Occasionally, we're treated to a goalless draw of end-to-end football, a breathless ebb and flow and action that keeps you on the edge of your seat in a state of nervous excitement, all the way to the final whistle.

This wasn't one of those games.

I'd be tempted to use Jorge Valdano's infamous quote, if I didn't feel short-changed to the tune of one stick.

Netherlands 3 - 0 Italy

This was much more like it, the group of death kicking off for real with both sides looking to take the game to each other.

Italy may just have shaded the opening stages, but it was the Dutch who went ahead in controversial fashion after twenty-six minutes. When the impressive Wesley Sneijder drilled Gianluigi Buffon's half clearance back into the box, striker Ruud van Nistelrooy was a good furlong clear of the pack when directing the ball into the Italian net. A clear offside, the failure of which to be given was justified later when the officials pointed to Christian Panucci, lying prone some four yards beyond the bye-line after being pole-axed by his keeper. Apparently, the dazed full-back clearly played the Dutchman onside, if you happen to interpret the laws of the game somewhat liberally and the necessity of the presence of two defenders between the striker and the goal actually means the presence of two bodies between the striker and the car park. You live and learn.

The goal wasn't undeserved, though, and allowed Holland to sit back and hit the Italians on the counter, as the Azzurri were forced to play on the front foot in what proved an absorbing contest.

Five minutes later, it was two-nil. Giovanni van Bronkhorst proved Johnny-on-the-spot when clearing an Italian effort off the line from a corner, before embarking on a headlong charge up the field. When the ball was sprayed back out to him, he took a couple of touches before launching a deep cross which was nodded back from beyond the far post by the hard-working Dirk Kuyt. Sneijder, arriving late, made the most of some uncharacteristically sloppy Italian marking to ensure he was first to the ball, steering it superbly past Buffon at the near post.

Italy came out for the second half determined to reduce the deficit and, certainly after the introduction of Alessandro Del Piero, looked the most likely scorers. They were to be caught again, however.

Andrea Pirlo hardly had time to gesture dramatically to the heavens when his free kick was well saved by Edwin van der Sar, before the Dutch were swarming upfield again. A devastatingly quick move ended with van Bronkhorst playing in Kuyt to provide an example of the clinical finishing that's entertained the Kop for the past couple of years. Buffon's block, though, came back kindly for the scampering striker to loft in a cross to the unmarked van Bronkhorst, who nodded home past the desperate Gianluca Zambrotta.

So a great start to the tournament for Holland, though not a total disaster for the Italians after France and Romania could only draw. The Dutch are now in a position to play out the rest of the group phase on the counter attack. Italy needs to regroup quickly and, crucially, rediscover a cutting edge that was absent tonight, particularly from the strangely out-of-sorts Luca Toni. There's still plenty to play for in this group.

Austria 0 - 1 Croatia

A fourth-minute Luka Modric penalty was enough to get Croatia's campaign off to a winning start against the co-hosts.

Croatia started brightly and got an early reward when Stakhanovite striker Ivica Olic was clumsily bundled over in the box by Rene "The Brick" Aufhauser, Modric drilling the subsequent penalty straight down the middle.

The expected demolition of what we've been assured by Vienna is the weakest Austrian team in living memory failed to materialize, though, the Croats seemingly taking their foot off the gas and allowing their unfancied opponents to force their way back into the game.

Despite enjoying the lion's share of the possession, however, the home side were only able to muster a handful of half chances and Stipe Pletikosa in the Croatian goal was barely tested as the game petered out into a non-event.

It promises to be a short tournament for Austria and may well prove to be no longer for Croatia, who look toothless without the injured Eduardo da Silva up front and need to find another win to be sure of progressing from the group stage. On this evidence, they are unlikely to prove a match for the Germans so will need to get a win against Poland to go through and that's certainly no foregone conclusion.

Germany 2 - 0 Poland

The tournament favourites steamrollered the Poles to record their first European Championships victory since winning the title twelve years ago.

Helped by a Polish back four with all the acceleration of a builders' skip and a kamikaze determination to hold a defensive line on the edge of the German area, the first half hour of the match saw the Germans dominate. Poland, initially let off the hook when Miroslav Klose, having beaten the offside trap, decided to try and square for Mario Gomez instead of going for goal, eventually succumbed in the twentieth minute when another square ball from Klose found an unmarked Lukas Podolski steaming in.

You can always rely on the Poles to make a fight of a seemingly lost cause, though, and they slowly got themselves back into contention. Wojciech Lobodzinsi, in particular, was getting a fair amount of joy out of the staggeringly ordinary Marcell Jansen but with Ebi Smolarek as often as not caught as static as a traffic cone, clear-cut chances were at a premium.

Smolarek did find the net early in the second half, only to see the goal chalked out for a marginal offside decision, as the introduction of the Brazilian-born Roger Guerreiro helped the Poles maintain their ascendancy but another sloppy bit of defending was ultimately to do for them.

A slick passage of German passing looked to have gone awry when Pawel Golanski was first to Michael Ballack's through ball. Rather than do the sensible thing and launch the ball into row Z, though, the Polish centre back played it straight to substitute Bastian Schweinsteiger. Porker boy's cross was met with a Sunday League morning-after-the-night-before effort from the out-of-sorts Klose but as the ball dropped, Podolski arrived to lash a sumptuous left-foot volley into the top corner of the Polish net from the edge of the area. Game over.

On this display, Germany are a couple of classes too good for the rest of this group. Poland, despite this defeat, now have their toughest match out of the way and should be fairly optimistic of their chances of progressing.

Switzerland 0 - 1 Czech Republic

Until Vaclav Sverkos skimmed in the winner off the outside of his right ankle, this looked destined to finish as the usual tournament-opening scoreless draw.

The Swiss, however, bolstered by playing at home, proved to be much more of an attacking proposition than we saw at the World Cup (they could hardly be less of one) and were only denied by a great Petr Cech save and the width of the crossbar from taking a draw. That said, the loss of top-scorer Alexander Frei is a huge blow and it's difficult, now, to see them making it into the next round.

The Czechs were below par, with Jan Koller lumbering around to little effect up front and given no help whatsoever by some fearfully inept passing in the final third. They have the three points in the bag, though, look a good bet to progress but will need to up their game substantially to have any chance at glory.

Portugal 2 - 0 Turkey

The Portuguese might have won this by four or five, such was the difference in the respective cutting edges each team displayed, but will be content with their night's work.

Having already struck the woodwork a couple of times, they had to wait until the second half before being able to open the scoring but when the goal finally came, it was a good one. Centre back Pepe, who'd already seen his thumping header chalked off by the linesman, embarked on a swashbuckling run from his own half and played a slick one-two with Nuno Gomes before finding the net (with a little help, it must be said, from Turkish centre back Asik's toe).

It was as much as Portugal deserved. The Turks had fought manfully but the only magic on show from them was the transformation of the pedestrian-sounding Colin Richards into the Ali Baba-esque Kazim Kazim. Whilst being kind of nifty in itself, it wasn't really enough to trouble their opponents and when Raul Meireles found himself on the end of a flowing Portuguese counter attack to make the game safe at the death, even the Turkish fans would have had to concede the justice of the result.

All is not yet lost for the Turks, who may well fancy their chances against the other two sides in this group after watching the opener. Portugal, meanwhile, look head and shoulders better than the rest and should reach the quarter finals at a canter.