Russia was one of the more impressive teams from the first wave of matches at Euro 2012, posting four goals on the Czech Republic, including two by rising star Alan Dzagoev. The Russians' quest to take a giant step out of Group A and toward the knockout round gets a bit tricker on Tuesday.
Russia goes up against tournament co-host Poland (2:45 p.m., ESPN/ESPN3.com), which is in need of a victory after being held to a 1-1 draw by Greece in the opening match of the competition. The two do battle in Warsaw amid a heightened security presence following a Russian march to celebrate independence day in the face of Polish protestors.
Group A's second round of matches kicks off with Greece and the Czech Republic each looking to bounce back after disappointing openers (Noon, ESPN/ESPN3.com). With a loss, the Czechs would be eliminated from the competition before their third group match. Greece will be a bit shorthanded, with Sokratis Papastathopoulos suspended after his dubious red card in the opener and Avraam Papadopoulos out after tearing his ACL.
If you will be watching any of Tuesday's Euro 2012 action, please feel free to share any thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below. Enjoy the games.
Even the Greek anthem is kinda boring.
that was quick
Well. Didn’t see that coming. Go Czech Rep !
ooooh my! get em a body bag johnny
If I’m Greece I’m so pissed off I can’t see straight.
Your starting CB is suspended due to a ridiculous official and his replacement gives up 2 goals in 6 minutes starting the next match.
Suffice to say that the officiating killed Greece.
Um. Czechmate???
as a long time USMNT whos seen plenty of bad calls against us, its just excuses. greece cant hang
+1
We will never know if they could have hung or not. They managed to do pretty well in their first match being a man down.
It’s no surprise that the Czech scored two goals on just terrible defending by one of the CBs.
youre right, they looked decent enough game 1. my short term memory of this early beat down made me forget. crappy greece defending for sure
Yeah. That just happened.
little high by rosicky
I understand that Rosicky was looking at the ball, but hitting someone in the head with your studs when they are standing up should always be a red card. Always.
zing
Greece is shell-shocked by those early goals. If they don’t get a goal before half I think their chances of coming back diminish greatly.
on the replay rosicky turns looks at the greece player and then cleats him.. proabably a red
Yeah I’m confused how that didn’t earn him a red. He cleated another player in the head…
wow greece gets screwed again
close but it was offside, yeah?
i didnt see replay to confirm. greece lookin a bit more dangerous towards the end of the half
Definitely offside on replay. Too bad cuz I was really hoping to a Greece goal before halftime to really make this game interesting.
Today’s commentary crew infinitely better than Lalas/Ballack.
In my opinion I think in this instance a yellow is justified. The cleat to the head was clearly illegal and a foul; but it wasn’t malicious and intended. Even though Rosicky saw the Greek player I don’t think he Intended to “cleat” him. Still a yellow makes Rosicky play with more caution, justifiably.
what a p@ssy czech player. he pushes him and acts like he got punched in the nads
there we go!!
Woot. Game just got interesting.
Czech Republic center defender knocks the ball out of his own keeper’s hands right to a wide open Greek player for the goal.
Why are the commentators continuing to blame Cech for that?
(and as a lifelong Fulham supporter, it never makes me sad when the starting Chelsea keeper makes a gaffe like that).
Edit: Czech defender doesn’t actually touch the ball but runs directly at Cech as he’s trying to catch a ball with no attacking player around him.
Just a really terrible error from the CB primarily and also slightly by Cech.
On further review, it’s the Czech defender that really does the damage. Not so much Cech’s fault. Still, glad Greece got the goal; hoping this game has more twists and turns.
Official is starting to lose the game. He’s handing out yellow cards like Pez for innocuous tackles.
Yeah what was the defender doing? Just sprinting at your keeper as he’s trying to catch the ball?
It’s like he thought he was trying to score himself.
As a lifelong Chelsea fan, it makes me slightly amused because he didn’t do THAT during the Champions League.
number 7 for greece is a complaining little bitch. he just whined at his own player because he didnt fight for the ball or move when he was in the 18..
Touché.
To be fair it’s really apples and oranges comparing Fulham and Chelsea isn’t it? I WISH fulham had more prestige and funds to compete with Chelsea for champions league spots and EPL titles. Since that ain’t happening any time soon I’ll be content with Deuce making Chelsea defenders look silly In league games.
Why would the Czech’s make all of these changes at the half?
Oh, I wasn’t comparing the two squads and I certainly respect Fulham. I’m just engaging in some long-awaited gloating over the Champions League win.
I don’t know but it’s pretty clear that they were NOT a good set of subs to make. They look disjointed without Rosicky.
saw that offide mistake in real time. WTF? that was an obvious one too. Greece really could have tied it there.
A really wrong offside call kills a perfect opportunity in the box for Greece.
Oh no I wasn’t suggesting that you were comparing the two clubs. I was rather vaguely referencing the inherent west London rivalry and then commenting on the lopsided nature of the derby (with Chelsea’s clear dominance in the rivalry itself and superior achievements domestically and internationally. Contrasted with fulhams lack of achievement in anything almost). I was saying how as a fulham fan it would be awesome to be able to compete in champions league and have tone chance to play for big time trophies like that. I don’t begrudge Cech and Chelsea for it I guess. Good for them and all. But still being a fulham fan has its own romanticism, always the underdog etc., and I still like to think Fulham and Chrlsea rivalry has some meaning lol.
Greece was bad before that red card. They aren’t a good team.
How about Samaras? Is there a more frustrating offensive player. He is terrible. 7 goals in 55 international games. Watching him play it is easy to understand why. He missed an easy chance early on.
Offside by an arm.
He really stuck out at me as awful in both matches. He has some skills with the feet, when he was on the left in the last match, but is a bit too clumsy to really put it together.
I think all in all Czech Rep deserve to win this game. They were dominant in first half and got the job done in second. Greek maybe unfortunate here and there (and red card to starting CB in first game did them no favors) but based solely on what happened in THIS game, Czechs deserve the 3 points.
A Czech player shoves a Greek striker over in the box as he’s going up for a header and the Greek player gets called for a foul…
Officiating has been very suspect against Greece in this tournament.
Austerity.
never hit his head or face. touched his shoulder on the way down. great acting job, though.
i dunno. ultra slo-mo replay looks like the ball slipped through Cech’s hands before contact with the defender. although Cech could have been distracted knowing contact was coming….
If I was an Arsenal fan, I would be kind of aggravated at how well Arshavin plays for Russia. He just doesn’t seem to thrive in London.
What a tackle by the Polish defender. Flawless timing.
I noticed yesterday, but again today watching Poland/Russia. I like Casey Keller as a color guy. He has a great perspective, doesn’t stumble over his words, and adds a lot to the telecast.
ESPN’s top partnerships are top rate: Darke/Maca, Healey/Mustoe, and Rae/Keller.
This game is crackling.
Yeah. Greece launching long ball after long ball to their tired strikers really showed their creative limitations and lack of ideas. Didn’t deserve the tie or win.
1,000% agree. It’s strange when situations like that happen. But look at Rosicky and Czech Rep today. He was brilliant. You don’t see him play like that at Arsenal.
Maybe players like Arshavin, Rosicky etc just don’t fit in with their scheme. if I were Wenger id be doing whatever I could to get players like them to play like that for me.
Or maybe they just like collecting their paychecks for their club teams, and only feel driven and pride by their national squads? Who knows. Everyone is different I guess.
Quality goal from the Russians. Arshavin’s delivery was flawless and the skimming header was very sharp.
This game is a lot higher quality than the Czech-Greece match. That was a fun one to watch at times, but this is strong stuff.
I can’t stand Derek Rae. He is awful. All he does is say the player’s name who has the ball or what club team a player plays for. I wish he would just let the game speak for itself.
I think Casey Keller is fine though. I agree with your rankings, Darke and Maca are definitely the best.
More solid commentators employed by ESPN are the ones who do La Liga, Serie A, and Bundesliga games on ESPN3
This group is producing some of the more exciting games. I am just imagining how badly the USA would get spanked by either of these teams.
If we are talking about the tackle that Keller was talking about, I’d like to see the replay. It looked like the defender clipped the legs before he got the ball.