The first game of the tournament was Switzerland-Czech Republic 0-1. First of it we had a colourful ceremony at
St. Jakob-Park in
Basel.
The display, conceptually designed by artistic director Martin Arnaud and the Auditoire agency, combined the various elements that will make EURO a memorable experience – the heritage of the two host countries, sport and culture, and UEFA's values of fair play, respect and the joy of football. The 13-minute show featured around 1,000 performers of various nationalities, aged between 14 and 70. Among the images prevalent were Alpine horns and yodellers, the green summer pastures and white winter landscapes of both countries, and the splendour of Lake Constance, bordered by both host nations.
Svěrkoš took on the role with 19 minutes remaining. Following a period of Czech pressure prompted by Sionko and Plašil, the striker latched on to Zdeněk Grygera's forward header to direct a cool, low finish to Benaglio's left – the 24-year-old's first international goal. A player from FC Baník Ostrava had just ruined Switzerland's big day.
Portugal won against Turkey by 2 second-half strikes from Pepe and substitute Raul Meireles who secured all three points for Cristiano Ronaldo's team at the
Stade de Genève.
It was a deserved victory for Luiz Felipe Scolari's men who also rattled the woodwork twice through Nuno Gomes. For Turkey, by contrast, defeat here continues their unhappy sequence of results against not just Portugal but also teams coached by Scolari – his Brazil beat them twice at the 2002 FIFA World Cup – and makes Wednesday's Group A meeting with Switzerland a virtual eliminator.
Austria went the same way at Ernst-Happel-Stadion from as fellow hosts Switzerland, opening their UEFA EURO 2008 challenge with a narrow defeat as Luka Modrić's early penalty gave Croatia victory in Vienna.
In the other game of the day, Germany forward Lukas Podolski admitted to having "mixed feelings" about scoring the goals against Poland which gave Joachim Löw's team a winning start to their UEFA EURO 2008 campaign at the expense of his country of birth.
The FC Bayern München player struck in the 20th and 72nd minutes – but celebrated neither – in Klagenfurt at Wörthersee Stadion to propel Germany to the top of Group B and earn himself the Carlsberg Man of the Match award. "Obviously I have mixed feelings," said Podolski. "I was born in Poland and I have a big family there so it's a very important thing for me. We applied what we worked on in training and must push forward from here." Following Croatia's success against Austria in the earlier fixture, the 23-year-old accepted the hard work was just beginning, saying: "As I said, this is the first step and we must continue – we can't relax. We have two days to refresh ourselves and then it's back to training and everything continues from there."
The display, conceptually designed by artistic director Martin Arnaud and the Auditoire agency, combined the various elements that will make EURO a memorable experience – the heritage of the two host countries, sport and culture, and UEFA's values of fair play, respect and the joy of football. The 13-minute show featured around 1,000 performers of various nationalities, aged between 14 and 70. Among the images prevalent were Alpine horns and yodellers, the green summer pastures and white winter landscapes of both countries, and the splendour of Lake Constance, bordered by both host nations.
Svěrkoš took on the role with 19 minutes remaining. Following a period of Czech pressure prompted by Sionko and Plašil, the striker latched on to Zdeněk Grygera's forward header to direct a cool, low finish to Benaglio's left – the 24-year-old's first international goal. A player from FC Baník Ostrava had just ruined Switzerland's big day.
Portugal won against Turkey by 2 second-half strikes from Pepe and substitute Raul Meireles who secured all three points for Cristiano Ronaldo's team at the Stade de Genève.
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