It's Round and It's White
Two goals in the opening six minutes from Wolfsburg duo Petr Jiracek and Vaclav Pilar ensured the Czech Republic picked up their first win of Euro 2012, despite a second half howler from Chelsea keeper Petr Cech.
The 2004 champions were made to pay for some uncharacteristically slack defending early on and despite being handed a lifeline in the 53rd minute; when Theofanis Gekas finished after a mix up in the Czech defence, they never really looked like coming away from the game with anything.
The Czech Republic started the game with immediate attacking intent following their crushing defeat on the opening day of the tournament and it took them less than 3 minutes to get the all important first goal.
Jiracek showed explosive pace to get past the Greek defence from the right and then slot home an excellent weighted pass from Hubschman.
Michal Bilek’s side continued to press straight from the restart and just three minutes later their flying start to the tie continued.
Tomas Rosicky put the pacey Gebre Selassie in the clear down the right hand side and he squared the ball to Pilar who bundled in between two Greek defenders to double the Czech Republic’s lead.
Greece’s problems worsened mid-way through the first half when their first choice keeper Kostas Chalkias had to be replaced due to injury.
And Chalkias’ replacement Michalis Sifakis was called in to action immediately as he palmed away Tomas Rosicky’s powerful long-range effort.
Greece’s first and only real chance of the first half came in the closing stages and should really have had them back in the game. A deep ball in to the box found Giorgos Fotikas at the back post who headed in to the bottom corner only to see the referee’s assistant controversially flag for offside.
The first real event of the second half however saw the Greek’s back in the game courtesy of a gift from Petr Cech. A tame effort from the Greece left hand side caused confusion between Cech and his defender and the ball squirmed straight through his hands to allow Gekas an easy tap in.
Greece brought on Olympiakos target man Kostas Mitroglou in the closing stages to try and rescue a point but they failed to provide the quality of service required to punish the Czech’s.
The result leaves Greece bottom of the group with one point, while the Czech Republic will face hosts Poland in a do or die encounter to determine who will go through to the knock out stages.
