Greeks hold co-hosts Poland to draw

WARSAW (AFP) –

Greek forward Dimitris Salpingidis (R) is fouled by Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny during the Euro 2012 football match Poland vs Greece in Warsaw. Szczesny was red carded for the move.

Co-hosts Poland and Euro 2004 champions Greece fought out an incident-packed 1-1 draw here on Friday in the opening game of the Euro 2012 championship in which both sides finished with just 10 men.

A first-half goal by Robert Lewandowski gave the Poles the lead and shortly before half-time the Greeks were reduced to 10-men when Sokratis Papastathopoulos was sent-off by Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo.

However, Dimitris Salpingidis – who had come on at the beginning of the second-half – levelled in the 51st minute.

The Poles looked to be facing defeat when their goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent-off for bringing down Salpingidis and conceded a penalty but his replacement in goal Pzremyslaw Tyton saved captain Giorgos Karagounis’s penalty.

The other Group A match is between Russia and the Czech Republic and kicks-off later in Wroclaw, Poland.

Poland are co-hosting the tournament with Ukraine, who play Sweden in their opening match on Monday.