Euro 2012 Diary

POT MEETS KETTLE

The unlikeliest sermon of the opening weekend surely came from Lancashire and Ireland’s Mark Lawrenson, who suggested during Germany-Portugal on BBC that Lukas Podolski really ought to be playing for Poland since “he is Polish”.

You might recall Lawro’s contribution to RTE documentary Green is the Colour, where he talked about his first cap for Ireland, coincidentally against Poland. “I’m 18, I’m playing in the old third division with Preston; I thought I’m never going to be good enough to play for England so I just jumped at the chance. I didn’t know which was our anthem and which was the Polish anthem. You just had to cough and go; I ain’t got a clue.”