Poland Vs. Russia: Kuba’s Stunning Equalizer Earns Co-Hosts Draw

The hosts were on top of Russia for good chunks of their match and certainly created the better scoring chances, but it took them until the 57th minute to score their first and only goal in a 1-1 draw. Vyacheslav Malafeev was excellent in goal for Russia, making eight saves, but he had absolutely no shot at saving Jakub Blaszczykowski’s equalizer.

Poland almost equalized instantly after the halftime whistle, with Eugen Polanski sending Robert Lewandowski towards goal with a brilliant through ball. Lewandowski got around Malafeev, but Russia’s defense did well to cut off all of his available shooting and passing lanes, and the best that he could do was create a corner kick that ultimately led to nothing.

Euro 2012 has been waiting for its first great goal. Not anymore!

Poland captain Jakub ‘Kuba’ Błaszczykowski took care of the dearth of great goals on Tuesday vs. Russia when he got the ball down the right, cut in and hit an absolute rocket with his left foot that may have singed the net. KUBA!

Goodness me, that might just be the goal of the tournament so far.

Poland have levelled through Borussia Dortmund’s Jakub “Kuba” Blaszczykowski, and it was an absolutely unbelievable piece of play. A simple pass from Ludovic Obraniak saw the winger pick up possession in the right channel, but he still had plenty of work to do in order to threaten Vyacheslav Malafeev’s goal.

Poland and Russia are putting on a show in Warsaw, with the political tensions between the two nations and sets of fans apparently failing to affect the teams. The match has had plenty of intensity, but certainly nothing overly physical or dirty. Both teams are playing some very nice football and it’s been a fast-paced match.

The hosts have had their opportunities to score, but it’s Russia who go into the locker room with a lead. Poland did an excellent job defending Russia’s attacks from open play for most of the first half, but their back line fell asleep on a set piece and they allowed a man much too small to regularly win headers on set pieces to win a header on a set piece.

Don’t expect that to hold up, though. This has been a thrilling, open match thus far, and both teams have looked exceptionally dangerous. Russia will obviously be happy they’re 1-0 up, but they can’t have any expectation that they’ll be able to sit back and defend their lead against a very adventurous Poland side. A win here would guarantee qualification to the next round for Russia, although Poland might still be able to advance even with a loss.

After the nasty incidents before the Poland-Russia match at Euro 2012, you’d have hoped that nothing happened during the match to inflame the fans’ collective tensions. We’ve already had seven injuries and a half-century of arrests over the fighting before the match, so it’d have been nice if the Russian fans could have avoided anything provocative.

Yeah, they didn’t.

While the Russian and Polish fans are busy fighting each other, the two countries’ teams will play a football match. Whoever thought it smart to not move the fixture off of Russia day should have to answer some questions. Yes, they were drawn into this date by chance, but common sense should allow for a small change of date.

Poland (4-2-3-1): Przemyslaw Tyton; Sebastian Boenisch, Gregorz Wasilewski, Damien Perquis, Lukasz Piszczek; Eugen Polanski, Rafal Murwaski; Dariusz Dudka, Ludovic Obrianiak, Jakub Blaszczykowski; Robert Lewandowski.

Whoever scheduled Russia vs. Poland on Russia Day and then allowed Russia fans to hold a march through Warsaw is a pretty big idiot. Nobody could ever see that one going well, and it hasn’t - three people have been injured after a clash between the marchers and what Russia Today are describing as a ‘mob of Polish youths’.

The police had to fire warning shots and deploy water cannons in an attempt to break up the fighting, which isn’t even the first unfortunate event of the day. Polish fans attacked a cafe full of Russian fans earlier in the day, using stones and smoke grenades, although they were driven off before police arrived.

We’ll have live coverage of the game in our Poland vs. Russia, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on twitter.

From 30 minutes of football and 60 minutes of essentially standing around, the hosts got a 1-1 draw, and based on the chances that Greece missed, they probably should have lost. They’re still in a position where they control their own destiny in Group A, but considering the amount of time Greece spent with 10 men after Sokratis Papastathopoulos was sent off, the result was a poor one.

They face a significant step up in competition on Tuesday when they face Russia, who look like an even better version of the team that made a shock run to the semifinals of Euro 2008. The Russians hardly even looked bothered with the Czech Republic, who scored an impressive goal on one nice move, but were otherwise terrible in a 4-1 Russian win.