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Day
one of Euro 2012 was packed full with entertainment, with Poland throwing away
first half dominance to draw with Greece, and Russia powering past Czech
Republic in
what was a cracking start to Group A, a group which so many predicted to be
boring and lifeless.
Russia’s Alan ‘Player To Watch’ Dzagoev was the headline grabber, scoring with two cracking finishes against Czech Republic. He did miss a sitter at one point and was outshone by the superb Andrei Arshavin and the dominant Zenit-based midfield, but it was a fantastic start to a tournament where Dzagoev is expected to shine.
Russia
took advantage of some slack Czech defending throughout the game, exploiting
the gaps with great fluidity and speed of movement. Czech left-back Michal
Kadlec was hideous out of position a lot of the time but most pointedly for
Russia’s second goal, Roman Shirokov somehow able to stroll into the six yard
box unmarked and deftly chip over Petr Cech.
The
Chelsea goalkeeper should have come out quicker and stronger but he was left
hideously exposed by a wayward defence. When Dzagoev smashed in his second, Cech
should have stood up to the shot and Russia’s fourth should have been met with
similar composure, Roman Pavlyuchenko powering past defenders with great ease
and firing past Cech. It was a poor day for a world-class goalkeeper, but there
is the slight saving grace that it wasn’t the worst goalkeeping performance of
the day.
Wojciech
Szczesny is an ‘outspoken’ character, in that when he speaks he says something
of interest and he’s actually a character in a game packed with PR-tuned
robots. But being so verbose gives the critics an immediate stand-point and,
when mistakes are made, sympathy is hard to come by.
So
when the Arsenal goalkeeper horribly misread a cross to allow Dimitris
Salpigidis to equalise, and later conceded the penalty that Przemyslaw Tyton
brilliant saved, howls of derision could be heard from the realms of Twitter
where Szczesny has so often annoyed and overjoyed so many at the same time.
The
penalty was particularly poor decision-making from Szczesny; to come out that
quick and misread the speed of the move like that is bad enough but to then
leave a leg trailing, giving a player the open pass to go down inside the area,
is sheer lunacy.
But
it came in on a day filled with mistakes and errors from all sides. Carlos
Velasco Carballo, the referee for the Poland-Greece opener, started off well,
dealing with robust tackles in a firm and authoritative way, but then descended
into card-happy territory. The sending off of Sokratis Papastathopoulos was
incredibly harsh seen as his first booking wasn’t even a foul and his second
was a dubious yellow. Howard Webb, in the second game, was much better and wasn’t
actually forced to get his cards out of his pocket at any point.
Aside
from that, Sotiris Ninis – another player tipped to have an impressive
performance – had a stinker, summed up by his attempted backheel to a teammate
who was 5 yards away and not looking to move in that direction. Georgios
Samaras was dreadful and served little purpose out on the wing for Greece other
than to helpfully give the ball back to Poland, while Aleksandr Kerzhakov seemed
to want to hit shots wide rather than go for the easier option and just score.
But
from the ridiculous errors we went to the sublime football. Vaclav Pilar’s
rounding of the goalkeeper and superb finish from Plasil’s majestic pass was a
highlight of day one, while the tirelessly excellent Arshavin sent a warning
out to the rest of Europe: he’s back.
We
almost had an early contender for goal of the tournament too, but Theodore
Gebre Selassie’s Van Basten effort hit the side netting.
It
was the perfect tonic: the bad and the brilliant of football all wrapped up in
one day. The defending wasn’t good enough to make the game too tight but, at
the same time, it wasn’t a laughable shambles. Both games were open and all
four sides had their periods of domination – as a neutral, it really doesn’t
get much better than that.
Apart
from, of course, some controversial red cards, some goalkeeping errors and an
erratic refereeing performance that all, frankly, added to the entertainment.
No pressure, Group B.
Picture
credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/big-team/
