Greece ruined Poland's inauguration party a 1-1 draw that in
the first half could’ve been at least 2-0 and that by the second half could've
ended 1-2.
The match got off to a pretty normal start, everyone had it
down that Poland would win but you can never underestimate the Greek's will
power. Poland dominated most of the game, but in the 17th minute Lewandowski
scored a goal with a header, after a great cross from Borussia Dortmund team
mate Piszczek.
Half an hour into the game, Poland looked as though they
were slowing down their pace, but even like that Greece's star player Samaras
couldn't seem to get past the Polish defence on many occasions. It was the 35th
minute of the game, Lewandowski and Papastathopoulos were trying to win a
header, the Spanish referee Velasco Carballo saw a foul and gave Sokratis
Papastathopoulos a very rigorous yellow card.
The last minutes of the encounter saw both teams picking up
the pace, if it wasn't Polanski or Szczesny clearing the ball for the Polish,
it was Chalkias who had to stop the co-hosts' counter attacks.
If the first yellow was rigorous, the second once even more
so, the referee saw a challenge on Murawski were most people saw Murawski was
on his way to the floor before Papastathopoulos got anywhere near him.
Just when Greece couldn’t be angrier with Velasco Carballo,
he didn't see a possible penalty when Perquis appears to touch the ball with
his hand in the box. The Greek players complained, which resulted in a yellow
card for Holebas.
With that came the half time whistle, Greece were 1-0 down
and having to play the entire second half with one player less.
Fernando Santos decided to change his team for the remaining
45 minutes, out came Ninis and in Came Salpingidis. Lewandowski had two great
chances at the start of the second half, one of them from another good cross by
team mate Piszczek.
The Greek goal came from half time substitute Salpingidis. A
great run from Torosidis ending in a cross to Gekas, tries to shoot, but
confusion between the Polish defence and goalkeeper Szczesny leave the ball for
Salpingidis to tap it in.
The score was now 1-1, Samaras has a chance to make it 2-1
but sent the ball over the crossbar. It was clear Greece were more than happy
with their draw.
With 20 minutes to go, Szczesny committed a foul over
Salpingidis a penalty was awarded to Greece and the Arsenal goalkeeper was sent
off. In his place came Tyton, a 25 year old who plays for PSV Eindhoven in the
Dutch Eredivise. With another chance to put the game in Greece's favour was
Karagounis, but it wasn't meant to be as Tyton stopped the ball from going in.
Salpingidis had yet another chance to put his team forward,
but it was ruled offside, the linesman got it right. Greece were now organised
at the back, Poland were the ones trying for the second goal. From now to the
end of the match Poland had the most chances, Polanski tried, but the ball was
caught by Chalkias, Lewandowski tried once again, but it hit the outside of the
net.
Smuda made no changes, apart from the one he was forced to
do after Szczesny's sending off.
This was a match full of excitement until the very end, in
injury time Katsouranis nearly scored an own goal and Perquis woke up right on
time to give the ball to Tyton.
When the final whistle was blown, Poland probably felt like
they could've done more, Greece could only stop and wonder if things had gone
differently, if Papastathopoulos hadn't been sent off, maybe Fernando Santos
wouldn't have brought Salpingidis on, the man who scored a goal, nearly scored another
one, and the man who created that penalty that Tyton saved.
Source: DSG
