Supersub Sverkos sets ball rolling as Czechs spoil party for co-hosts

Czech this out: Vaclav Sverkos fires in the first goal at Euro 2008, and the only goal of the game, as the Czech Republic secure an undeserved victory over Switzerland in Basel © Reuters

After all the excitement of the build-up to a major tournament – flags, bunting and surreal opening ceremony – comes the football; and that is where host countries tend to fall down. Only twice have they won the first game of a European Championship, and Switzerland, who held England at Wembley in the first Euro 96 match, could not improve the sequence. Despite outplaying the Czech Republic for long periods they found Chelsea's Petr Cech in typical form and when he was finally beaten late on in a lively encounter, the crossbar saved him.

Switzerland, only 44th in Fifa's world rankings, were also denied by the Italian referee, Roberto Rosetti, who refused to acknowledge that the Czech captain, Tomas Ujfalusi, marred an otherwise impeccable performance by handling in the penalty area. The co-hosts suffered too from the loss of their captain and record scorer, Alex Frei, who left the pitch in tears after injuring a knee just before half-time and may not be seen again in this tournament.

A new hero emerged, but on the Czech side, in Vaclav Sverkos, scoring the first goal of his international career as a substitute for the disappointingly ineffective Jan Koller.

So it was a bad end to a wretched week for Jakob "Kobi" Kuhn, the 64-year-old Swiss coach whose wife collapsed last Monday and remains in a Zurich hospital. Calm as ever, however, he refused to overdramatise things, and even declined to comment on the penalty incident.

"I told my team they could leave the stadium with heads held high," he said. "There were plenty of opportunities for a draw or even a win but this is football. It is not about justice." Had it been, Switzerland would have been walking off with a victory.

The Czechs, semi-finalists last time and regulars at major tournaments now, were disappointing. Having lost such stalwarts as Karel Poborsky and Pavel Nedved, they are without Arsenal's Tomas Rosicky for the finals and his midfield craft was missed here. The coach, Karel Bruckner, another veteran at 68, admitted: "This was not our best. I believe our [next] performance will be better."

At least the rain held off and after the usual folkloric nonsense – women in inflatable suits, blow-up plastic cows and men in Mozart wigs – it was on with the real show. A fast show it was too, in a first 20 minutes played at Premier League pace and producing half-a-dozen chances.

Frei was predictably dangerous, working hard and dropping a little deeper than his partner Marco Streller, who has threatened to quit the national team after being booed recently. In only the third minute Frei profited from an error by Tomas Galasek, running on for a shot that Cech held more comfortably than when he was forced to come out smartly at the same player's feet.

The impressive midfielder Valon Behrami of Lazio and then Gokhan Inler gave Cech trouble with low drives. Cech has already backed Jens Lehmann's complaints about the new footballs being used, and when Frei picked up on another lax Galasek pass nine minutes before half-time, he could only parry a swerving shot, but Streller was given offside in following up.

Sadly, Frei would contribute no more, falling victim to a tackle by the right-back Zdenek Grygera and being forced off. Although Switzerland had been trying to replace him with 19- year-old Eren Derdiyok, the youngest player in the tournament, there was no time to do so before half-time.

During the interval Kuhn had second thoughts and brought on the much more experienced Hakan Yakin, who immediately exerted an influence. He won a free-kick just outside the penalty area and curled it just over the angle of bar and post, then headed the best chance of the opening 65 minutes wide from 10 yards. It proved a costly miss.

Cech did well to hold a drive by full-back Ludovic Magnin, who had taken the captain's armband but then received the first yellow card of the finals. The subsequent free-kick brought a rare opportunity for the Czechs, which Libor Sionko could not turn in, but in the 70th minute they took a thoroughly undeserved lead.

Galasek sent a long header forward almost from the halfway line and the substitute Sverkos remained remarkably composed in shooting past Diego Benaglio. It was poor defending by the otherwise untroubled partnership of a rusty Patrick Muller, who played only one club game this season because of injury, and Arsenal's Philippe Senderos.

There was much Swiss pressure before the finish, resulting in two unsuccessful appeals for handball against Ujfalusi. Having headed away just about every cross and corner for 80 minutes, he unwisely raised his arm to deflect Streller's header, but got away with it. Before the ball was cleared, Cech beat out Tranquillo Barnetta's shot and was relieved to see Johan Vonlanthen's follow-up rebound off the bar.