More Euro 2012 News
Every team has now played, trying to excel and grasp a precious place in the knockout stages, but the next matches they will play are crucial and will map out who will make it through. Starting with Group A.
Czech Republic 2 - 1 Greece (Group A)
The Czech's were looking for a win to turn around the disaster that was their performance against Russia last week. However if they were ever going to grab points the best bet would be underdogs Greece who's display in their first match was as bad as theirs, despite the Greeks taking a point.
Things couldn't have got off to a better start for the Czech's, 2 goals up inside 6 minutes Jiracek and Pilar meant the match was set to be a whitewash. They played with confidence stringing together impressive passing while dominating possession. Personally i expected them to score even more but Greece grew throughout the match and managed to hold themselves together for the rest of the half. However in terms of attacking they remained dismal. Samuras who has truly flopped so far had no impact and that carried on as the second half began.
However the match changed completely in the '53rd minute after a seamlessly harmless shot from the Greeks slipped past Petr Cech's gloves to fall straight into the feet of Gekas, a true howler that Gekas easily capitalised upon and gave Greece a glimmer of hope.
The match carried on with the Czech's playing more defensively to keep the lead, a situation they should never allowed to happen. But with the Greek's not finding any more luck the match remained 2-1 giving Czech Republic a chance of qualifying if they can beat Poland later on in the week.
Russia 1 - 1 Poland (Group A)
Russia would want to seal a place in the knockout stages by beating Poland despite them being in their home country, the grudge match led to violence that sweeped the city but for more on that read Senor Notica's informative article.
So the match went underway and Russia looked strong taking control while Poland sat back. Lewandowski carried on to give the hosts hope of goals with some strong shots, but it was Russia who took the lead 8 minutes before half time with youngster Dzagoev slotting home a good goal to silence the country.
However the Polish looked strong as they went into the second half with a strong attacking attitude, Russia looked shakey and it became clear that if the Poles pushed they might be able to take a result from the match, that they really did need. Then it happened for them, and nobody deserved the aclaim of scoring for the Polish than Blaszczycowski who is a Polish icon after his harsh growing up, seeing his father murder his mother. But it was him who scored a perfectly hit shot from outside the area curving straight into the corner that set the stadium alight and gave Poland the point they so desperately needed to stay in the competition they spent to long preparing for. That is how it ended 1-1 with a great game that was probably the most exciting of the tournament so far.
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