Euro 2012 Group A: Greece 1 Czech Republic 2

The Czech Republic held off Greece to record a 2-1 win in Wroclaw on Tuesday, kick-starting their Euro 2012 Group A campaign.

After going down 4-1 to Russia in their opening match last Friday, the Czechs were out to make amends against Greece.

And they made a flying start to the contest at Stadion Miejski, with two goals in the first six minutes from Petr Jiracek and Vaclav Pilar.

Jiracek collected a through ball and beat the offside trap to score three minutes from kick-off, the fourth fastest goal in the history of the European Championships.

The Greek cause was not helped by the loss of goalkeeper Kostas Chalkias to injury on 22 minutes, he was replaced by Michalis Sifakis.

Greece thought they had pulled a goal back with five minutes remaining before half-time, but Giorgios Fotakis’ header was ruled out for offside.

They did succeed in getting one back seven minutes into the second half, substitute Theofanis Gekas benefiting from Petr Cech’s fumble to make it 2-1.

But Fernando Santos’ men proved unable to breach the opposition defence a second time, as the Czech Republic registered their first points in the tournament.

More to follow…