Betting tips / Paul Bugeja / 09 June 2012 / Leave a comment Bet Now View Market

Max Liu loved how the Euro 2012 got off to a cracker of a start with Russia smashing the Czech Republic and a game of twists, turns and red cards in the draw between Greece and Poland

Russia are (1.34) to win Group A after their exciting attack destroyed the Czech Republic in their opening Euro 2012 match this evening.

Dick Advocaat's men, who outclassed their opponents for most of the match, were matched at 3.1 as they put themselves in a strong position to reach the knockout stages. Alan Dzagoev was the star as he hit two excellent finishes and now trades @ Betfair odds of (15.5) to be tournament top goalscorer.

Dzagoev gave Russia the lead after 15 minutes before Roman Shirokov dinked the ball past Petr Cech to double the advantage. The Czech's looked finished but Vaclav Pilar gave them hope after the break. However, their resurgence was short-lived, as Roman Pavlyuchenko came off the bench to rifle Russia in to a 3-1 lead before Dzagoev grabbed his second to reward those who bagged over 4.5 goals at 22.0.

It was highly impressive performance and leaves Russia as (15.0) dark horses in the outright winner market.

In the tournament opener, co-hosts Poland were held to a draw, which was matched at (11.5), against Greece. It was a lively match with both teams reduced to ten men and the sending off matched at (6.2).

In the early exchanges, Poland were dominant and when Robert Lewandowski gave them the lead they looked as though they might pull away. That looked increasingly likely when Sokratis Papastathopoulos was sent off for Greece and the 2004 champions went in at the break looking done for.

After the break, however, Dimitris Salpingidis struck the equaliser before he was brought down by Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny, who was shown a straight red. Events took an even more remarkable turn when Giorgos Karagounis's penalty was brilliantly saved by substitute Przemyslaw Tyton.

The score remained 1-1 and left Poland 2.04 and Greece 2.68 to qualify.