Russia 4-1 Czech Republic Highlights – Euro 2012
Russia went top of Group A after two goals by Alan Dzagoev condemned Czech Republic to defeat in their opening Euro 2012 game.
Watch Euro 2012 match, Russia Vs Czech Republic highlights here.
Venue: Municipal Stadium, Wroclaw
Date: Friday, 8 June
Kick-off: 19:45 BST
1-0 Dzagoev 15′
2-0 Shirokov 24′
2-1 Pilar 52′
3-1 Dzagoev 79′
4-1 Pavlyuchenko 82′
Head-to-head
The only previous meeting between the two nations under their current guises was in the group stages of Euro 1996. The Czechs surrendered a 2-0 lead and needed a Vladimir Smicer goal two-minutes from time to force a 3-3 draw at Anfield.
The European Championship finals has played host to only one other encounter between the countries; the Soviet Union’s 3-0 triumph over Czechoslovakia at the semi-finals of the inaugural tournament in 1960.
Czechoslovakia beat the Soviets 2-0 in April 1976, in the first-leg of the European Championship quarter-finals, before securing a 4-2 aggregate win. The Czechs went on to lift the trophy that summer – when the finals were a four-nations tournament.
Russia
Dick Advocaat’s men enter Euro 2012 off the back of a 14-match unbeaten run. The last country to beat them were Iran in February 2011.
Only Germany (11) have qualified for more European Championship finals than the Russia (including Soviet Union/CIS).
Russia have qualified for the group stages of a European Championship finals on five previous occasions. A country from Russia’s group has gone on to win the tournament on four of those instances, while Germany in 1992 were runners-up on the other occasion.
Dick Advocaat (Netherlands 2004 and Russia 2012) and Giovanni Trapattoni (Italy 2004 and Ireland 2012) will both join Guus Hiddink (Netherlands 1996 and Russia 2008) as head coaches to have led different countries at a European Championship.
Czech Republic
The Czechs are appearing in an eighth European Championship.
Michal Bilek’s men lost more qualifying matches (three) than any other side that qualified for Euro 2012.
Excluding the play-offs the Czech Republic scored only 12 goals during qualifying (including three penalties) – the fewest of all the qualifying nations – albeit from a group of only five nations.
Bilek’s side registered the lowest possession percentage of all the countries that have qualified for (48.1%).
If selected, Petr Cech will move into joint second place on the all-time Czech appearance list alongside Pavel Nedved and Jan Koller (both 91 caps). Karel Poborsky leads the way with 118.
