The result of the Russia-Poland football match left the rivals a good chance of reaching the Euro 2012 quarterfinals. But the next games did not meet the expectations of the fans and the teams that were considered favorites in their group dropped out of the tournament.
The second match at Euro 2012 was played by the Russian national team against one of the hosts of the tournament - the Polish team. The group stage meeting took place in Warsaw at the National Stadium.
The start of the match turned out to be difficult for the Russian squad. Athletes of both teams were nervous and made unforced mistakes. The hosts attacked more often, although the players of the Russian national team owned the ball more.
At the end of the first half of the meeting, Alan Dzagoev opened the scoring. On the 36th minute after the transfer of Andrey Arshavin, he scored his third goal in the tournament against his opponents. After the goal was scored, the Russians began to play less actively, yielding the initiative to the Polish footballers.
The owners of the stadium got a reason for joy in the 58th minute of the meeting. An elegant ball into the top nine of Malafeev's goal was scored by the captain of the Polish national team, Jacob Blaschikovsky. From that moment on, the game went “on a collision course”.
The emotions of the players often went beyond what was allowed. In the 60th minute of the game, the home team's forward Robert Lewandowski received a warning. He received a yellow card for a rough blow to the legs of Igor Denisov, who, in turn, did not remain in debt and earned a yellow card for talking to the referee.
At the end of the meeting, the Russian national team applied pressure on the opponent's territory, but the tactics did not bring the desired result. The coach of the Russians Dick Advocaat replaced Alexander Kerzhakov, instead of whom Roman Pavlyuchenko appeared on the field.
The referee added three minutes of injury time to the regular time of the match. The Russians could snatch victory in a difficult game. Through the efforts of Arshavin, a scoring chance was created, but the reliable play of the Polish goalkeeper Przemyslav Tyton prevented the players from using it. At the very end of the confrontation, the hosts were entitled to a free kick, but he did not change the score on the scoreboard either. Result 1: 1 - it was with him that the teams left the field.
