Jakub Blaszczykowski of Poland celebrates scoring their first goal during the Uefa Euro 2012 group A match between Poland and Russia.
“This tie has the taste of victory,” the tabloid Super Express said on Wednesday, calling the national team “unbeatable”, after the 1-1 draw in the National Stadium in the capital, Warsaw, on Tuesday.
“We’re still in the game!!!!,” enthused Gazeta Wyborcza after the highly-charged match, which took place against a backdrop of turbulent shared history and bad blood between the two nations.
“For now, we can be sure the tournament won’t bring us any more shame and that the players are up to the task,” the centre-left daily added.
Franciszek Smuda’s side opened the showpiece tournament last Friday by drawing 1-1 with Greece. Old foes Russia had been favourites going into Tuesday’s game after their demolition of the Czech Republic 4-1.
But despite going 1-0 down in the first half through a goal from CSKA Moscow’s Alan Dzaegov, Polish skipper Kuba Blaszczykowski cancelled it out in the second.
The Poles lie third in Group A with two points, behind Russia (four points) and the Czechs (three), who beat Greece 2-1 in Wroclaw.
Finishing second or even top is still dependent on the results of the next games – Poland play the Czechs and Russia, Greece on Saturday – but the right-leaning broadsheet daily Rzeczpospolita still said: “There’s hope again.”
And after coming from behind to secure a precious point, the newspaper assessed that qualification was “not an impossible task”.
Polish media also focused on the worst violence of the championships so far, as Polish and Russian fans fought running battles and clashed with riot police, throwing bottles, rocks and broken road signs before the match.
But Rzeczpospolita said the clashes could have been worse and that hundreds of thousands of supporters had enjoyed an exhilarating evening.
“Even though the brawls marred the tournament’s calm image, they were minor and involved just a couple hundred people,” the daily said. – Sapa-AFP