Poland held by Portugal in stadium opener
Reuters - Wednesday 29 February 2012, 22:57
Poland failed to rise to
the occasion in the first match at their new National stadium
on Wednesday after battling out a 0-0 international friendly
draw with fellow Euro 2012 finalists Portugal.
A capacity-crowd at the last Euro 2012 venue to be completed
after a raft of problems witnessed a lacklustre match with few
memorable moments on a night which marked 100 days to go before
Poland host Greece in the tournament opener in Warsaw.
Portugal midfielder Nani wasted a one-on-one chance to break
the deadlock just before half-time while Polish striker Ireneusz
Jelen failed to capitalise on a blunder from Portugal defender
Bruno Alves.
Adrian Mierzejewski and Slawomir Peszko spurned chances
after the break but the hosts clearly missed injured striker
Robert Lewandowski.
"Today Portugal was at full strength, while we lacked a few
key players. Overall its was a good debut of the venue," Poland
coach Franciszek Smuda said.
Poland captain Jakub Blaszczykowski added: "With a team like
Portugal there is no point in taking risks and we were just
trying to be safe and we've played a good game all in all."
While the match offered little to cheer for fans, the
organisational side appeared to pass off without a hitch with no
problems reported by security officials.
The 58,000 capacity arena is the largest of Poland's four
arenas for Euro 2012, which it will co-host with Ukraine, and
cost 1.75 billion zlotys ($562.3 million) - two-and-a-half-times more
than any of the other three.
It also proved the most problematic. The stadium manager was
ousted earlier this month after months of construction delays
and several launch hold offs.