The Russian national team played the first game of the final part of the European Football Championship on the opening day of this tournament. The match with the Czech national team began in Wroclaw, Poland, three hours after the official opening of Euro 2012. It was watched by almost 41 thousand spectators at the Meiski stadium and millions of fans on TV screens at home, in bars and fan zones.
During the first ten minutes of the meeting, the Czech players were more active than the Russians - they held the ball longer and immediately began pressing when they lost the ball. At the 12th minute, our players got the right to a corner, which did not lead to a scoring chance, but became a mark in the chronology, after which a certain playing advantage of the Russian national team was indicated. And the key episode in this half, which happened a few minutes later. First, Alan Dzagoev intercepted the ball almost in the center of the field, outplaying two Czech players, and sent it to the right flank of our attack. This was followed by an accurate pass to Alexander Kerzhakov, who shot on goal, but hit the post, and Dzagoev, who was again in the right place, sent the ball into the net. Having conceded a goal, the Czech players were forced to attack more, which created free zones in their defense. In the 25th minute, the Russians took advantage of this - Roman Shirokov connected Andrei Arshavin to the attack, who sent the ball into the line of attack, Kerzhakov. He could not reach the ball, but Shirokov did it perfectly, having already moved to the shock position - the score was 2: 0. So he remained until the break in the match.
The second one there began with an exchange of attacks - the Czechs were driven forward by the need to recoup, and our players did not give up the opportunities that appeared in this connection. But alas, one of the Russians' attacks was interrupted by the rivals so successfully that a long-range pass brought Vaclav Pilarzh out almost face to face with our goalkeeper. The Czech realized the moment 100% and the score became not so comfortable for the Russian national team - 2: 1. The goal inspired the opponents, and the Russians needed to make a lot of efforts to extinguish their activity in the attack. By the middle of the half, they managed to do this, besides, the players of both teams began to get tired of active actions. Both coaches tried to freshen up the attack by making substitutions after 73 minutes and then releasing one more player at 85 minutes. In our team, Dick Advocaat first replaced Kerzhakov with Roman Pavlyuchenko, and then Dzagoev with Alexander Kokorin. But before this replacement, Dzagoev managed to distinguish himself again - after an unsuccessful pass by Sergei Ignashevich, the ball bounced from the Czech defender to Pavlyuchenko, who instantly forwarded it to Alan, who struck hard and accurately. After just 3 minutes, Pavlyuchenko scored himself, having received a pass from Arshavin and outplaying the Czech defender. The first match of the Russian national team at Euro 2012 ended with a score of 4: 1, strengthening the fans' hopes for a successful performance of the national team at this tournament.
