Warsaw battle

Gia Saralidze. Exclusively to VK

In the second match of the group round in Euro 2012 Poland and Russia separated amicably with a 1:1 draw. The same cannot be said about the fans who fought a real battle in the center of Warsaw.

The stumbling block was the march by Russian fans who organized it by assent of the Polish authorities. Even ahead of the march the Polish mass media expressed concern that the march can lead to public clashes. All efforts taken by the authorities of Poland to reconcile Polish radicals with the march failed. A part of political establishment considered the idea of the march negatively as well.

The member of the opposition party “Law and a Just,” Adam Hoffman, judged the march and made a risky parallel: “It is just like Germans were marching on Tel Aviv streets carrying flags with swastika,” Gazeta Wyborcza cited him.

As the result the march turned into a series of fights and clashes. The police used water cannons and tear-gas. Arrests of the most aggressive fans continued during the match and after it. According to the Polish police, 140 people were arrested, 13 of them are Russian citizens. Some people were hurt.

As for the match, emotions on the pitch were as strong as at the stadium. Poland had greater desire to win than the Russian national team did.

From the very beginning the Polacks started to attack and had chances to succeed. Only a miracle saved Russian goals. Some time later Russians managed to control the ball and organized several sharp moments on the pitch half of Poland. Alan Dzagoyev scored the first goal in the match in the 37 minute.

After the scored goal Russia continued to control the situation on the pitch. However, in the second half of the match the situation changed. The Polacks began to press, while Advocaat’s team felt seedy. Russian players looked tired and fast counterattacks didn’t work.

In the 57 minute Blaszczykowski scored the second goal in the match, 1:1. Both teams had chances to score, but it seemed a draw was acceptable for them.

After the second round Russia heads the tournament table of its group with 4 points. The Czech Republic has 3 points, Poland – 2 points, and Greece – only one point.