Russia, one of the dark horses of the tournament, tackle resurgent Czech Republic in their opening game, with the clash at Stadion Milejski in Wroclaw extremely important for both sides.

Having largely impressed at the Euro 2008 finals, when they reached semi-finals, the Russians have big ambitious for the tournament in Poland and Ukraine.

Dick Advocaat’s side were pretty convincing in the Euro 2012 qualifiers, beating the likes of Republic of Ireland, Armenia and Slovakia to the first place in the group, losing just one game and conceding four goals in the process.

Russia arrive to the tournament finals in confident mood, following the magnificent 3-0 victory over Italy that saw them extend their unbeaten run to 14 games.

When we also know that the team kept 9 clean sheets in last 11 games, odds of 2.10 (11/10) offered on home win by 188BET do look tempting.

Boss Dick Advocaat is unlikely to make major changes to the side that beat Italy in Zurich, although Igor Akinfeev and Alexander Anyukov should start.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-1-2): Akinfeev – Anyukov, Ignashevich, A. Berezutski, Zhirkov – Shirokov, Zyryanov, Denisov – Dzagoev – Arshavin, Kerzhakov.

Czech Republic had a difficult road to Euro 2012 finals, and they almost missed out on the second place in their qualifying group to Scotland.

Late penalty scored by Michal Kadlec at Hampden Park proved crucial in the end, and it helped them reach the play-offs, where they largely impressed in the two games against Montenegro.

The Czechs have since shared spoils with Republic of Ireland and beat Israel, but the 2-1 defeat in their final test against Hungary robbed the team of much needed confidence boost.

Coach Michal Bilek now needs to rally the troops and get them fired up for their opening game against Russia, which could be decisive to team’s chances of making it to the quarter-finals.

The good news is that Milan Baros’ injury is not as serious as first feared and the Galatasaray forward should be fit to start.

However, the most important thing is that star playmaker Tomas Rosicky has resumed training following a calf problem and he has been declared fit for the Russia game.

With Rosicky and Baros back to the side, team’s chances of getting a positive result have increased significantly and it may be worth noting that double chance on the Czechs pay 1.80 (4/5) at Bodog.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Cech – Gebre Selassie, Sivok, Hubnik, Kadlec – Plasil, Jiracek – Rezek, Rosicky, Pilar – Baros.