Czech Republic grinded out a 2-1 win against the 2004 Champions http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Greece-c2908 in an important Group A fixture of Euro 2012 at the Municipal Stadium, and in the process lifted their chances of making it into the quarterfinals.
Even though the Greeks reduced a two-goal deficit in the opening stages of the second half, after Petr Jiracek and Vaclav Pilar struck a goal apiece inside the first six minutes, the goal from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Theofanis-Gekas-c34884 could not prevent Greece from crashing down to
the bottom of the table.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fernando-c13609 Santos’ side got off to a horrific start, as Jiracek unsettle his opponents early on by grabbing the opener in 3rd minute. Hubschman played a wonderful through pass towards a charging Jiracek just at the edge of the box, whose left-footed
shot found the back of the net after getting the nearest of touches from goalkeeper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kostas-Chalkias-c21345 .
Fresh from the early setback, the Blue-White were dealt with another blow only three minutes later, as Pilar doubled his side’s advantage by netting his second goal of the tournament.
Jose Holebas did some tidy work on the right flank before unravelling a searching low cross inside the six yards box, which somehow managed to find the feet of Pilar, who tapped the ball in for an easy finish.
Just as the fans thought that the worst had happened, Greece’s chances of making a comeback into the game were further marred by the injury of goalkeeper Chalkias, who was superseded by the reserve goalie http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michalis-Sifakis-c25449.
However, the Greeks started to play more fluently as the game progressed. Giorgos Fotakis met a decent cross from Vasilis Torosidis and netted the ball past a helpless http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Petr-Cech-c29837, only to see the assistant referee wave the flag for an off-side position. However,
the replays suggested that the decision could have gone either way and was a little too close to be certain about.
With the Czechs appearing to have put their foot off the pedal, Greece commenced the second half on a positive note. Only eight minutes from the restart, they managed to pull one goal back-thanks to a horrible goalkeeping mistake from Cech.
An innocuous cross from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 shot stopper, with the ball subsequently landing at the feet of Gekas, who netted the ball into the empty goal.
Buoyed by the goal, the Greeks launched a string of attacks in the final quarter of the game, but were denied time and again by the stubborn http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Czech-Republic-c2882 defence, who refused to let go of their advantage.
The game ended in a 2-1 win for the Czechs which brought their Euro campaign back on track, after suffering a very dissapointing 4-1 defeat in their opening match against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Russia-c2991.
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