Russia Run Riot

Alan Dzagoev, Scorer of two goals against Czech Republic (Photo: Wikipedia)

Group A:
Russia vs Czech Republic (4:1)
Municipal Stadium, Wroclaw.

Closer to Prague than Warsaw, this is almost like playing at home for the Czech Republic.

The Czechs might have made the more confident start but Tomas Rosicky was soon looking around to see what had gone wrong when they were two goals down in just over twenty minutes.

 Russia 1 – Czech Republic 0
With just fifteen minutes on the clock, Petr Cech was completely in the wrong position when Kerzhakov headed a Zyryanov cross onto the post. As Cech ran back across his line to cover, Alan Dzagoev was on hand to fire in the rebound; right back to where the Chelsea helmet was standing earlier.

Russia 2 – Czech Republic 0
Petr Cech hesitated again when Andrei Arshavin’s pass split the Czech defence and Roman Shirokov slipped in to make it all look like knight takes bishop.

Half-time: Russia 2 – Czech Republic 0

Just when the game seemed to have fizzed out, the Czech’s added a little fizz to the mix.

Russia 2 – Czech Republic 1
The Russian defence were split with a perfectly threaded through ball to Vaclav Pilar, who kept his composure to round Vyacheslav Malafeev.

The reserve keeper hadn’t really had much to do until then and might have been a little stiff with all the standing around.

Russia 3 – Czech Republic 1
Alan Dzagoev’s second goal of the night as good as sealed the win for Russia, with twelve minutes left to play, thanks to a clever pass from substitute Roman Pavlyuchenko.

Russia 4 – Czech Republic 1
Roman Pavlyuchenko then finished the Czechs off two minutes later.

A sad, bad day for Petr Cech.

Final Score: Russia 4 – Czech Republic 1

So at the end of Day One, Russia top Group A while Czech Republic are left with a Mount Athos to climb and can’t affors to slip up against Greece.

Of course the Czechs could win their next two games. But will they?

Teams

16-Vyacheslav Malafeev; 4-Sergei Ignashevich, 12-Alexei Berezutsky, 5-Yuri Zhirkov, 2-Alexander Anyukov; 7-Igor Denisov, 8-Konstantin Zyryanov, 6-Roman Shirokov; 10-Andrei Arshavin, 11-Alexander Kerzhakov, 17-Alan Dzagoev.

1-Petr Cech; 6-Tomas Sivok, 5-Roman Hubnik, 3-Michal Kadlec, 2-Theodor Gebre Selassie; 19-Petr Jiracek, 13-Jaroslav Plasil, 14-Vaclav Pilar, 9-Jan Rezek; 15-Milan Baros, 10-Tomas Rosicky.

Related articles

• Russia Vs. Czech Republic, 2012 UEFA European Championships: Russians Try To Duplicate 2008 Success (sbnation.com)

Czech Republic at Euro 2012

Czech Republic

Czech Republic Team Hotel – Monopol Hotel, Wroclaw.

Michal Kadlec (Photo: Wikipedia)

Goalkeepers:
1-Petr Cech (Chelsea), 16-Jan Lastuvka (Dnipro), 23-Jaroslav Drobny (Hamburg).

Defenders:
2-Theo Gebre Selassie (Slovan Liberec), 3-Michal Kadlec (Bayer Leverkusen),4- Marek Suchy (Spartak Moscow), 5-Roman Hubnik (Hertha Berlin), 6-Tomas Sivok (Besiktas), 8-David Limbersky (Viktoria Plzen), 12-Frantisek Rajtoral (Viktoria Plzen).

Midfielders:
9-Jan Rezek (Anorthosis Famagusta), 10-Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal), 11-Milan Petrzela (Viktoria Plzen), 13-Jaroslav Plasil (Bordeaux), 14-Vaclav Pilar (Viktoria Plzen), 17-Tomas Hubschman (Shakhtar Donetsk), 18-Daniel Kolar (Viktoria Plzen), 19-Petr Jiracek (Wolfsburg), 22-Vladimir Darida (Viktoria Plzen).

Forwards:
7-Tomas Necid (CSKA Moscow), 15-Milan Baros (Galatasaray), 20-Tomas Pekhart (Nürnberg), 21-David Lafata (Jablonec).

Czech Republic Training Camp:
Municipal Stadium Oporowska (Wroclaw).

Czech Republic’s Group Matches – Group A

Friday, 8th June 2012
Russia vs Czech Republic (20.45) – Municipal Stadium, Wroclaw.

Tuesday, 12th June 2012
Greece vs Czech Republic (18.00) – Municipal Stadium, Wroclaw.

Saturday, 16th June 2012
Czech Republic vs Poland (20.45) – Municipal Stadium, Wroclaw.

Related articles

• Rosicky makes Czech cut (skysports.com)