Thrilling match between Poland and Greece ends in draw

Co-hosts Poland and Greece fought out a 1-1 draw in a frantic Euro 2012 opener that saw both teams finish with 10 men at Warsaw's Stadion Narodowy on Friday.

8 June 2012, 12:00am

1 min read

Dimitris Salpingidis scores his side's equalising goal

Robert Lewandowski gave co-hosts Poland the perfect start to their campaign when he headed his side into the lead in the first half of the opening game in Group A.

The Borussia Dortmund striker, who scored a hat-trick in the German cup final last month, headed home a swinging cross from Jakub Blaszczykowski with Greek goalkeeper Kostas Chalkias in no man's land.

It was no more than the Poles deserved after 45 minutes in which they played with swagger, taking the game to Greece, encouraged by the home fans.

The half ended terribly for Greece when Kyriakos Papastathopoulos, who had already been booked, fouled Murawski and Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo produced a red card.

However, Poland couldn't capitalise on their man advantage in the second half as Dimitris Salpingidis equalised for Greece on 51 minutes.

Wojciech Szczesny was then sent off for bringing down Salpingidis but substitute goalkeeper Przemyslaw Tyton saved the penalty from Giorgos Karagounis.