Swiss Lose Home Opener to Czech
June 12th, 2008 Posted in EURO 2008The Swiss lost the first game of their Euro 2008 campaign, as well as the first game of the Euro 2008 tournament. They were up against a shaky Czech Republic team. The Swiss dominated the majority of the game, not letting the Czechs keep control of the ball for very long. They were consistent with their chances. Especially Alexander Frei who hit a shot wide early in the game that wipped right by the net.
The Borussia Dortmund striker, who became Switzerland’s all-time leading scorer with 35 goals following his brace against Liechtenstein in a warm-up match last week, screwed a 25-yarder just wide after only 120 seconds.
The Swiss see this as a real heat break due to the fact that they are the co-hosts of the Euro 2008 tournament. The Czechs were very lucky that they won this game, after such a horrendous start to this tournament one can wonder if they can even be mentioned in the same group as other contenders. The goal they got can hardly be considered a hard earned goal:
After a Czech free-kick was cleared, Tomas Galasek helped the ball back into the danger area and the 24-year-old reacted the quickest to latch onto the ball and poke a finish to the right of Benaglio from 10 yards. The shot may even gone in off his shin.
Hopefully we’ll have better play throughout the tournament because for me, this was a huge disappointment for an opening game. Credit to ESPN.com 