Euro 2008 - Day 1

Euro 2008 kicked off today as Portugal knocked off Turkey 2-0 and the Czech Republic beat Switzerland 1-0.

Portugal 2  Turkey 0
Second-half goals from Pepe and substitute Raul Meireles ensured Portugal got their Euro 2008 campaign off to a winning start against Turkey at the Stade de Geneve.  Man of the match Pepe sent the Portuguese fans into raptures on the hour with a well-taken goal, playing a neat one-two with captain Nuno Gomes before lifting his shot over Volkan Demirel.  Raul Meireles made the points safe in stoppage time when he slotted home following a quick counter-attack involving Cristiano Ronaldo and Joao Moutinho.  Luiz Felipe Scolari's team will count themselves unlucky not to have won by a greater margin after hitting the woodwork three times.  Ronaldo saw his 35-yard free-kick brilliantly tipped onto the post by Turkey goalkeeper Volkan seven minutes before the interval and Nuno Gomes was twice denied by the woodwork after the break.  But two goals were enough to see Portugal move top of Group A on goal difference from Czech Republic, who edged co-hosts Switzerland 1-0 in the tournament's curtain-raiser earlier in the day in Basle.

Czech Republic 1  Switzerland 0
Switzerland's Euro 2008 campaign got off to a catastrophic start as substitute Vaclav Sverkos' second-half strike earned the Czech Republic a smash-and-grab win over the co-hosts in the tournament curtain-raiser in Basle.  Not only did the Swiss lose a Group A match they dominated for large parts at the St Jakob-Park, they also may have lost talismanic striker Alexander Frei for the rest of the competition after he went off injured at the end of the first half.  Frei, the nation's torchbearer when it comes to their football team, was crying as he hobbled off with a knee injury in the 44th minute.  And many of the home team's fans will have done just the same when Banik Ostrava's Sverkos, the top scorer in the Czech top flight this season with 15 goals, poked home a scarcely deserved winner in the 70th minute.  What the defeat, and more importantly Frei's injury, will do to the Swiss remains to be seen, but they already face an uphill struggle to qualify from a group that also includes Turkey and Portugal, one of the favourites for the title.