Portimão-born João Moutinho helped the Portuguese national side to a much improved performance during their opening Group B match against title favourites Germany.
Manager Paulo Bento’s men were desperately unlucky not to be ahead before the three-time champion Mario Gomez powered home what proved to be the winning header. The score in the second Group B encounter was 1-0 but this time it was underdogs Denmark who upset their fancied Dutch opponents.
In Group D, new-look England held France to a 1-1 draw while co-hosts the Ukraine began their campaign with a 2-1 win over Sweden. Elsewhere the Republic of Ireland was beaten 3-1 by Croatia as Group C favourites Spain and Italy shared a 1-1 draw, the same scoreline achieved by Poland and Greece in Group A which is being led by 4-1 victors over the Czech Republic, Russia.
