Greece Lightening: Greece qualify, France win during storm

France 2 Ukraine 0

Ukraine’s meeting with France was delayed after six minutes due to an extraordinary lightening storm that had tragic consequences. The tragic consequences being that we viewers faced almost an hour of improv with Adrian Chiles, back at the studio.

“Does anyone have any storm stories?” Chiles asked his panel of pundits, openly confessing his need to fill in time. No one did. Then, breaking the silence, Gareth Southgate recounted an incident at Villa Park when a parachuting Santa Claus got his chords caught in the roof of a stand. Which is kind of the same isn’t it? Chiles didn’t seem to care.

I’d had enough of this and popped out of the room to complete various chores. When I returned, the Donetsk stadium looked dry and the game had resumed, so I settled back into my viewing position; cup of tea, slippers, tournament guide open at the correct page etc.

France were on the attack. Suddenly, the ball ran loose and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain was marauding down the left flank looking for a gap in the French defence. ITV were reshowing the England game from Monday to fill in time. Not even the decency of an “R” for “Repeat” on the screen to warn people like me. Damn Chiles. Damn him.

When the real game restarted, France looked increasingly comfortable against a tired Ukraine. My “one-to-watch” Anatoily Tymoshchuk of Bayern Munich, who had coped so manfully with Zlatan in Ukraine’s earlier game, was diabolical. Instead, it was France’s Jérémy Ménez who caught the eye with one goal and a series penetrating runs.  

Poland 0 Czech 1

Greece 1 Russia 0

The first of the last group games, which run concurrently. Before the tournament, pundits were calling Group A the ‘Group of Dearth’ due to the unheralded quality of the teams. This proved to be unfair — the games have provided more than their share of unpredictable drama.

Covering Poland’s game was the always enjoyable Mick McCarthy, who delights in a perverse contrary view of the beautiful game.  

As the teams entered the stadium pelted by driving rain, McCarthy dismissed predictions that the players would struggle: “Perfect weather for football, this”. A free kick in a dangerous area wasn’t an opportunity to score a Zico-like curler. “Just put it in there! There’s always a chance of a mistake or an own goal!”, he bellowed. Mick reserved his most lavish praise for an unchallenged headed backpass by Czech defender Gebre Selassie to Petr Cech: “Great play, that”.

I was disappointed to see the hosts Poland go out, but enjoyed Greece achieving an unlikely qualification at the expense of Russia. Greece had been treated appallingly by the referee in the first game and deserved some recourse. 

You’ve got to question this “head-to-head” feature of the points calculation, though. Russia went out despite scoring more goals and totting up a better goal difference than Greece, because they lost the crucial tie between the two teams. This anomaly doesn’t reward attacking teams over the three games. I don’t like it.

Greece progress towards a likely clash with Germany, which promises to be explosive storm of its own. Athens was already thick with effigies of Chancellor Angela Merkel before the tournament. Maybe it’s time for the calming wisdom of blissed out Clarence Seedorf who last night summed up Poland’s evolution from it’s former state under the thumb of the USSR: “This is the beauty of life”, he said in his Dutch accent, smiling as ever.  

"Thish ish the beauty of life"