Head Start For Germany

Mats Hummels, Germany (Photo: Wikipedia)

Group B:
Germany vs Portugal (1:0)
Ukrayina Stadion, Lviv.

Neutrals might have thought that two quality teams could produce a quality game of football, but if one tries to keep the game tight there’s very little chance of that happening.

Germany looked organised at the start but their fans started to whistle with impatience after more than twenty minutes without a goal.

With plenty of support behind them, Germany weren’t giving their fans anything to get excited about; even a free-kick in the 25th minute was thumped into the wall.

Germany lacked something of a creative spark to beat Portugal’s disciplined grip on the midfield. There’s hope for Holland yet.

The highlight of the first-half – apart from an announcement  threatening to abandon the match if fans didn’t stop throwing balls of paper on the pitch – was Pepe’s shot that hit the underside of the bar and bounced ON the line.

Half-time: Germany 0 – Portugal 0

Germany started the second-half full of fire, but the shooting flames were eventually extinguished by Raul Meireles.

Nani tried to reply with a little skip past Philipp Lahm at the other end and then Cristiano Ronaldo kicked into gear on the opposite wing. Twice in the space of a minute Hummels was there to head the ball away from danger for Germany.

In all, we were presented with more goalmouth action in five minutes than was offered in the previous forty-five.

Germany 1 – Portugal 0 (72 mins)
The more the minutes ticked over the more Portugal seemed to fancy their chances. Then just seconds before he was due to be substituted by Miroslav Klose, Mario Gomez rose high to head Jerome Boateng’s ball across Rui Patricio and give Germany the advantage.

Portugal applied the pressure in the final ten minutes and one wonders what the game might have been like had they been so adventurous in the opening ten.

Final Score: Germany 1 Portugal 0

Teams

1-Manuel Neuer; 14-Holger Badstuber, 5-Mats Hummels, 16-Philipp Lahm, 20-Jerome Boateng; 7-Bastian Schweinsteiger, 6-Sami Khedira, 10-Lukas Podolski, 13-Thomas Müller; 23-Mario Gomez, 8-Mesut Özil.

12-Rui Patricio; 2-Bruno Alves, 3-Pepe, 5-Fábio Coentrão, 21-Joao Pereira; 4-Miguel Veloso, 8-João Moutinho, 16-Raul Meireles; 7-Cristiano Ronaldo, 23-Hélder Postiga, 17-Nani.

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