“Thank you for the pleasant minutes we have shared with you”

On December 2, 2011 the draw seedings were announced for the UEFA Euro-2012. People who came to the Market Square in Wroclaw shouted smiling that on June 16 their closest neighbors Czechs would come on June 16 to drink beer and entertain themselves. It was also predicted that the Polish team would easily make it to the finals. And after two games of the championship, the Poles came with bated breath to the stadium in Wroclaw to see the crucial match.

An interesting fact, in May this year the football team Slask Wroclaw for the first time in 35 years won the Polish Championship Cup. Many locals say there can be only one champion in Wroclaw, but they hoped that the victorious energy would help their national team.

As for the crucial match, like before in Donetsk, the sky was covered with black clouds, and the downpour started right away after the whistle. Nobody stopped the game, and it seemed that the stadium would burst because of the lightning and loud songs of the Polish fans. The red-and-white fans rose from their seats every minute (most of them were standing all the time) with passionate songs like Poles, We Want a Goal, sure that they would not leave without a victory. Nearly 10,000 Czechs were present at the match, but they were supporting their team in quite a reserved manner. In the middle of the second time it was not too hard to see who the favorites were. This is football life as it is – the more interesting it will be to watch the unexpected quarter finals.

After the final whistle most of the Poles stayed on the seats and applauded to their football players, for whom it was hard to stand up after the shocking defeat. In this time loud shouts “Polska! Polska!” were heard from the Czech sectors. In the same way did Spaniards behave at the Gdansk Stadium, when they sang in unison with the Irish fans during the last minutes of the June 14 game the sporting anthem of Irish fans Fields of Athenry. Probably, at times such ending may be more important than a shameful defeat in semifinals.

The head coach of the Polish National Team Franciszek Smuda after the match of the third tour of group tournament Euro-2012 (0:1) blamed the team’s self-assurance for the defeat. After the match the players started quarreling. According to the Polish magazine Futbol, Euro-2012 for the Poles has ended in a scandal. And without doubt, Jiracek’s goal was for them like a guillotine. The end result is stinging for the Poles, but it cannot be otherwise. Their group, like a present of the fate, was the weakest in the tournament, and the Polish team has been the strongest there for many years. But the Polish team has two times played the draw and even stood all chances to win, therefore everyone hopes that it will enter the finals in the following championships.

And the Polish fans do not get tired of thanking their “eagles” even when it is the end. As for the commentaries from ordinary Poles, they repeat in the streets, social networks and radio programs the touching words, “Thank you for the pleasant minutes we have shared with you,” “Poles, everything’s fine,” and “Poland will win in two years.”

On the way to the city’s center in the crowded transport one could see different flags, including the Ukrainian one. Dmytro Zviriaka, a Transnistria-born student of the technological department in Ostrava, the Czech Republic, was among the Czech fans. Understanding Ukrainian, he replied in pure Russian that his heart thrilled the most at the sound of Ukrainian anthem, when our national team is present in the field. But this year he was sitting together with the thousands of red-white-blue fans and smiled when some Poles hugged him, congratulating on the victory.

In fact, Poles saw the Czechs to the railway station near which hundreds of people were lying in the grass. Shaking hands, the hosts shouted “Czechs!” and admitted that the best team had won. They only joked, “It is only good that Russians haven’t made it to the finals.”