90+2 min Chalkias comes for the corner, doesn't get anywhere near it, and is relieved to see the ball sail over everybody and out for a goal kick. Honestly, Chalkias couldn't catch herpes. 90 min Katsouranis's sliced clearance sails inches over his own goal! It's going to be a corner. Obraniak to take. Can Poland pull a winner out of the bag? Can't see Greece doing it, to be honest... 89 min Greece now trying to run down the clock. That's the sort of ambition that won them a European Championship. Karagounis is huffing and puffing around like a pensioner. Not that Greece really does pensions any more. Three minutes of injury time. 87 min Foul by Perquis. Greece have a free-kick 35 yards out. Karagounis isn't going to shoot, I don't think, but Papadopoulos - not the Papadopoulos that went off in the first half, but the Papadopoulos that replaced him. You know, Kyriakos Papadopoulos - has gone up for it. Oh, by the time I've typed Papadopoulos four times the ball is cleared and Papadopoulos - Kyriakos Papadopoulos - trots sadly back towards his own half. 85 min Greece, you feel, would snap your hands off if you offered them a draw. Poland? Not sure. This was earmarked as their easiest game, and instead of storming to a morale-boosting victory, they've given up an almost unassailable supremacy and lost their keeper. Szczesny will miss one game only. 84 min Can we make all football games 10 a side? Karagounis is in acres of space in the Polish half, ignores the two men outside him and Samaras inside him, and tries to lash the ball in from 25 yards. This, predictably, ends in tears 82 min "We're watching the two worst teams in the tournament," Mark Bright says. Shame Sheffield Wednesday couldn't make it, then. 80 min Samaras picks up on a loose header 20 yards out and rifles a shot at goal. Ten minutes later, a young kid playing in his back garden in Wroclaw sees an official Euro 2012 football sailing over the fence towards him. He blinks, puzzled. 79 min Here's Donncha O Conmhui: It's essential for the Greeks to secede from the euro and initiate a controlled deflation of currency, possibly by indexing the value of the new currency to a natural resource which is both valuable and which they have in abundance, such as yogurt or cynical, dull, bus-parking football tactics. Ah, see what you done. You done a little funny. Was wondering where that one was going... 77 min Greece look like they've had a massive stimulus of football talent. Maniatis tries an audacious dipping shot from 30 yards. Maniatis apologises to his team-mates as the ball sails over the bar. 76 min Here's a stat courtesy of our resident statistical wonk John Ley: there were only three red cards in the whole of Euro 2008. Here, we've seen two in the space of a crazy half-hour. 74 min GOAL DISALLOWED (Greece) Samaras wins the header, Fortounis picks up the loose ball on the left, fires in a low cross across the face of the goal and Salpingidis drills it in from 18 inches. But Fortounis was in an offside position when Samaras flicked it on to him. Lots more praying hands from Salpingidis and the Greek players, but that was clearly offside. 73 min What a game this is turning into. Lovely lofted ball from Fortounis over the top for Salpingidis, who was completely in the clear. He touched the ball away from Szczesny, waited for the contact, and tumbled gratefully over it. Rybus was brought off to make way for Tyton, and we see a shot of Szczesny watching the penalty on a TV screen in the tunnel. The most relieved man in Warsaw. 71 min PENALTY SAVED (Tyton) Premyslaw Tyton has saved the penalty with his first ever touch at a European Championships! Karagounis stepped up and placed it to his right, substitute keeper Tyton guessed right, and pushed it clear! Drama! 68 min PENALTY TO GREECE; RED CARD (Szczesny) Disaster for Poland! Szczesny has scythed down Salpingidis, given away a penalty and got himself sent off! Karagounis to put Greece ahead... 67 min Greece bring off Gekas, who's done a lot of running and a lot of barging, but not a great deal of 'playing', in the classical sense. Teenager Kostas Fortounis replaces him. 66 min Boenisch plunging down the left hand side. Greece are stretched for a minute, and Boenisch has plenty of space to cross. Rybus is unmarked in the area, and his glancing header is just over the bar. The stadium's gone terribly quiet since that Greek goal. Poland look flat, but I still make them favourites. Here's Andy Holgate's financial stimulus: Tell them to stop smashing plates. Must cost them a fortune each year. 65 min Ha, ha, ha. 63 min Samaras! What a chance that was! You could really tell he didn't fancy that one on his left foot, but it was a lovely lofted ball by Karagounis, and Samaras was in tonnes of space. Szczesny came out to meet him, but Samaras had plenty of time to get a shot away. But he tarried, and by the time he did, it was sliced well wide with Szczesny bearing down on him. 62 min Greece now knocking the ball around at walking pace. Katsouranis hoists a high diagonal ball for Samaras, who wins the throw. 60 min That, by the way, was Greece's first shot on target. Salpingidis with a foul on Boenisch. I make that the 23rd foul of the match so far. 58 min Obraniak takes it left-footed, and whistles it about a yard wide. Greece, predictably, have settled back into their tight, reactive shape, all 10 men behind the ball. 56 min Papadopoulos with a foul on Lewandowski, and Carlos Caballo, who's been remarkably pernickety so far, awards a free-kick. Obraniak and Rybus standing over it. 55 min Daniel Harrison has another solution to the Greek crisis: Greece can lease out or sell its beautiful islands to the highest bidders and loan its antiquities to major art institutions worldwide. The cash flow from these assets may cover their bond payments. This is what I'm thinking, right? Do they really need Faliraki? Could they not sell it to WKD or something? 54 min Szczesny after that goal did the sort of thing that really marks out the great goalkeepers in history. Having completely fluffed a cross, he spent the aftermath screaming at his defence for not stopping the cross, not blocking the cross, not clearing the cross and generally not being Wojciech Szczesny. What a guy. Karagounis booked for deliberate handball. 52 min Salpingidis has really transformed Greece going forward. He's given them a bit of thrust, a bit of desire. Boenisch brings him down and gives away a free-kick. Poland 1-1 Greece (Salpingidis) Beware Greeks bearing gifts! Having shown virtually no ambition or cohesion in the 50 previous minutes, Greece conjure up a goal from absolutely nothing! And a shocking rush of blood from Szczesny, who comes for a cross from the right, misses it completely, and allows Salpingidis to lash the ball into an empty net from 10 yards! Torossidis with the cross from the right, and Poland paying for their profligacy in the first half. They should be out of sight by now. Instead, we're level agian. 48 min Rybus spies an opening cutting in from the left, the ball comes through to Lewandowski and the Pole fires over from an angle. I know you're thinking they're all Poles, but in fact some of them aren't quite as Polish as you'd think. Perquis is French, Polanski German. In fact, before he switched nationality, Polanski was asked who he would support in Germany v Poland. He said Germany. Duhhh. 47 min Another change for the Greeks at the start of the second half: Salpingidis is on for Ninis. 18.04 Here we go again, then. Greece, remember, playing the second half with 10 men as some sort of austerity measure. 17.59 Time for some emails. Here's Paul Connor: Cancel the London Olympics (and all other summer Games) and return them permanently to their original home in Athens. Should be good for a few billion Euros. Simple! Ah, so the Olympics actually make money? I see... Here's Peter Rowntree: It's simple really, all Greek names should be shortened to a third of their size so that time to read and write forms is considerably reduced so they can get more productive work done. It would also make your job a lot easier on the blog column - for which with the current names on both sides I think you should at least be given a knighthood - well done mate, don't know how you are doing it! Sarah Abraham tackles a similar theme: Hey Jonathan, good stuff with the live blog. I've no solutions as far as the Greek crises - any of them - go, but I do have a serious question to ask you. How in holy hell are you spelling all those names right when you've so little time to check or copy/paste?! Copying and pasting is cheating, by the way. Here's Marko Marjanovic: Greece should simply say that they won't pay, tell IMF to go ---- themselves, disintegrate from the EU, use drachmas instead of euros. Well, why do you think the whole nation has to suffer for a few that tricked the system and were corrupt? This is not about universal justice, if it is then ask those individuals that were to blame for this situation to stand responsible, not the whole nation. Reform the whole government as well, try to take a leap of democracy into something new, better and less corrupt. And what would the Greeks know about democracy? That's a joke, by the way. HALF-TIME Poland 1-0 Greece 45+1 min Now Holebas gets himself booked, and comes a whisker away from talking himself into an early shower as well! Karagounis steps in and urges calm. In the middle of all that, Greece were apoplectic at not getting a penalty for a handball by Perquis in the area. All happening as the half-time whistle blows. 45 min Big blow for Greece that: they've now lost both their centre-backs. Papastathopoulos was a key player for them, always the first name on the teamsheet, if only because otherwise there wouldn't be space for it. Katsouranis has dropped back into the centre of defence. 44 min RED CARD Greece (Papastathopoulos) The Greeks are surrounding referee Caballo, praying hands raised in his direction, beseeching the Spaniard to reconsider. But it's a second bookable offence for the Greek defender after bringing down Murawski, and to be fair there wasn't a great deal in either of his bookings. Papastathopoulos is incensed. He needs to get off that football pitch before he lands his country in even more debt. 43 min Samaras - first time we've seen him trying to power through the centre - and he shakes off Piszczek and lays the ball outside to Ninis on the right wing. Ninis cuts in on his left foot, tries a back-heel to - well, not sure really. Sotiris Ninis, ladies and gentlemen. 42 min Corner to Greece now, but headed away majestically by Wasilewski. 40 min The corner's cleared, and Poland can break. Blaszczykowski gets to the loose ball ahead of Papadopoulos and tries to swing a cross in for Lewandowski. Obraniak was on the cut-back and in acres of space, and after the ball is deflected behind for a corner, he bawls at Blaszczykowski. Blaszczykowski bawls back at him. 39 min Gekas! Corner from Ninis from the right, and Polanski just got his head to the ball before Gekas. 37 min Perquis drags a shot wide from six yards! The ball fell perfectly for the French-born defender in the area after a Poland corner, just crying out to be lashed into the roof of the net. Instead, he didn't connect cleanly, sending the ball a yard wide of goal. 36 min Avraam Papadopoulos is going to come off. He tried to soldier on for a while, but he's now being replaced by Kyrgiakos Papadopoulos. I was planning on referring to both as Papadopoulos, so this doesn't really have a massive impact on your life. 35 min Papastathopoulos picks up the first yellow card of the tournament for clambering all over the back of Lewandowski. 34 min Free-kick from Karagounis, which again doesn't get above waist heigh and again doesn't clear the first man. It's almost as if Greece have carried their general state of disarray onto the pitch. Expect Bastian Schweinsteiger to come marching onto the pitch in the second half, barking orders and telling the manager which players to take off. 33 min Holebas tries to cross from the left with a few blue shirts to aim at in the area. Oh, horrible. Horrible. Straight to the first man, who's Wasilewski. 32 min Polanski tries to pick out Lewandowski, but laying it outside to Piszczek looked the better option there. Hacked away by Katsouranis. 31 min Better few minutes from Greece, this. Gekas pressures Rybus, who slices the ball straight out for a throw. 29 min Headed away by Perquis, I think. "I would suggest the Greeks borrow a few million euro and put it all on Poland winning by more than three clear goals," writes Peter Littley. 28 min Boenisch brings down Ninis right on the edge of the area, near the right byline. Another chance for Greek to dink it in. Ninis to take. 27 min Headed away by Avraam Papadopoulos, who has returned to the field. But then Greece give it straight away again. It's important to note that this Greek side is a little more adventurous than the one that one in 2004. It's not simply a case of park-the-olive-cart any more. They're going to have to chase this game. 26 min It's headwed away, but then Obraniak is then scythed down by Karagounis, and referee Caballo awards a free-kick. 25 min Papastathopoulos and Lewandowski chase down a high bouncing ball. Papastathopoulos gets a foot to it and whacks it out for a corner, which Obraniak is gong to take. 24 min Katsouranis tries a speculative shot from distance. That's the sort of speculation that got Greece into this mess in the first place. It dribbles well wide. 23 min Murawski looks for Lewandowski again, but Greece just about manage to scramble it clear. Poland could well finish this game off by half-time if they have their wits about them. 21 min Avraam Papadopoulos still getting treated on the sidelines as we resume. Kyrgiakos Papadopoulos (no relation) is getting ready to come on in his place. He's a properly exciting defender, loves running the ball out of defence, monstrous in the air. Meanwhile, here's J Koutsavoulos: It is well known (at least to Greeks) that most if not all the members of the Greek Parliament and Ministers from 1974 until today they have taken advantage from their positions to acquire a lot of money, properties in Greece and abroad, from legitimate commission (the Ministers are entitled to a certain percentage when ordering supplies), bribes, etc. An ex- minister of Defence Mr A Tsochatzopoulos is currently in prison because he cannot justify the amounts of money in his accounts (around 1000 million euros found until now in Swiss accounts) and the properties bought in Athens and other cities in Greece and abroad. If the Greek government take back all the money from the members of the Greek Parliament and Ministers then Greece does no need the foreign assistance. And there is no need to prison all these offenders. Um... and your prediction for the Euros? 19 min That's got this stadium rocking. Scarves being waved in the air, every seat in the National Stadium filled. Warsaw packed. We've just got a bit of a stoppage at the moment for an injury to Papadopoulos. Poland 1-0 Greece (Lewandowski) Horror show from Chalkias, and the hosts have the perfect start! To be honest, you didn't need an oracle to see that one coming. Again Poland rip Greece apart down the right flank, Chalkias comes out to meet Blaszczekowski's cross, doesn't get anywhere near it, and Lewandowski can simply head the ball into an empty net! 16 min Samaras's attempted clearance deep in his own half is charged down, and Poland come again. Lewandowski gets the ball with his back to goal and tries to turn and fire it in left-footed from 20 yards, but slices it wide. Good game, this. 14 min Piszczek! Lewandowski! So close to an opening goal! Again Piszcek barges his way down that right flank, past Samaras and Holebas, and he has Lewandowski and Obraniak to aim at. He tries to whip the ball across the face of goal, Chalkias misses it, and Lewandowski is inches away from heading it into an empty net. 13 min Here's Rob Chidlow on email: I would knock down the Acropolis sell off each cobble on EBay and use the site to build a thousand Studio Flats for Polish immigrants. 11 min Gekas almost glances it in at the back post! For all the pressure Greece have been under, their front three are winning their headers. Szczesny was completely stranded there. That's how Greece get you, soak up the pressure, soak up the pressure, win a soft free-kick and head it in. 10 min Perquis making a rare foray forward, but he's given away a free-kick against Torosidis. Another free-kick to Greece, about 10 yards inside the Poland half, just in from the right touchline. Karagounis to take. 8 min Maniatis tries to ghost past Rybus. Rybus shuts the door. So far Poland's wingers are doing a lot better than Greece at getting back and supporting the full-backs in defence. 6 min Rybus drags a shot wide. Lewandowski is already causing Greece all sorts of problems, backing in robustly and laying the ball off. 5 min Murawski! Hit it, son! Piszczek charges down the right wing and gets the cross in to the near post. Lewandowski could have tried to squeeze it in but lays it off to Obraniak instead. Obraniak's shot is blocked by Papadopoulos, the ball comes out to Murawski on his left foot, and Chalkias has to leap to tip the shot over the bar. Mark Bright, the co-commentator on the BBC, refers to Chalkias as Szczesny, tries to correct himself, and realises he doesn't have a clue who the Greek keeper is. Still, bright start from Poland. 3 min Another free-kick, and a chance to send up the centre back Avraam Papadopoulos. It's pumped into the area, headed away and Gekas gives away a free-kick as he tries to win it back. 1 min Like that other great Europe-wide scrap, this begins with an incursion into Polish territory. This time from a Greek free-kick aimed at the head of Samaras rather than sixteen divisions of the Wehrmacht, and dealt with a good deal more securely too. 17.01 Greece to kick off. Go! Here's Mark Higgins on how to solve the Greek crisis: I've just booked a holiday to the delightful Greek island of Samos. If they're prepared to send Angelos Charisteas over for a kickabout I'll stick a tenner in the pot. 16.59 Ferocious rendition of the Polish national anthem. Are we ready for Euro 2012? You betcha. Both teams in huddles in their own half. Poland in white, Greece in blue. The roof is on at the National Stadium, which means it's incredibly humid in there. 16.55 The opening ceremony unfolds with a tedious inevitability, various children with bad hair being parded in various garish costumes, women in traditional dress accompanying an agitated man sitting at a piano, lots of strange dancing. We're now hearing national anthems. 16.45 Can history offer us any clues? The conventional thinking goes that opening games are generally cagey affairs, but we're yet to see a goalless draw at the Euros since 1980 (when it became a proper tournament rather than a four-team bagatelle). You will note that the hosts have won just one of the last six opening games. Can Greece spoil Poland's party as they did Portugal's eight years ago? File under 'I Don't Bleeding Know, Jonathan, Why Don't You Wait Until The Game Starts'. Opening games at the Euros through history* 2008 Switzerland 0-1 Czech Republic 2004 Portugal 1-2 Greece 2000 Belgium 2-1 Sweden 1996 England 1-1 Switzerland 1992 Sweden 1-1 France 1988 West Germany 1-1 Italy 1984 France 1-0 Denmark history in this instance referring to the period since Madonna's debut UK single release Greece give a start to young creative midfielder Sotiris Ninis ahead of Salpigidis.