Euro 2012 -first two days reaction

Well, what a tournament so far, huh? The less said about my prediction for a Dutch victory the better, and although it's still early days, it will be difficult for them to advance. But on to them in a moment- the opening games deserve attention.

Poland 1-1 Greece
Well, at least I got something right in tipping Robert Lewandowski to fire. He carried his Dortmund form into the tournament and scored and impressive header. However, he was missing in he second half when the Poles needed him to wrestle back control of the game after the sending off of Szczesny handed the initiative to the Greeks. Nevertheless, what many tipped to be a boring, dull game with little quality was a superb opening to Euro 2012. Bags of chances, two sending offs, missed penalties, and horrible officiating. I don't know what the ref was on, but he let some dreadful tackles go in the first half and then sent off Sokratis Papastathopoulos(Cheers google) for nothing tackles. the first booking was for some bullshit tackle no one saw, and the second one appeared to be for being near a Polish player when he lost his footing. The Greeks were lethargic in the first half, and Poland took advantage, and another Borussia Dortmund player, midfielder Blaszczykowski was influential and the Poles should have been more than one up at the break. A reshuffle was needed for the Greeks, but i never expected Ninis to be taken off. But that's why managers are paid to make the big decisions, because his replacement Salpigidis was excellent, scoring a goal after an error from Szczesny, and then winning the penalty, for which Szczesny was rightly sent off. The Arsenal keeper almost single handedley lost the game for Poland with his stupidity on both counts. I felt sorry for Giorgos Karagounis when he missed the penalty- he had been brilliant before then, at at 35 is still a master at retaining possession and finding space. Unlike Celtic man Samaras, who I pointed out in my preview as a man who couldn't be relied upon. As pointed out on Match Of The Day, he could barely pick a pass, and surely he cant start the next game. Overall, I think a draw was a fair result in an incident packed game.

Russia 4-1 Czech Republic
Erm, I didn't expect this. As I wrote in my preview, i expected these two teams to go through the group... that seems unlikely now, as the Czechs were blown away by a Russian side inspired by Andrei Arshavin.