept to a 4-1 win over the Czech Republic with a slick counter-attacking display and deadly finishing on Friday to take control of what was tipped to be a tight Euro 2012 Group A.
Alan Dzagoev scored either side of a dinked effort from Roman Shirokov before substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko struck a brilliant fourth to sink their dazed opponents.




The Czechs tried their best to fight back in the second half, with Vaclav Pilar making it 2-1 just after the break, but Russia could have won by even more goals as they stamped their credentials on the tournament as possible title contenders.
With captain Tomas Rosicky and forward Milan Baros returning for the Czechs after injury, they controlled the game early on in chilly, damp conditions but were undone by sloppy defending.
Russia forward Dzagoev netted the first goal in the 15th minute against the run of play when he coolly slotted home after Alexander Kerzhakov's header had rebounded off the post.
A defence-splitting pass by Russia captain Andrei Arshavin then allowed an unmarked Shirokov to cleverly clip the ball over goalkeeper Petr Cech in the 24th minute.
The Czechs looked exposed on the left side of defence where attack-minded Michal Kadlec had switched to his preferred role from a central position in recent warm-up matches.
The Czechs looked lively in the second half and cut Russia's lead in the 52nd minute when Pilar latched on to a through ball from Jaroslav Plasil and slotted home after rounding the keeper.

It took a long time coming but there was a sense of inevitability that Germany would eventually wear Portugal down. Their slow, methodical approach had failed to deliver reward and Mario Gomez was close to being withdrawn when one more patient build-up yielded a precious goal for the Bayern Munich striker and the breakthrough Germany so badly needed. Miroslav Klose, who was ready to replace Gomez, returned to the bench and Germany's Euro 2012 campaign was up and running.

It was a superb header from Gomez at a point when Germany appeared to be running out of ideas against a Portugal team that waited far too long to play with ambition. Chances came and went for Portugal in the closing 10 minutes as the substitute Silvestre Varela shot straight at Manuel Neuer with only the Germany goalkeeper to beat while Nani, whose floated cross had clipped the top of the crossbar moments earlier, saw his stabbed effort from close-range blocked by Holger Badstuber.

Germany, however, deserved victory on the balance of play and will face Holland in Kharkiv on Wednesday knowing that another three points could secure their place in the quarter-finals and, depending on the result between Portugal and Denmark in Lviv, eliminate their great rivals from the competition at the same time.

Two days before England face France in their opening game of Euro 2102, Roy Hodgson has explained his reasons for picking Martin Kelly ahead of Rio Ferdinand for his squad after a fractured jaw ruled Chelsea's Gary Cahill out of the tournament.

The England manager, who came in for severe criticism for choosing the inexperienced Kelly, told ITV that Ferdinand would only have received a call-up if he was going to be in the starting 11 and that he would not call upon a player of the Manchester United defender's stature just to be a member of the squad.

"Rio Ferdinand for me is not a player that you call up as a substitute, or to cover for the players that you have," Hodgson said. "We turned to Martin Kelly because I knew he was going to be someone who would be very useful to us. He's very happy to be here knowing that his chances of playing a big part in the tournament are quite small. You don't turn to people like Rio Ferdinand for that."

After being left out of the squad, Ferdinand has accepted that his international career may be over. "You would have to say it might be over with England for me," said the 33-year-old. "If I'm not getting picked now, especially when people are out injured, then it's unlikely I will be picked again."

Holland had 28 attempts on goal and fluffed a lot of them - with Van Persie guilty on multiple occasions.
But the Dutch were left fuming at the officials as well as themselves after a hand-ball by Lars Jacobsen went unpunished with just a minute remaining.
Jacobsen took the ball away from Klass Jan-Huntelaar with the goal at the striker’s mercy, but referee Damir Skomina said no penalty and the chance of a draw vanished.


So it was the Danes who struck the first blow in Group B - tagged the ‘Group of Death’ because it also includes Portugal and Germany.
These four teams are all among the world’s top 10 according to Fifa’s current rankings. Germany are at No 3, the Dutch at No 4, Denmark at No 8 and Portugal at No 10.
Yet despite the star names on display in Ukraine’s second biggest city - Kharkiv has a population of almost 1.5million - there were large numbers of empty seats in an arena that holds 39,000 people.
Holland now go into their next game against Germany in the same venue on Wednesday badly in need of victory.

When will it end for Fernando Torres? The £50million striker thought he had endured a career low when left on the bench as Chelsea battled their way to the Champions League title in May, but at least he departed with a winner’s medal.
On Sunday, having again been left out as Spain preferred to play without a centre forward, he was brought on for what turned out to be another gruelling 15 minutes of fame.
Torres was presented with three chances in that period as Spain pressed for a winner that would have been harsh on Italy. Three times he was denied, on each occasion by himself rather than an Italian boot. At night he must stare at the ceiling and wonder about the certainty he once possessed.












A different Italy would have funnelled backwards after that and chiselled out a point. But Prandelli has tried to encourage a more expansive style and the match opened up. Spain may have thought they were about to dominate but it was Di Natale who volleyed wide from a great cross by Sebastian Giovinco.
It was then that Torres’s night began. It ended with him traipsing off, surely concerned that he will not be picked to face the Republic of Ireland here on Thursday.

And this was supposed to be the easy one. The Republic of Ireland will probably need victories over Spain and Italy to reach the quarter-finals - and a potential meeting with England - after their Euro 2012 campaign began with a disastrous defeat by Croatia.
Giovanni Trapattoni’s team were thrashed in the lashing rain in Poland, conceding three goals in a tournament match for the first time in their history.
The Republic manager still insisted his team can qualify. He said: ‘We have to believe because of what we have done until now. We met a strong technical side in Croatia but every game in this Euro could be a surprise and we have to believe this.’


This was as close to a humiliation as Trapattoni and his players could have feared in their worst Euro nightmares.
From the third minute, when Mario Mandzukic headed Croatia in front, Ireland never recovered, despite the brief spell of hope brought about by Sean St Ledger’s equaliser in the 19th minute.
Ireland conceded again just two minutes before half-time when Nikica Jelavic slipped the ball over Shay Given. The Everton striker appeared in an offside position before scoring his side’s second and, despite long and loud protests from the Ireland manager and his players, Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers and his officials seemed confident they had got the decision right.
The last forward touch, after Luka Modric’s shot had flown through a sea of players, was off Stephen Ward’s boot.
‘The player was offside,’ said an unhappy Trapattoni afterwards. ‘I have seen the goal again and it was clearly offside. When the ball came from Modric he was two metres offside. The first goal was our mistake but the second was not and I cannot speak about the referee.’

Andriy Shevchenko may have spent three years in the Barclays Premier League giving a passable impression of a man with his boots on the wrong feet but on Monday night one of football’s most acclaimed centre forwards provided Euro 2012 with its most wonderful cameo performance so far.
Chelsea fans will never remember the former Milan striker fondly and it’s hard to blame them. During his time at Stamford Bridge he scored only nine league goals and it looked for all the world as though the glory years of the 2004 Ballon D’Or winner were behind him.
But great players don’t forget how to play and Shevchenko’s two goals last night brought joy to the co-hosts that few outside this country will understand. Perhaps he also did something to repair a reputation tarnished a little by the barren years of his recent past.






Seven minutes later a Ukraine corner arrived at the near post and once again Shevchenko had read the play better than anybody, giving him a yard of space to deliver another perfect header down and in at the near corner.
Here in the Olympic Stadium, 50,000 Ukrainians struggled to believe what they were seeing. Their team had suffered some humbling defeats in the run-up to hosting this event. They went into last night’s game fielding their fourth-choice keeper after Blokhin lost two to injury and another to a doping offence.










The striker, it should be noted, scored twice as many goals in the Premier League as Shevchenko during his three years in England with Bolton.
But playing at this exalted level tends to separate the great from the merely adequate. As Shevchenko and Blokhin — two immortals of Eastern European football — embraced on the touchline at full time it was hard not to feel just a little piece of their joy.