Euro 2012: Poland 1-1 Greece – Goals, Red Cards & A Penalty Miss As Euro Opener Explodes Into Life (Photos & Highlights)

Alan Duffy

8th, June 2012

13 Comments

By Alan Duffy

With both sides neither scoring many or conceding a lot in the run up to the tournament, you could have been forgiven for not expecting too much in the way of drama as co-hosts Poland faced Greece in the Euro 2012 (Group A) opener. But how wrong you’d have been you big eejit! Instead the game had everything!

Poland dominated the first half, with the Dortmund trio of Robert Lewandowski, Łukasz Piszczek and national team captain Jakub Błaszczykowski runnin’ tings. In-demand hitman Lewandowasi opened the scoring on 17 minutes after Greek ‘keeper Kostas Chalkias had gone walkabout in the box. Referee Carlos Velasco Carballo then proceeded to have a howler of his own, sending off Sokratis Papastathopoulos for two very very very soft fouls.

However, after the break it was Polish goalie Wojciech Szczesny’s turn to bugger it up, failing to deal with a right-wing cross, with Greek sub Dimitris Salpingidis firing home. The Arsenal ‘keeper’s day then went from bad to worse when he tripped the impressive Salpingidis in the box, thus receiving his marching orders. However, Greek legend Giorgos Karagounis saw his resulting spot- kick saved by sub ‘keeper Przemyslaw Tyton. The drama!

Greece then pushed for the winner as the Poles failed to rediscover their first-half mojo, but ultimately the game would end in a 1-1 draw. Phew!

While both goalkeepers and the ref had poor games, even they couldn’t match BBC pundit Mark Bright’s appalling commentary. Bring in Fearne Cotton to replace him, I say.

Photos…

Highlights…

Photos: PA

Posted in Euro 2012, Videos

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13 Comments

  1. Dave says:

    I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s annoyed by the commentary. Another annoyance is the abundance of super slow mo replays of precisely nothing in the middle of play!

  2. Kate says:

    Lol I have heard that Mark Bright’s commentary was nothing short of awful. I am in the States, so its all through espn, and I was pleasantly suprised to see Michael Ballack doing the half time reports with an ever annoying Alexi Lalas (some ex Yankee player). Over here we have Ian Darke and Macca, who are truly wonderful commentators. Ian and Macca have a bit of a cult following over here, the American footy fans love em, and so they should!

  3. Anonymous says:

    Kate is right. I’m an American who is a fan of both Arsenal and Chelsea and I love Ian Darke and McManaman

  4. Scotspur says:

    Looking back it was a fairly eventful match, unfortunately it felt drab thanks to a silent stadium and mark bright sounding like he was commentating the afternoon chess match at a retirement home

  5. theirishembassy says:

    we got jason devos and nigel reed up here, fantastic pair that cover a lot of MLS games.

  6. Rob says:

    Mark Bright????? that guy can’t keep his mouth shut.
    The first red card was shocking, neither of the incidents were even fouls.

  7. Jarren says:

    @Kate & Anonymous (comment 3):

    McManaman? The most annoying commentator on TV.

    I have no idea how yous think he’s good.

    Talks a lot of clichéd shite along with fawning praise of top players.

    Plus (and I have absolutely no problem with the scouse accent in general), his voice irritates the tits off me.

  8. Ubietz888 says:

    Typical Spanish soft cock refereeing.

    Greece should have stolen that game. Poland need a win against Russia but don’t see it happening.

    Russia and Greece to progress.

  9. farmanian96 says:

    sokratis red card was crazy!!! the spanish ref was absolutely shite!!!

  10. Enforcer says:

    You can’t be a fan of two teams. Pick one.

  11. mr mofongo says:

    statistically, the ref sends off players in every second match in la liga. he is known for being harsh. the players knew it beforehand and so did the coaches. you have to be more careful.

    also, the slow-mos are courtesy of the polish and ukrainian teams sending out the images to the rest of the world. there’s not much the local tv stations can do about them

  12. Graham says:

    @ Jarren, completely agreed about Macca. Can be very whiny at times, disingenuous.. but the pool of good American footy announcers is (you guessed it) fairly thin.

    That being said, I’d give the nod to Macca over Bright anyday.

  13. Wojtek says:

    Talking about commentary here is a sample from polish radio:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tS2K1uLFf4 (at 0:20)

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