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In April 2007, Poland and Ukraine were announced as the hosts for UEFA Euro 2012. What was supposed to be a fantastic tournament for the White and Reds turned out to be a dismal display.
Poland were automatically seeded into Group A alongside Russia, Greece and the Czech Republic as optimism surrounded the camp ahead of the European Championships.
What was to follow can be simply classed as awful with the Poles struggling in every aspect on the pitch as they were heavily hoping the Bundesliga trio of Robert Lewandowski, Jakub Błaszczykowski and Łukasz Piszczek could lead them to glory.
Group Stages
Poland v Greece – 8th June 2012
A packed crowd at the National Stadium in Warsaw saw the White and Reds open Euro 2012 with their game against Greece.
The hosts took the lead in the 17th minute through Lewandowski. Moments earlier, the forward missed the ball after a wonderful Piszczek delivery, but this time he was able to get ahead of Greece goalkeeper, Kostas Chalkias, as the forward headed the ball down and into the roof of the net.
Before half-time, the Greeks were down to 10-men as Sokratis Papastathopoulos was shown a second yellow card after he held back Ludovic Obraniak which saw the defender walk off the pitch.
Dimitris Salpingidis fired in an equaliser for Greece six minutes into the second-half as poor communication between Wojciech Szczęsny and Marcin Wasilewski saw the striker pounce on the opportunity to get his side on level terms.
Fernando Santos’ men could have won the game in the 71st minute. Szczęsny brought down Salpingidis in the area which saw the Poland goalkeeper sent off and a penalty awarded in Greece’s favour.
However, Giorgos Karagounis stepped up to take the penalty and saw his spot-kick saved by substitute goalkeeper Przemysław Tytoń as the points were shared between the two sides.
Poland v Russia – 12th June 2012
Matchday two saw two rivals go head-to-head once more with Russia facing Poland at the National Stadium in Warsaw.
Another packed stadium full of Poland and Russian fans looked to be the 12th man and guide their National sides over the line.
Poland searched for their first win of the tournament after their matchday one draw with Greece, but Russia were group leaders after picking up three points in matchday one as they beat the Czech Republic 4-1.
The spoils were shared as the White and Reds came from behind to secure a point in Warsaw. Alan Dzagoev opened the scoring in the 37th minute as the midfielder turned in Andriy Arshavin’s free-kick to give Russia a vital advantage at half-time.
A spirited performance from Poland in the second-half saw them level things up at 1-1 through captain Jakub Blaszczykowski. The Pole escaped Yuri Zhirkov and unleashed a beauty that flew into the top corner of Vyacheslav Malafeev’s goal.
Poland v Czech Republic – 16th June 2012
With some sort of confidence ahead of their final group fixture, Poland still had a chance of making it out of Group A with a victory against the Czech Republic.
The three points were much needed as Russia were leading the group with four points to their name. Poland’s opponents in matchday three followed in second a point behind with the White and Reds in third place on two points and Greece bottom of the group on a single point.
Petr Jiráček scored the only goal in the game between Poland and the Czech Republic as the midfielder’s goal in the 71st minute gave the Czech side the win and progression through to the knockout stages.
Franciszek Smuda’s men were left red-faced as they finished bottom of Group A and were truly humiliated as they failed to move onto the quarter-final stage on home turf.
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