Group A

Ten-man Greece came from behind to earn a draw against co hosts Poland in the opening match of Euro 2012. Lewandowski met a swift cross from Blaszczykowski to beat the indecisive Chalkias with a downward header for the opener in the 17th minute and when Papastathopoulos was harshly dismissed for 2 soft yellow cards a minute before the break the 2nd half seemed an uphill struggle for Greece, but the Greeks came out with determination and within 6 minutes levelled the score when Szczesny failed to connect with a cross and Salpingidis fired in the loose ball. In the 68th minute got on the end of a long ball into the box and was tripped by Szczesny who was shown the red card. To the huge relief of the home crowd substitute keeper Tyton the spot kick from Karagounis and the points were shared.
(Poland 1 Greece 1)

Alan Dzagoev scored twice as Russia hammered the Czech Republic 4-1 on the first day of the tournament. With a quarter of an hour gone Kerzhakov's header back across goal came off the post and Dzagoev riffled the ball past Cech, and 9 minutes later Shirokov dinked a through ball over the Czech keeper to make it two. In the 52nd minute Pilar ran onto a through ball and rounded the keeper to reduce the deficit, but Russia regained their 2 goal cushion in the 79th minute when Dzagoev smashed the ball past Cech from just inside the box and 3 minutes later Pavlyuchenko put the icing on the cake when he turned the Czech defenders inside out before thumping in the forth.
(Russia 4 Czech Republic 1)