Resurgent Czechs back in the groove

And we think we were living a nightmare against Croatia.

Put yourself in poor old Greece’s shoes after 22 minutes. Both centre-backs were gone. The goalkeeper walked off the pitch injured. Two goals down. The game was over.

They were even given a lifeline in the guise of a Giorgos Fotakis goal but that was taken away too when the linesman’s flag went up.

However Greece, champions in 2004, have been successful because they never believed they were finished. It wasn’t working on the pitch so they looked off it for inspiration. Fanis Gekas came on at half-time and scored within seven minutes.

Two early Czech goals clinched victory and left Greece facing the unenviable task of having to beat Russia to progress.

It looked set up for a famous Greek comeback but there would be no miracle this time. Even with their fighting instinct and battling qualities, it looks like one step too far.

“We have very little chance,” Greek coach Fernando Santos said. “We tried and we tried but in the first 15 minutes we were just not on the pitch.”

His opposite number, Michal Bilek, said: “The pressure was huge: we knew that if we lost it was the end of the Euro for us. Now the hope is still alive.”

Greece, a lot like Ireland in setting their stall out — not to mention the financial situation their country finds themselves in off it. But they were buoyed by their comeback against Poland in their opening game.

There had only been one goal scored between Greece and the Czechs in previous games: Traianos Dellas’s Silver Goal in the semi-final at Euro 2004. Yesterday, there were two in five minutes, both for the Czechs.

With just two minutes and 15 seconds gone, Petr Jiracek controlled Tomas Hubschman’s weighted pass with his right foot and hit it with his left past Kostas Chalkias.

Exactly two minutes and 15 seconds later, Tomas Rosicky slotted a clever through ball between for Theodor Gebre Selassie’s run. Chalkias could not cut out the cross and Vaclav Pilar skidded in between two defenders and finished with his knee.

Soon after Greece lost their goalkeeper when Chalkias went off.

Greece’s new defence, with two midfielders at the heart of it, had been cut open. Sokratis Papastathopoulos was serving a ban and Avraam Papdopoulos had a knee ligament injury; that left Kostas Katsouranis and Kyriakos Papadopoulos together.

When Chalkias was withdrawn, an icepack strapped to his knee, it looked like the Czechs would completely overrun their opponents.

Just before half time Vassilis Torossidis’s cross found the head of Fotakis only for his effort to be ruled out for an offside, an extremely tight call.

“I said I didn’t want to judge referees because they are human,” Torossidis said.

“But when a coincidence repeats itself it’s no longer a human error. I am sad because today we also had an adulterated result.”

The sense of injustice was greater yet for coach Santos. “I told them to clear their minds,” Santos said.

“Everything that had happened before was a burden. We started to play with our hearts more than our heads.”

Fotakis was replaced by Gekas and their luck changed. The sub took advantage of a terrible error from Cech, who looked like he pulled away from the ball, to roll it into an empty net in the 53rd minute.

Hope was restored. Greece might repeat history. 2004 was not far from the mind.

With Rosicky’s withdrawal — Bilek said afterwards the Arsenal man had suffered an Achilles injury and hoped to have him back for the Poland match — the comfortable win expected for the Czechs after 22 minutes looked a long way away.

But for all the Greeks’ pressure and for the number of balls sent swirling into the area, there were few genuine chances. The one Greece had, and took, was gifted them. There was half an hour remaining. It was not enough.

Subs for Greece: Sifakis (5) for Chalkias (inj. 23), Gekas (6) for Fotakis (46), Mitroglou (5) for Fortounis (71).

Subs for Czech Republic: Kolar (5) for Rosicky (inj. 46), Pekhart (4) for Baros (64), Rajtoral for Kolar (90).

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