KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) – Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has ditched his famous purple puffer jacket for an elegant suit at Euro 2012 and he wants his side to be smarter too despite matching holders Spain in their Group C opener.

Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Spain’s diminutive short passers will be followed by a different test on Thursday against a confident Croatia side whose physicality up front in their 3-1 win over Ireland is prompting Prandelli to consider changes.

KRAKOW, Poland, June 11 (Reuters) – Italy coach Cesare
Prandelli has ditched his famous purple puffer jacket for an
elegant suit at Euro 2012 and he wants his side to be smarter
too despite matching holders Spain in their Group C opener.

Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Spain’s diminutive short passers
will be followed by a different test on Thursday against a
confident Croatia side whose physicality up front in their 3-1
win over Ireland is prompting Prandelli to consider changes.

KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) – UEFA has written to the mayors of Polish and Ukrainian cities hosting Euro 2012 training sessions to ask for an increased police presence to avoid racist behavior from fans.

Some members of the Netherlands squad complained of hearing monkey noises at an open training session at Wisla Krakow’s stadium last week when tens of thousands of Poles turned up to watch.

KRAKOW, Poland, June 11 (Reuters) – UEFA has written to the
mayors of Polish and Ukrainian cities hosting Euro 2012 training
sessions to ask for an increased police presence to avoid racist
behaviour from fans.

Some members of the Netherlands squad complained of hearing
monkey noises at an open training session at Wisla Krakow’s
stadium last week when tens of thousands of Poles turned up to
watch.

KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) – Italy’s expectations heading into their Euro 2012 opener against Spain were about as high as diminutive frontman Antonio Di Natale but his goal and their all-round play in the 1-1 draw have lifted spirits.

Italian media were pleased with Sunday’s performance in Gdansk after weeks of negative headlines ranging from match-fixing allegations to injuries to poor displays in warm-up games.

KRAKOW, Poland (Reuters) – Italy’s expectations heading into their Euro 2012 opener against Spain were about as high as diminutive frontman Antonio Di Natale but his goal and their all-round play in the 1-1 draw have lifted spirits.

Italian media were pleased with Sunday’s performance in Gdansk after weeks of negative headlines ranging from match-fixing allegations to injuries to poor displays in warm-up games.

KRAKOW, Poland, June 11 (Reuters) – Italy’s expectations
heading into their Euro 2012 opener against Spain were about as
high as diminutive frontman Antonio Di Natale but his goal and
their all-round play in the 1-1 draw have lifted spirits.

Italian media were pleased with Sunday’s performance in
Gdansk after weeks of negative headlines ranging from
match-fixing allegations to injuries to poor displays in warm-up
games.

WROCLAW (Reuters) – Russia will not get carried away after their 4-1 demolition of the Czech Republic with perfectionist coach Dick Advocaat managing to pick holes in a near flawless performance.

Co-hosts Poland await on Tuesday in their second Group A match and with Germany, Netherlands or Portugal probably lined up in the last eight, the Russians cannot rest on their laurels despite Alan Dzagoyev scoring twice and Andrei Arshavin looking back to his best.

WROCLAW, June 9 (Reuters) – Russia will not get carried away
after their 4-1 demolition of the Czech Republic with
perfectionist coach Dick Advocaat managing to pick holes in a
near flawless performance.

Co-hosts Poland await on Tuesday in their second Group A
match and with Germany, Netherlands or Portugal probably lined
up in the last eight, the Russians cannot rest on their laurels
despite Alan Dzagoyev scoring twice and Andrei Arshavin looking
back to his best.