Warsaw: The opening match of the Euro 2012, ended in a tie with both sides, Poland and Greece, scoring one goal against each other in the match played at National Stadium in Warsaw.
The host nation, Poland, started the match brightly, with Borussia Dortmund teammates Jakub Blaszczykowski and Lukasz Piszczek combining superbly down the right flank. Greece were unable to do much of anything about that side, with Georgios Samaras refusing to track back, and it came as no surprise at all when a cross from the right led to the opening goal.
It was Robert Lewandoski who scored, of course, with the big striker getting on the end of a Piszczek cross in the 17th minute to power a header past Kostas Chalkias. Greece’s supposedly good defending was absolutely nowhere, and their play had been utterly abject to that point. Poland’s lead was well deserved.
Greece finally began to wake up around the 40-minute mark, but before they could really get going they were cut down to ten men by a bizarre refereeing decision from the notoriously card-happy Carlos Velasco Carballo. Sokratis Papastathopoulos had done basically nothing wrong, winning a header against Lewandowski before having Rafal Murawski fall over from him, but he received a yellow card for both ‘fouls’ and off he went.
The visitors were… unhappy with that decision, and tensions mounted in stoppage time when Greece were denied a penalty after Damien Perquis handled the ball in Poland’s box. But they hadn’t played well while Poland had, and if they had any expectations of getting back into the match they were going to have to improve markedly in the second half.
However, Greece recovered from an awful first half to draw level against Poland in the opening match of Euro 2012, ultimately claiming a point after being down a man and a goal at halftime. They’ll be disappointed that they couldn’t finish off what would have been an incredible comeback in a hugely dramatic match.
It was an odd game, really – both teams will feel that they could have won fairly easily but relieved not to have lost. There might not have been that much quality on show in the opener, but it certainly was entertaining.
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