Saudi expert Robert Lacey explains why Prince Salman is expected to be named Crown Prince
Saudi expert
Robert Lacey explains why
Prince Salman is expected to be named
Crown Prince
Argentina 4 - 3
Brasil (
Messi x3,
Federico Fernández; Rómulo,
Oscar,
Hulk)
la réaction de balotelli aprés le but
reazione di
Balotelli dopo il gol
Balotelli's reaction after the goal
Goals Cassano 35' (
ITA)
Mario Balotelli
Italia vs Irlanda (
EURO 2012) Mario Balotelli amazing
Goal and his reaction
Patrick Berger backs
Czechs to progress,
Eye-witness describes
Warsaw violence
Greece 1-0 Russia Ελλάδα Ρωσία Греция
Россия
Polska vs Czechy Piłka nożna
Euro 2012 یونان روسیه
Polsko
0-1 Česká republika Fotbalové Euro 2012
Poland Vs.
Czech Republic,
2012 European Championships: Hosts
Need A
Win
The highly-fancied Russia team and co-hosts Poland crashed out of Euro 2012 on Saturday as the Czech Republic and Greece became the first nations to secure quarterfinal berths.
Russia led
Group A going into the third and final round of matches, needing just a draw against Greece to progress into the last eight.
However, a superb strike from veteran Greece captain Giorgis
Karagounis just before halftime proved enough to send
Dick Advocaat's side home.
"When we left Greece, we all said, 'We will give everything when our compatriots aren't having the best of times,' said Karagounis, referring to Greece's economic problems.
"
I believe that this tonight puts a smile on their faces. We're happy we managed to do this for Greece, for our country, for
Greeks all over the world."
The
Russians had a better goal
difference than the Greeks, who won the tournament in a huge shock in 2004, but went out on head-to-head record.
Poland needed to win to go through, but a 72nd-minute strike from
Petr Jiracek sent the Czechs top of the table and facing a quarterfinal against the runner-up from Group B -- which will be decided on Sunday.
Greece 1-0 Russia
Karagounis experienced the high of sending his country through to the knockout stage of a major tournament for the first time in eight years, but the 35-year-old may not get the chance to break his country's appearance record at Euro 2012.
The midfielder will miss the quarterfinal after receiving his second yellow card of the group stages, having been controversially booked for diving when it appeared that he had been fouled in the penalty area in the second half.
With Greece leading 1-0, a second goal would have killed off Russia's hopes -- but instead a furious Karagounis missed a nailbiting climax to the match after demanding to be substituted before he was sent off for further remonstrating with
Swedish referee
Jonas Eriksson.
Karagounis, who matched 2004 captain
Theodoros Zagorakis' mark of
120 caps for Greece, repeated his act of scoring at the
European Championship, having done so in the opening match against
Portugal eight years ago.
He surged through the
Russian defense after
Sergei Ignashevich failed to deal with a throw-in and fired a low shot past goalkeeper
Vyacheslav Malafeev in time added on at the end of the first half.
Giorgos Tzavellas almost made it 2-0 with
20 minutes to play, but his curling left-foot free kick bounced to safety off the post.
After that it was all Russia, but
Igor Denisov was twice denied by goalkeeper
Michalis Sifakis.
It marked a disappointing end to the two-year reign of Advocaat, who will now return to his homeland with a post at
Dutch club
PSV Eindhoven.
Poland poured forward in search of an equalizer, which by itself would not have been enough, but
Michal Kadlec cleared a late effort off the line.
"We started badly and let the occasion get to us a little bit, the home side capitalized on our mistakes,"
Czech goalkeeper
Petr Cech said.
"But with time we got better, we created chances and then scored a deserved goal."
The Czechs will next go to Warsaw on June 21, where their opponents will likely be Portugal,
Denmark or
Holland.
The Greeks are likely to face unbeaten
Germany in
Gdansk.
Poland coach
Franciszek Smuda is now expected to be replaced, as his contract has ended.
"We know we had the chance to win but they (the Czech) played excellent football and they scored a goal," he told reporters.
"We had several opportunities in the first half but we didn't take our chances."
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