Their time in Poland is not quite as chastening as it was.
Early goals from Petr Jiracek and Vaclav Pilar saw the Czech Republic revive their Euro 2012 campaign with victory over Greece in Wroclaw last night.
After 24 minutes of their opening Group A match against Russia, the Czechs looked beaten. It took just six for them to reinvigorate their hopes of reaching the quarter-finals. Jiracek put them ahead in the third minute as he ran on to Tomas Hubschman's pass to fire home, despite Greek goalkeeper Kostas Chalkias getting a hand to his shot.
It seemed a remarkably easy opening, helped in no small part by the fact the Greek squad has been disrupted by injury and a suspension since a battling draw with Poland in their opening match.
There were licking their wounds just three minutes later. Pilar making the most of some similarly generous Greek defending.
Petr Cech may well have felt sorry for them when he gifted the Greeks a goal after 53 minutes. The Czech goalkeeper failed to claim a cross, fumbling the ball to the feet of substitute Fanis Geka, who stroked a shot into the net. But Fernando Santos' side lacked the guile to carve out an equaliser.
The win has moved the Czechs into second place with just one group match left to play.
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