Euro 2012 Day 1 Wrap: Greece Deny Poland, Dzagoev Stars for Rampant Russia

Euro 2012 is up and running, and we could barely have seen a more eventful first couple of matches to set light to the tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

The action started with Euro 2004 winners Greece holding co-hosts Poland to a 1-1 draw at the National Stadium in Warsaw.

In the second game of the day, Russia swept aside a weak Czech Republic, 4-1, to go atop of Group A and make a case for their chances of a run into the knockout stages.

Here's the first of our daily wraps taking you through the action and pointing you towards what tomorrow has to offer.

Poland's Robert Lewandowski scored the opening goal of Euro 2012—the striker headed home a fine cross from his Borussia Dortmund teammate, Jakub Blaszczykowski, on 17 minutes.

The partisan home crowd must have fancied a rout—especially when Greece had Sokratis Papastathopoulos harshly sent off for two soft yellows just before halftime.

But the Greeks brought on Dimitrios Salpingidis at halftime, and within six minutes of the restart, he slid in to make it 1-1.

Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny was arguably partly to blame, and things were about to get much worse for the Arsenal stopper.

On 68 minutes, he pulled down Salpingidis to concede a penalty and earn himself a red card.

Greece, who at the break looked down and out, now had a chance to take a 2-1 lead.

Giorgos Karagounis stepped up for the Greeks. The experienced midfielder placed his kick to the bottom right, but Poland's substitute goalkeeper, Przemyslaw Tyton, guessed right and saved.

Szczesny, watching a feed in the tunnel, could barely contain himself.

And with that, the teams were left to play out a 1-1 draw.

The attention then turned to Russia vs. Czech Republic, at the Municipal Stadium in Wroclaw, Poland.

Russia's Alan Dzagoev was an injury doubt for Euro 2012. It's already clear the tournament would have been poorer without the much-hyped 21-year-old.

Dzagoev put Russia ahead against the Czechs with an emphatic finish on 14 minutes and added a fine second in the second half to lay an early claim as the tournament's potential breakthrough act.

Andrei Arshavin couldn't get a game at Arsenal last season, but he was arguably one of Russia's best players.

Arshavin set up Russia's second for Roman Shirokov and looked sharp and imaginative throughout.

Talking about North London struggles, how about Roman Pavlyuchenko's cameo as a second-half substitute.

The former Spurs striker set up Dzagoev for his second, and then smashed a finish home to claim one for himself.

Friday's results put Russia in command at the top of Group A.

The next round of games will see Greece play the Czech Republic and Poland take on Russia.

The specter of racism continues to loom over Euro 2012.

On Friday reports of racist chanting during the Netherlands' training session in Krakow, Poland, were confirmed by UEFA—full BBC Sport report here.

This from UEFA, as per the same BBC article, which suggests supposed supporters were directing monkey chants at the players:

Should such behaviour happen at further training sessions, UEFA would evaluate the operational measures to be taken to protect players.

UEFA has now been made aware that there were some isolated incidents of racist chanting that occurred at the open training session of the Dutch team yesterday (Thursday) in Krakow.

UEFA has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to discriminatory behavior and has given the power to referees to stop matches in case of any repeated racist behavior.

Netherland captain Mark van Bommel said, as per BBC Sport:

It is a real disgrace, especially after getting back from Auschwitz, that you are confronted with this.

We will take it up with UEFA and if it happens at a match we will talk to the referee and ask him to take us off the field.

If you thought Friday was good, wait for what Euro 2012 has in store on Saturday.

Group B, the so-called "Group of Death", gets underway with 2010 World Cup runners-up Netherlands taking on Denmark in the opening game (12 p.m. Eastern).

Following that, it's the much-fancied Germans against Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal (2:45 p.m.).

Another thing to mention is our exclusive interview with Thierry Henry—coming at you on Sunday.

Keep it Bleacher Report for Euro 2012.

Greece 1-1 Poland: What We Learned

Russia 4-1 Czech Republic: What We Learned

Euro 2012 Quarterfinals Projections