Jewels of the Roman empire

Summer trawl
As a Siberian, Chelsea FC owner Abramovich might not be a natural seafarer but he will have done well to have taken his fleet up the Atlantic coast to the fishing port of Aveiro tonight, as the Estádio Municipal de Aveiro staged the Group D game between the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. The match certainly offered a good opportunity for the billionaire to continue his summer trawl through Europe's richest footballing waters.

Talented tyros
Both squads comprise a mix of talented tyros and tried-and-tested performers. For the Oranje, attackers Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Rafael van der Vaart meet the former criteria, although only Robben started here, replacing Boudewijn Zenden.

Czech youngsters
For their part, the Czechs have a number of youngsters from their UEFA European Under-21 Championship-winning team of 2002, including the Liverpool FC striker Milan Baroš, defender Martin Jiránek and goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Move agreed
Two of those players are already in the Abramovich catch. The 20-year-old Robben sealed an €18m transfer to Chelsea in March from PSV Eindhoven. Czech No1 Petr Cech had been landed even earlier, in January, when he agreed to move from Stade Rennais FC for €10.3m after these finals.

Repeats routine
Robben was an unused substitute in the Netherlands' draw with Germany, having just returned from a hamstring injury. His new club-mate Cech had, by his own admission, had a quiet game in the victory over Latvia - "the first time I touched the ball, I was picking it out of the net," he said.

Dutch ahead
Sadly for the 22-year-old, he was repeating that routine after only three minutes, and Robben was the architect of his misfortune. The flaxen-haired left-winger delivered the free-kick from which Wilfred Bouma nodded the Dutch into the lead.

Shining moment
Robben then enjoyed a marvellous couple of minutes which culminated with the Netherlands' second goal. First, to show his facility with either foot, he cut the ball on to his right to let fly a shot that Cech got down well to save. Next a dancing run between two defenders, before the shining moment: running on to Edgar Davids's through-pass and crossing for Ruud van Nistelrooij to score. His contribution earned him a loud ovation when replaced after 58 minutes.

Save of tournament
Cech also had the chance to show his class with a fine tip-over save from John Heitinga. The great Peter Schmeichel described it as the save of the tournament so far. And if he was also lucky that the referee signalled a foul when he dropped the ball under pressure from Van Nistelrooij, he redeemed himself by blocking a point-blank header from the striker early in the second half.

Baroš plays part
By this time, the Czechs were back in the game thanks to Baroš. For a player who has been vulnerable to injury in his time with Liverpool, he showed remarkable power and purpose to run at the Dutch defence and, after the initial opportunity had eluded him, feed Jan Koller to score.

Just reward
When Koller returned the favour, teeing Baroš up to volley past Edwin van der Sar in the 72nd minute, it was just reward for the 22-year-old's efforts. The same could be said of the Czechs' late winner from Vladimír Šmicer, in which Baroš again played a part.