Euro Wrap, June 8th

The big day


Euro 2008 got started in Austria today, with everyone from Group B in action. Review and video from Austria 0-1 Croatia and Germany 2-0 Poland below…

Austria		vs		Croatia
		0-1	Modric (pen) 4′

So turns out Austria aren’t that bad after all. When Croatia took a 4th minute lead through a Luka Modric penalty, the doomsday disaster scenario looked on the cards. But the Austrian team put in a huge effort and had a tired looking Croatia under a lot of pressure by the end of the game. But still finished with a 1-0 loss.

Maybe it’s the curse of the co-hosts (more or less the same thing happened to Switzlerand yesterday) or maybe it’s a lack of quality up front. Probably both.

But if the Austrians have to blame anyone, they can look accusingly at the experienced (ie he should know better) Aufhauser for giving away the penalty. The defensive mids tackle on Olic wasn’t nasty, but it was the dictionary definition of clumsy.

So Austria’s Euro 2008 effort likely won’t be the predicted national disgrace, but on this showing Croatia’s won’t be the predicted glory either.

Austria Blog - Buy an Austria jersey from the USA or UK.

Croatia Blog - Buy a Croatia jersey from the USA or UK

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Germany		vs		Poland
Podolski 20′, 73′		2-0

Germany showed themselves to be a cut above on the day, but whether or not they’re ready to fulfill the hype is another matter. The attack will probably be fine, but defense wins championships and theirs looked a bit weak in the legs at times.

The man of the day was Lukas Podolski, the day he’s been eagerly chomping at the bit for after two years of underachieving at Bayern, with his brace. But the first goal was probably half his and half Miroslav Klose’s, who managed to finally thread a perfect ball to Lukas whose only task was to knock in a ball my grandmother could score. The second goal was more impressive, after having fate serve him a ball on a platter, he struck a hard one-timer past Artur Boruc, who has nothing to hang his head about today.

The game got a bit more intense in the second half as two subs, one for each team, came on to make a difference. Bastian Scweinsteiger seemed to make an immediate and noticeable impact upon his pitch entrance, or maybe that was just his blinding hair which made him stick out. Roger Guerreiroski also made a marked difference, bringing with him a flair which was decidedly, umm, not Polish (coughbraziliancough). However, it wasn’t enough to get a ball or two into the back of the net.

Germany is still going to be one of the favorites, but they may not steamroll their way to the final as everyone thought. Croatia didn’t look otherworldly either, so maybe we’ll have to wait until the knockouts for Germany to see whether or not they can cut the mustard.

Germany Blog - Buy a Germany jersey from USA or UK

Poland - Buy a Poland jersey from USA or UK

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