Donetsk: From the moment Poland's Robert Lewandowski scored the opening goal of the tournament with a brilliant header against Greece, Euro 2012 has served up one great moment after another during a thrilling group stage.
Superb goals have followed, including Mario Balotelli's volley against Ireland, German Mario Gomez's first strike against the Netherlands and Jakub Blaszczykowski's stunning equaliser for Poland against Russia. The quality remained until the end with Zlatan Ibrahimovic's exquisitely executed volley for Sweden against France arguably the pick of the bunch.
In keeping with the exciting and unpredictable thrills of the first phase, Russia made a dramatic impact with a blistering 4-1 win over the Czech Republic but failed to advance after drawing with Poland and losing to Greece.
The Greeks, shock Euro 2004 winners, caused another surprise, recovering from a draw with the Poles and defeat by the Czechs to beat Russia for their first win since the 2004 final, take an unexpected place in the quarter-finals and ease the euro zone gloom back home....
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10:12 AM, Jun 20, 2012
