(Defender Vassilis Torosidis will look to get on the end of Greek set pieces)
5:00 pm - Poland vs Greece
The opening Euro 2012 fixture takes place between co-hosts Poland & 2004 winners Greece at the National Stadium, Warsaw. The likelihood is that both sides are playing for 2nd place in the group if all goes as expected for Russia so neither side will want to suffer a defeat here.
Poland will be looking for a quick start in-front of their passionate fans whilst Greece will aim to soak up the early Polish pressure & take advantage of any set pieces their earn. The key match-ups will be how the Greek defence cope with the highly talented Dortmund duo of Jakub Blaszczkowski & Robert Lewandowski whilst up the other end how the Polish team defend against the high class delivery from evergreen Giorgios Karagounis.
In the lead up to the tournament both sides have played a number of friendlies each, Poland used an experimental line-up to beat Latvia 1-0 thanks to a late header from Artur Sobiech & then using stronger line-ups beat Slovakia 1-0 & gain a 4-0 thumping of Andorra. Greece conceded a last minute equaliser after defender Vassilis Torosidis scored in 1-1 draw with Slovenia & then fellow defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos netted in a 1-0 victory over Armenia.
It's a difficult match to predict an outcome of with the first 20 minutes being key. If Poland get an early goal then it's hard to see pass them but on the flip side the longer the game stays at 0-0 the stadium will get more nervous which will transmit to the Polish players & those set pieces from Greece will come more & more into play. We have Poland as favourites in our book but aren't too enamoured with odds very close to evens & instead will take a vaule scorer bet with Greek defender Vassilis Torosidis who scored two in qualifying (joint highest) plus in the warm-up against Slovenia & is 28/1 to be first goalscorer & 12/1 to score anytime, getting those odds up can start your Euro 2012 betting with a bang.
(Russian coach Dick Advocaat will look for a win to set up a successful tournament)
The second fixture in Group A comes live from the Municipal Stadium, Wroclaw as the group favourites Russia entertain Czech Republic. The Russians have the strongest side of the four teams & will look to put down a marker in the tournament against an average Czech Republic side.
Russia dished out a 3-0 beating to Italy in their final warm up game with second half goals from striker Alexander Kerzhakov & a brace from Zenit midfielder Roman Shirokov which means they come into the tournament full of confidence in a group which is theirs for the taking. There should be goals in this Russian side & plenty of attacking options on the bench (strikers Pavel 'The Pog' Pogrebnyak & Roman 'Pav' Pavlyuchenko to name a few) if the starting eleven fail & at the back they are in safe hands with the outstanding keeper Igor Akinfeev.
The Czech squad are going through a difficult time with a 2-1 warm-up defeat to Hungary & injury concerns over main striker Milan Baros & midfield playmaker Tomas Rosicky. It's a difficult call for under pressure manager Michal Bilek on whether to start both the players with slight doubts as they may further aggravate their injuries which could put them out of the two remaining group fixtures against Greece & Poland where it could be judged they are more likely to pick up points.
As mentioned in our Group A preview we see the 5/4 on offer for a Russian victory as one of the standout betting opportunities of the entire group matches as they are far superior to the Czechs. The front three for Russia are very dangerous with Kerzhakov at point, who has excellent hold up play, with Arshavin & potential tournament star Alan Dzagoev backing him up with trickery & pace.
Selections:
Vassilis Torosidis (Greece) to score first at 28/1 and/or 12/1 anytime vs Poland (Paddy Power/Bet365)
Russia to beat Czech Republic at 5/4 (BetVictor)
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