Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Germany 2-0 Poland
Lukas Podolski was born in Poland, but moved to Germany when he was two, now he has scored two to break Polish hearts. Very convincing German performance
Austria 0-1
CroatiaLuka Modric's fourth minute penalty, then it was defending, defending, defending.
France 0-0 Romania
France did themselves no favours with a 0-0 draw against a Romanian side that they should beat in their Group of Death. Well, at least they have one point more than Italy, but the latter still have to play Romania, and should they win, France are in trouble.
The Netherlands 3-0 Italy
What a game, I must say. From Italy coach Roberto Donadoni's point of view, Italy could have grabbed like three goals, especially after the introduction of Alex Del Piero... maybe he should start the next game? Well... with that said, Ruud van Nistelrooy did well to stay on his feet when Gianluigi Buffon brought him down, maybe a penalty, but the former got his goal after he deflected in a Wesley Sneijder shot, and there was much of a hint that he was actually offside. Lucky Holland. But when Andrea Pirlo's corner was cleared off the line by Giovanni van Bronckhorst, he ran the length of the pitch to cross for Dirk Kuyt, who headed it down for the on-rushing Sneijder who rammed it beyond Buffon's near post. Late in the game, van der Sar managed to palm away Pirlo's free-kick, and again, the Dutch's counter attacking football in the end saw Kuyt centre the ball to van Bronckhorst who headed in goal-bound to score. Italy had many chances from Del Piero, and should have also scored when Luca Toni broke free after Antonio Cassano's lobbed through pass. Netherlands have the advantage in this Group of Death, and Italy and France are definitely going to struggle to go through. Marco van Basten's Holland definitely have a good counter-attacking system. Fast and efficient.
my thoughts at 10:23 am