Co-hosts Poland and Euro 2004 champions Greece fought out an incident-packed 1-1 draw here on Friday in the opening game of the Euro 2012 championship in which both sides finished with just 10 men.

A first-half goal by Robert Lewandowski gave the Poles the lead and shortly before half-time the Greeks were reduced to 10-men when Sokratis Papastathopoulos was sent-off by Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo.

However, Dimitris Salpingidis - who had come on at the beginning of the second-half - levelled in the 51st minute.

The Poles looked to be facing defeat when their goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent-off for bringing down Salpingidis and conceded a penalty but his replacement in goal Pzremyslaw Tyton saved captain Giorgos Karagounis's penalty.

The other Group A match is between Russia and the Czech Republic and kicks-off later in Wroclaw, Poland.

Poland are co-hosting the tournament with Ukraine, who play Sweden in their opening match on Monday.

Poland 1

Lewandowski 17

Greece 1

Salpingidis 51

Poland: Wojciech Szczesny - Lukasz Piszczek, Marcin Wasilewski, Damien Perquis, Sebastian Boenisch - Jakub Blaszczykowski (cap), Eugen Polanski, Ludovic Obraniak, Rafal Murawski, Maciej Rybus (Przemyslaw Tyton 70) - Robert Lewandowski.

Red card: Wojciech Szczesny (69).

Greece: Kostas Chalkias - Vassilis Torosidis, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Avraam Papadopoulos (Kyriakos Papadopoulos 37), Jose Holebas - Giannis Maniatis, Konstantinos Katsouranis, Giorgos Karagounis (cap) - Sotiris Ninis (Dimitrios Salpingidis 46), Fanis Gekas (Kostas Fortounis 68), Giorgios Samaras.

Yellow card: Sokratis Papastathopoulos (35), Jose Holebas (45+2), Giorgos Karagounis (54).

Red card: Sokratis Papastathopoulos (44).

Referee: Carlos Velasco (ESP).