Goal.com

17-Jun-2012 2:35:00 PM

Goal.com's Kishen Patel has a few lessons to share on what was learnt from day 9 of Euro 2012...

The Russians were coming into the Euros after a long and hard season of around 18 months and it definitely took its toll on the players. Their tiredness was exposed in the second group game against Poland as they failed to reproduce the energy they had in the first match. We cannot blame the Russians for this as their country’s geography prevents them from having a season schedule like in the rest of Europe. Maybe the long and tough season was drained the players too much. Russia's fitness trainer also acknowledged the problem and said that their exit was "totally deserved." Another schedule debate here?

The Arsenal man had a torrid first game as his penalty blunder almost gifted Greece the victory. Tyton saved Szczesny’s face when he saved Karagounis’ penalty. Ever since then, the Polish second choice keeper has had excellent outings against Russia and Czech Republic. He made lots of important saves in the final group game but was unfortunately beaten by Petr Jiracek for the winner. Tyton might have replaced Szczesny as Poland’s No.1 and the Gunner would have to fight hard to earn his place back. A lot of hope was riding on his shoulders before the tournament started but he has disappointed everyone, including Arsene Wenger.

A lot of star players buckled under pressure at Euro 2012. A lot of hope was riding on Kerzakhov to deliver for Russia but he had a mediocre outing. Kerzakhov was coming into the Euros in top form having enjoyed a good scoring season and he was the man Russia were looking for goals. Robert Lewandowski too failed to score in the crucial game against Czech Republic in spite having some glorious chances in the first half.

Russia are to blame themselves for their early elimination as they failed to convert a single chance. Dick Advocaat’s men had 31 shots on goal and only 2 on target while Greece had 8 shots on goal and 2 on target. The Russians also enjoyed 70% of possession but whats the use of that if they didn’t convert a single chance?  Greece capitalised on a defensive goof up by Zhirkov and Ignashevich. Teams will need to be clinical in front of goal if they want to progress further in the tournament. Looks like Russia didn’t learn from Netherlands’ mistakes.

Poland’s game against Czech Republic was the perfect example of a football game being of two halves. Poland dominated in the first half but failed to convert from their chances. Lewandowski spurned three glorious chances for the Polish to score. After the half time, Czech Republic were attacking with more fluency and dominated the second half and eventually managed to score. This has happened a lot of times with Poland as they dominate one half of the game and fail to do anything notable in the second. Poland have the quality but if they want to succeed at the big stage, they need to remain focused throughout the whole match.

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