The second round of group matches begins today and already the Czech Republic could be all but out if losing their crucial encounter against 2004 winners and group outsiders before a ball was kicked in Greece, who rallied bravely having gone a goal and a man down to hosts Poland in the tournament opener on Friday.
With home advantage and the presumably more mobile side, Poland were sent off heavy favourites to beat off the Greeks and outplayed them totally throughought the first twenty minutes, with Robert Lewandoski’s opening goal being totally deserved after the hosts’ excellent exploitation of the left hand flank, which had led to three good chances already. With the visitors all at sea following a horrendous first half display it seemed like a comeback was remote and it was a matter of how many, but an improved spirit and a poor effort from Wojech Scezeny was enough to give them an equalizer and after that it’s hard to argue they weren’t just as good as Poland towards the end and they missed a penalty, while their disallowed goal – rightly but still a tight call – could easily have been allowed; Don’t forget that Giorgious Samaras also had two excellent chances from either side of goal.
The Cezch Republic have less to be optimistic about. The better starters in their game against Russia, they were soon on the back foot and ended up being soundly beaten, with only Aleksandr Kerzhakov’s wasteful finishing preventing the score from being doubled (they were fortunate not to concede a penalty before half-time as well), something empathised by the fact that Russia had 58% of possession with Jaroslav Plasil’s goal proving to be no more than a statistic in the end. On paper this task against Greece should be easier than that, and there were some plus points about the performance (Plasil, Gebre Selassie and Kadlec all looked good going forward), while Rosicky (made some openings) and Pilar (stats read; 11 of his passes in the final third and each of his four shots were on target) aren’t useless either, but Greece themselves will aim to stifle the play and also offer more going forward than people actually think. The Czechs should find this much easier than playing Russia, but that’s been reflected too heavily in the market and makes no account for how easily they were beaten in the end and also how tough a challenge Greece can be, so the value lies with the outsiders.
There’s a worry that with Sokratis Papastathopoulos serving a ban and Avram Papadopoulos ruled out after tearing his cruciate ligament, Greece could be short on defenders, but few sides have better organization to deal with such a problem. The worry could be about them going forward but Giorgious Karagounis was much improved in the second half when required to do extra work to cover for the loss of the extra man. Sotriris Ninis never got a chance to show his talent going forward, while Kostas Katsouranis combed well with Karagoinus in isolated periods.
Advice
2 pts Greece (5/2 Bet Victor)
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