Sergei PogrebnyakSport correspondentAll materialsEmail to the authorRoman Pavlyuchenko came on as a substitute and scored a goal ten minutes later, «burying» the Czech national team. Russia started off with a rout in the group stage of Euro 2012 and was preparing to become one of the main discoveries of the tournament. In just a few days, our footballers turned from national heroes into the main mediocrity of the country, and Andrei Arshavin uttered the most famous phrase of Russian football. Why were there high expectations from the national team? the strongest rivals, the most formidable of which was Ireland. As a result, Dick Advocaat's team managed to calmly take first place in the group and directly qualify for the decisive round. The team completed its preparatory camp for the tournament with a friendly match with the Italian team. The Russians really showed off and scored three unanswered goals against the future Euro finalists. Such a result, coupled with still fresh memories of the historical success at the last European Championship, gave fans confidence in a successful performance in Poland and Ukraine. And a better start to the tournament could not have been imagined. The Russians with a score of 4:1 defeated the Czechs, which then in their prime included Petr Cech and Tomas Rosicky, who were igniting in England. Daring Alan Dzagoev became the author of a double and immediately attracted the attention of European giants, and Roman Shirokov, with his smartest game, made our attacks unpredictable.
