da jogodeouro： Petr Jiracek’s scored the only goal of a tense game in Wroclaw to send Poland crashing out of Euro 2012 and book Czech Republic a place in the last eight.
da dobrowin： Poland came into the game knowing they had to win in order to stand a chance of making it into the quarter finals but proceeded to spurn a series of good chances before Wolfsburg midfielder Jiracek struck in the 19th minute to send the Czech’s through as Group A winners and set up a potential rematch of the Euro 96 final against Germany. A flurry of late pressure failed to bear fruit for Frank Smuda’s men with captain Jakub Blaszczykowski seeing his last gasp effort cleared off the line and leaves them still searching for their first win at a European Championships.
The co-hosts will be ruing their profligacy in front of goal despite their attacking quartet carving out a number of opportunities that were squandered by Robert Lewandowski. The Borussia Dortmund hit man sliced wide under pressure from Theodor Gebre Selassie after linking up with Blaszczykowski.
A free kick from Ludovic Obraniak then found it’s way Sebastian Boenisch but the full back fired narrowly wide of Petr Cech’s goal. The tide soon turned as the Czech’s as Vaclav Pilar started to pull the strings for Michal Bilek’s side took control as the first half ended with the news that the group landscape had shifted after Greece took the against Russia in Warsaw.
After the break it was the Czech’s who monopolised possession pinning Poland back into their own half for long periods as they searched for the goal that would send them into the knock-out phase. Pilar saw his scrambled effort cleared before Theodor Gebre Selassie headed narrowly over. Tomas Sivok was then denied by a superb point blank save from Przemyslaw Tyton as the Polish clung on for dear life.
On the rare moments they did break forward Poland failed to take advantage and when Rafal Murawski sacrificed possession the Czech’s broke to devastating effect. Milan Baros, who’d been invisible for much of the game, beat his man to play in Jiracek who stampeded into the penalty area, sidestepped Boenisch’s and rolled the ball beyond Tyton to stick a dagger straight through Polish hearts.
Still they battled on until the last and almost produced a stunning finale that would have denied the Czech’s a place in the last eight but Blaszczykowski’s lob over Cech was heroically cleared at the last second by Michal Kadlec to ensure safe passage for his country on a night of drama in Poland.