Football: Welbeck, Walcott rescue England against Sweden in Euro 2012

KIEV: England remained on course for a place in the knockout rounds of Euro 2012 after coming from behind to send Sweden crashing out of the tournament with a 3-2 victory here Friday.

Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck scored a well-taken winner for England in the 78th minute after the introduction of substitute Theo Walcott swung a see-saw Group D battle back in his side's favour.

England had got off to a dream start when recalled striker Andy Carroll headed them into a 23rd-minute lead.
But an own goal from Glen Johnson on 49 minutes followed by a header from Olof Mellberg in the 59th minute threatened to set up a disastrous night for Roy Hodgson's side.

However, the substitution of James Milner for Walcott changed the game. The Arsenal winger lashed in a 64th-minute equaliser to make it 2-2 and then provided the run and pass which set up Welbeck's winner.
"It's always nice to come off the bench and show what you can do," said Walcott.
"We felt from first game (1-1 draw with France) we wanted to pick things up and to get three goals is terrific."

Welbeck was delighted more for the team than himself.
"It was a typical game of two-halves but we always had the belief. There's a great spirit about this squad."

England's first ever competitive victory over the Swedes means they will qualify for the quarter-finals with only a point in their final group game against co-hosts Ukraine in Donetsk next Tuesday.

However, Hodgson will want to see a marked improvement from his side if they are to secure the draw they need after a performance littered with errors and shaky defending.

England had started positively, Scott Parker forcing a fine save out of Andreas Isaksson after only seven minutes with a fine swerving effort from 20 yards that the Swedish keeper parried to safety.

Sweden meanwhile had to wait until 20 minutes before threatening the England goal, captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic letting fly with a long range shot that was blocked comfortably by Joe Hart.

For a while, it looked as if England's familiar failings of conceding possession too cheaply and poor delivery would be costly.
Captain Steven Gerrard had clearly seen enough on 23 minutes.

Seizing possession in midfield, the England skipper looked up to curl in a pinpoint long-range diagonal ball which the twisting Carroll met with a thunderous header that gave Isaksson no chance.

Sweden were forced to look for openings on the break and threatened to score when Ibrahimovic dispossessed the careless Johnson and played in Kim Kallstrom whose shot flew over.

England's positive first half display came unstuck, however, within five minutes of the restart as a rejuvenated Sweden dominated play.

The equaliser came after an Ibrahimovic free-kick bounced back off the wall and was played back to an unmarked Mellberg being played onside by Johnson.

The bearded centre-half's shot beat Hart and Johnson was unable to scramble out of his own net. Mellberg claimed it, but the equaliser was ruled an own-goal by Johnson.

England were rocking and it got worse for Hodgson's men on 59 minutes as Sweden went 2-1 up. Sebastian Larsson swung in a curling free-kick and shambolic defending in the England defence allowed Mellberg to nod home Sweden's second.

Milner, who had capped a poor evening by conceding the free-kick which led to Sweden's second, was then promptly hauled off for Walcott.

The Arsenal winger made an immediate impact and within minutes England were level, Walcott's shot from just outside the area catching Isaksson off-balance to make it 2-2.

Sweden continued to cause England problems on the break and Ibrahimovic forced Hart to dive at full-stretch to turn around a 76th-minute effort.

But two minutes later, Walcott rescued England again, darting into the box with an electrifying burst to cross for Welbeck, who flicked in a deft finish with the back of his heel to make it 3-2.

Football: Champions Spain thrash Ireland to top group in Euro 2012

GDANSK, Poland: Defending champions Spain are on course for the Euro 2012 quarter-finals after their 4-0 thrashing of Ireland on Thursday put them top of Group C with the Irish bowing out.

For all their endeavour in defence, Ireland struggled constantly to cope with the torrent of Spanish attacks as Chelsea's Fernando Torres proved he is back to his best with two clinically-taken goals.

Having decided the Euro 2008 final with the winning goal against Germany, Torres netted either side of Manchester City's David Silva second-half strike before his replacement Cesc Fabregas added the fourth seven minutes from time.

"We were chasing shadows," said Ireland midfielder Keith Andrews.
"We said before the match, we should learn from our mistakes in the first game but then we shot ourselves in the foot by conceding an early goal. Make no mistake, they are a top side and we were always up against it.

"In terms of the Italy game, we are playing for pride simple as that."

With 66 per cent ball possession, 26 shots on goal, 20 of which were on target, Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given had a busy night as Spain dominated while Ireland managed just six shots on goal in total.

The win puts Spain top of the group on goal difference and level on four points with second-placed Croatia, who Vicente del Bosque's world champions face here at Arena Gdansk again on Monday.

Having suffered their second defeat after losing 3-1 to Croatia on Sunday, Giovanni Trapattoni's Ireland will exit after the group stages.

Italy, who drew 1-1 with Croatia earlier, have two points in third and can still progress if they beat Ireland in Poznan, Poland, the same day, but the Azzurri are reliant on either Spain or Croatia winning in Gdansk.

Spain had complained to UEFA about the dry condition of the Gdansk pitch during Sunday's 1-1 draw with Italy as Fabregas labeled it "a disaster", but heavy rain during Thursday's match made the issue null and void.

Having used a 4-3-3 formation against Italy without a recognised striker, Spain coach Vicente del Bosque elected to start Torres at the expense of Barcelona's Fabregas.

The Chelsea star rewarded the faith with the opening goal after just four minutes.

With Spain on the attack, Ireland defender Richard Dunne tackled Silva on the edge of the area, but Torres pounced on the loose ball and drilled his shot past Given from a tight angle.

Buoyed by the legions of green-clad fans, who clearly outnumbered the Spanish fans at Arena Gdansk and sang until the end, Ireland battled forward, but any rare first-half forages into the Spain half were quickly snuffed out.

A heavy tackle on Andres Iniesta earned Ireland captain Robbie Keane the game's first booking on 36 minutes and Glenn Whelan followed just before the break for a foul on Silva as it finished 1-0 at the break.

Trapatonni brought on Stoke City's Jon Walters for Simon Cox up front at half-time, but there was no stemming the tide of Spanish attacks.
A long-range shot from Iniesta was parried by Given, but fell into Silva's path, who jinked his way around defenders to roll his shot calmly past Given four minutes after the break.

After Given pulled off more heroics to deny Xavi Hernandez's corner shot, Ireland lifted their tempo with a series of attacks as Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas was pressed into service.

The threatened third goal came when Silva released Torres, who raced away from Dunne and slotted home his shot on 70 minutes to give Given no chance before the Spaniard made way for Fabregas four minutes later.

The Barcelona star, who scored the equaliser against Italy, again showed his class as he drilled home his shot from a tight angle for Spain's fourth.

Football: France and England in Euro stalemate

DONETSK, Ukraine: France and England on Monday played out a 1-1 draw in their Euro 2012 opener in Donetsk, Ukraine, with three players from English Premier League champions Manchester City playing key roles.

City defender Joleon Lescott opened the scoring for England on the half hour, heading in a perfectly weighted Steven Gerrard free-kick from the right touch-line after Patrice Evra had bundled into James Milner.

Lescott's clubmate Sami Nasri, though, got the French back on terms nine minutes later, hitting a well-placed, right-foot shot through a crowd of players from the edge of the penalty area low to Joe Hart's right.

Hart, who also plays for the Premier League champions, had minutes earlier kept out a bullet header from Marseille's Alou Diarra with a superb reflex save - one of a handful to keep the French at bay and England in the game.

The draw means France are now unbeaten in 22 games but England are likely to come away happier with the point, after a build-up hit by injuries to key players like Frank Lampard and suspension to Wayne Rooney.

"All in all we're satisfied with the point," said Liverpool's Gerrard.

Co-hosts Ukraine take on Sweden in the second Group D match at 1845 GMT, with Oleg Blokhin's side eager to impress in their first game in front of home fans in the capital Kiev.

Blokhin has said he is unsure how his players will react when they walk out in the Olympic Stadium, after disappointing pre-tournament results and a stomach bug that struck his squad.

Expectations rest on the home side's ageing marksman Andrei Shevchenko, who guided the team to the 2006 World Cup finals and at 35 is still a potent striking force.

Home fans will also be looking to what has been billed as the Ukrainian equivalent of the South African vuvuzela - the "zozulica" - with the cuckoo-shaped traditional clay whistle thought to bring luck and chase away evil spirits.

Sweden coach Erik Hamren has said home support makes Ukraine favourites.

Thousands of Sweden fans will be at the match, though, in what is likely to be a welcome break from the mosquito-infested, unfinished riverside camp site in Kiev where they have set up base.

In neighbouring Poland, preparations for the co-hosts' match with old rivals Russia on Tuesday stepped up a gear, with the authorities calling it their "biggest challenge".

Organisers said 29,300 Polish fans had tickets for the match while 9,800 Russian were expected.

Fears of violence at the Group A game have mounted as Tuesday is Russia's national day and Russia fans have already been involved in football-related violence.

"We hope that our worst fears don't come true," said Polish interior minister Jacek Cichocki.

Sporting encounters between the countries always have the weight of shared history and politics but some Polish media showed no sign of letting bygones be bygones.

The tabloid Super Express mocked up a picture of coach Franciszek Smuda in uniform, on horseback and clutching a sword, calling for "a second Miracle on the Vistula", a reference to a 1920 battle won by Poland over Russia against all odds.

The Polish edition of Newsweek echoed the allusion with mention of "The Battle of Warsaw" 2012.

Police themselves were tight-lipped about the number of Russian and Polish fans that could march to the stadium but the country's Euro 2012 spokesman, Marcin Hera, confirmed that 9,800 Russian and 29,300 Polish fans had tickets for the match.

A total 6,000 policemen are on duty in the capital during Euro 2012 but Warsaw police spokesman Maciej Karczynski refused to say how many will be deployed in Tuesday's pre-and-post match security operation.

Football: Danes stun Dutch 1-0 in Euro 2012

KHARKIV, Ukraine: Denmark claimed the first upset of Euro 2012 by overcoming a badly misfiring Netherlands side 1-0 in their opening Group B match at Metalist Stadium here on Saturday.

Brondby forward Michael Krohn-Dehli claimed the game's only goal mid-way through the first half, as Denmark avenged their opening-game loss at the 2010 World Cup and recorded a first win over the Dutch since 1967.

Defeat already compromises the Netherlands' chances of progressing to the knockout phase, with games against Germany and Portugal still to come in the competition's most unforgiving group.

Beaten finalists at the World Cup and top scorers in qualifying, the Dutch entered the tournament among the favourites but their hopes of success in Poland and Ukraine may now hinge on Wednesday's encounter with Germany.

"This is the game," rued Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk.

"We were really determined and I thought that we played even better than our opponents, but you have to score that goal."

Denmark, meanwhile, will advance with renewed belief that they can emulate their shock Euro triumph from 1992, particularly as they finished above forthcoming opponents Portugal in qualifying.

"If you want to beat one of these teams, you need to play at a high level," said Denmark coach Morten Olsen.

"We needed a good team performance and that's what happened. Of course, the Dutch had a lot of chances, but so did we.

"The most important thing was that we trusted our own way of playing football, which is very important against a team like Holland. It showed how and why we qualified for this tournament."

At the age of 18 years and 71 days, Jetro Willems became the youngest ever player to grace a European Championship but the Dutch left-back showed no early nerves and saw a shot from 20 yards narrowly clear the crossbar.

Maarten Stekelenburg was the first goalkeeper called into action, as he comfortably claimed a header from Danish captain Daniel Agger, but gradually the Danes were forced deeper and deeper into their own territory.

Ibrahim Afellay, Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben all threatened on multiple occasions, while the latter saw a low cross cut out by Lars Jacobsen after electing not to reward van Persie's through ball with a shot.

It was therefore against the run of play that Denmark broke the deadlock, in the 24th minute, as Krohn-Dehli sold John Heitinga a dummy inside the box before tucking the ball between Stekelenburg's legs.

The goal brought Holland coach Bert van Marwijk to the edge of his technical area and it was from there that he saw Robben strike the base of Denmark's right-hand post after pouncing on goalkeeper Stephan Andersen's loose pass as the 1988 champions roused themselves.

Wesley Sneijder set up van Persie for what looked certain to be the equaliser shortly before the interval, but for once the Arsenal man's touch let him down and his shot was blocked by the advancing Andersen.

 The Netherlands had 12 shots off target in the first half and their struggle for precision continued in the second, with van Persie tripping over his own feet after being put through in the early stages.

Spurned chances continued to come and go at an alarming rate for the Dutch, while Krohn-Dehli had Stekelenburg scrambling with a low shot at the other end.

Van Marwijk chose to act by introducing Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Rafael van der Vaart from the bench, and the Schalke striker almost made an immediate impact, collecting Sneijder's fine pass but being bravely denied by Andersen.

A strong handball appeal against Jacobsen brought the Dutch substitutes charging from the dug-out, arms aloft, in the 89th minute but there was to be no late reprieve for van Marwijk's men.