Euro 2012: Greece 1-2 Czech Republic - Greeks bearing gifts revive Czech hopes

The Czechs were 2-0 to the good inside just six minutes as midfielders Jiracek and Pilar made the most of some generous Greek defending.

Substitute Fanis Gekas pulled a goal back after a terrible error by Petr Cech, but Fernando Santos’ side lacked the guile to carve out an equaliser. The Czechs’ opening 4-1 loss to Russia left them knowing another defeat would end their hopes of reaching the last eight. but they could hardly have wished for a better opening.

Jiracek put them ahead in the third minute as he ran on to Tomas Hubschman’s pass to fire home, despite Greek keeper Kostas Chalkias getting a hand to his left-footed shot.

Chalkias was then at fault for the second goal as he failed to cut out Theodor Gebre Selassie’s low cross to allow Pilar to tap in his second goal of the tournament. The lively Pilar came close to adding a third as he played a neat one-two on the edge of the area before firing just wide of the left-hand post.

Georgios Samaras had Greece’s first sight of goal but the Celtic striker made a mess of meeting Vassilis Torosidis’ cross.

Chalkias’ miserable day continued as he was forced off after just 21 minutes, having pulled up after playing a pass out to his defenders, with Michalis Sifakis coming on to replace him. Greece thought they had pulled one back five minutes before the break as Georgios Fotakis headed in a Torosidis cross, but he was wrongly ruled to have been offside.