Czechs lead Greeks at half-time

Czech Republic were on course for a win which would keep alive their hopes of reaching the Euro 2012 quarter-finals as they led Greece 2-0 at half-time of their Group A clash here Tuesday. The Czechs made a dream start scoring twice in the opening six minutes as they took advantage of the out of sorts second choice Greek centreback pairing of Kostas Katsouranis and Kyriakos Papadopoulos, who had replaced the injured Avraam Padadopoulos and the suspended Socratis Papastathopoulos. First Jiri Jiracek was picked out in the third minute by Thomas Hubschman with a superb ball over the top which the Wolfsburg dynamo ran on to and fired in a shot that gave Greek 'keeper Costas Chalkias no chance. Chalkias was at fault for the second goal three minutes later as he failed to cut out Gebre Selassie's ball from the byline and with the two Greek central defenders slow to react Vaclav Pilar slid in to put the ball in the net. Chalkias's unhappy afternoon ended prematurely when he had to go off injured in the 22nd minute and was replaced by Michalis Sapikis. The Czechs lost their opening game 4-1 to Russia while Greece came from behind to draw 1-1 with co-hosts Poland in their opening games.