UEFA EURO 2012 (Warsaw)

Saturday 16th June 2012

UEFA Euro 2012 Group A

Greece 1-0 Russia
Attendance: 55,614*

It was with yet more bleary eyes we headed to the capital of Poland, Warsaw, for the final round of group games. A "one for the road" at 11.30pm ended up a in 3am finish after some locals invited us for a drink. Well in keeping with the spirit of the European union it would've been churlish to refuse!

This was the only game of the schedule for which we did not have tickets but whilst waiting for our train on the outskirts of Warsaw, two locals overheard our conversation about our predicament and informed us they had some 'spares'

We were happy to obtain tickets at face value but maybe if we had held on for it bit longer we may have got a cheaper deal. The natives, obviously, were more keen on watching Poland v Czech Republic (indeed the fan park in Warsaw was full to it's 100,000 capacity) and so were practically giving away tickets, the official attendance in no way taking into account the amount of empty seats. C'est la vie, I suppose.

The National Stadium in Warsaw has a capacity of 58,145 and is built on the site of the dilapidated old 10th Anniversary Stadium. This was the ground that opened the tournament last Friday and was built with the aid of £255 Million from the government.

The stadium resembles a wicker basket decorated with a waving Polish flag, which is illuminated in the dark. A very impressive stadium.

After the trouble that proceeded the Poland v Russia game in the capital on Tuesday, which had nothing to do with football, there were police everywhere but there was still a jovial atmosphere in the city.

Prior to the game, in a brew pub we found, we were discussing the possibility of the Greeks sneaking a 1-0 win and eliminating Russia on the head-to-head. Based on the way Russia had played in their previous two games, we thought there was no chance of that scenario occurring...

If only we had put our Zloty's where our mouths were! The Greeks did an absolutely fantastic job on the Russians, securing the win they needed to progress.

Giorgos Karagounis scored the only goal, right on half time, as Greece produced a major upset to knock Russia out of Euro 2012 and take their place in the quarter-finals.

Russia dominated the game before Karagounis pounced on a defensive error to fire home. The Greeks were happy to sit back and defend as the Russians, despite all their attacking play, simply ran out of ideas. The much maligned (well by us anyway) Georgios Samras was absolutely superb for the Greeks, holding the ball up and running the channels to relieve the pressure off his defenders.

At least the result gave the natives something to cheer as they too were eliminated from the competition by the Czechs.

The only disappointing aspect of my visit to Warsaw was the limited time I had to see the city. One day I will have to return to take a proper look at this historic city. Hopefully when Legia are at home!

 

 

* This was the attendance 'flashed' on the screens at the ground. I can only assume it was based on tickets sold as there were, unsurprisingly, loads of empty seats at this game.

UEFA EURO 2012 (Wrocław)

Tuesday 12th June 2012

UEFA Euro 2012 Group A

Greece 1-2 Czech Republic

Attendance: 41,105*

The first game of a 7 day journey across Poland took place in the city of Wrocław with Greece's Group A clash with the Czech Republic. As we flew into Berlin on the Monday the day actually began in the German capital, but a 'dry' 6 hour train journey saw us reach Wrocław by early afternoon.

Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia, and today is the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, and has been part of Poland since 1945 as a result of border changes after World War 2.

Sadly the tight schedule meant there was little chance to see the sights of the city and after a couple of much needed beers at the station, where we were joined by some, who we could only assume were, Śląsk "boys" who proceeded to give us a run down of teams they don't like, it was off to the ground to join the long queue to collect our tickets

The Municipal Stadium was built for Euro 2012 and has a capacity of 44,416. The stadium is located to the west of the city and is the home of Śląsk Wrocław. It was opened in 2011 and Śląsk Wrocław beat Lechia Gdańsk 1-0,  Johan Voskamp scoring the first ever goal at the ground.

The stadium was designed to resemble a Chinese latern and it looked quite smart from the outside, but once inside it had, to me, the feel of a typical new build ground. The tickets we had were half price as they were obstructed view.

This, on the face of it, seemed odd for a brand new stadium but there are posts inside, so walking up the steps I was thinking to myself we are going to be stuck behind a bloody post. As it turned out the obstructed view was mearly a hand rail, which never affected the view at all if you leant in a little, so in fact it made the tickets a bargain!

As the Czech border is around 150km from Wrocław, there were plenty of Czech fans in the ground and it felt like a home game for them. Lots were wearing Petr Cech protection caps as a tribute to their 'keeper, but would that have been the case afterwards if his mistake had cost them the game?

After racing into a 2-0 lead inside 6 minutes, Petr Jiracek (3) bagging the opener when he converted Tomas Hubschman's defence splitting pass and Vaclav Pilar grabbing his second goal of the tournament when he bundled home from two yards out.

Greece had a goal ruled out for offside, Giorgos Fotakis's header was disallowed, but the replay seemed to show he was level. However Fanis Gekas capitalised on Cech's howler just after the break, rolling the ball into an empty net. The goal knocked the Czech's out of their rhythm but they still managed to hold on for a crucial win.



*This attendance figure is what was 'flashed' on the screens at the ground. Media channels are reporting the attendance as 35,213. The ground looked pretty full to me.