Croatia vs. Germany
The top two in the group clash today.
posted by gooner71 @ 7:56 AM
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Lakenheath Old Boys
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Contributors
Previous Posts
- Switzerland vs. Turkey
- Czech Republic vs. Portugal
- Is there a doctor in the house?
- Greece vs. Sweden
- Spain vs. Russia
- Holland vs. Italy
- Romania vs. France
- U.S.A vs. Argentina
- Germany vs. Poland
- Austria vs. Croatia
53 Comments:
This group feels very much like yesterday's Group A situation at start of play with a top of the table clash in name alone and the major power Germany expected to claim a spot in the next round with ease. Let's hope that these games are as entertaining as yesterday's were.
Here are the, at first look, unchanged sides for today's match:
Croatia: Pletikosa, Corluka, Robert Kovac, Simunic, Pranjic, Srna, Modric, Nico Kovac, Rakitic, Kranjcar, Olic
Subs: Galinovic, Runje, Simic, Vejic, Vukojevic, Kalinic, Pokrivac, Knezevic, Leko, Klasnic, Budan, Petric
Germany: Lehmann, Lahm, Metzelder, Mertesacker, Jansen, Fritz, Frings, Ballack, Podolski, Gomez, Klose
Subs: Enke, Adler, Friedrich, Westermann, Rolfes, Schweinsteiger, Neuville, Trochowski, Hitzlsperger, Borowski, Odonkor, Kuranyi
Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium)
Both sets of fans are in good voice, despite the soggy Austrian weather.
A slow start to this match with both teams feeling each other out. The Croatian fans are whistling every German touch now. Surely the Croatians won't be expecting the gift of an early penalty today.
More evidence that Tommy Smyth is losing his grip on reality - he's just asked Derek Rae what day of the week it is!
Decent free kick opportunity for Croatia here on the right. The big men were in there but it was well cleared out by Ballack.
Croatia are spreading it about well here and threatening the German goal with incisive crosses.
Right on cue, the rain has started.
Metzelder has given away another good free kick opportunity for Croatia....
Nico Kovacs to take...wasted effort there spread out to the left.
Decent corner there and Simunic flicked it on at the near post.
Fifteen minutes gone and Croatia are surprisingly looking the better side so far.
Frings launched a brilliant ball toward Mario Gomez but the striker had drifted aimlessly offside.
Another corner for Croatia, drilled toward the near post but nodded out by Mertesacker.
The resulting corner is collected by Lehman who has looked more confident today.
GOAL! Just what the game needed. The Croatians exploit Philip Lahm's defensive weaknesses down the left, a great cross comes over and Srna beats Jansen to the ball to stick it past Lehman.
Croatia 1-0!
Good German response. Jansen makes up for his defensive mistake by sticking a brilliant cross over from the left by big Mario Gomez sticks his header miserably over.
Germany have sprung to life. Podolski earns a free kick on the left with the goalscorer Srna picking up a yellow for the foul.
Frings to take...but he knocks it into the two-man wall standing in front of him.
If this result were to hold up, we might well see a Portugal-Germany quarterfinal!
Gomez wastes another opportunity to slip a ball through to Podolski. Surely Joachim Low is running out of patience with the big German striker.
Great chance for Croatia. Again it comes down the left where Lahm has been exposed and Fritz isn't tracking back. The ball comes in from the impressive Rakitic, it's nodded down by Srna and Olic under pressure knocks it over.
The Pigsticker will surely get an early run out in this match.
Free kick opportunity for Germany...
Ballack hits a piledriver that is well saved.
Derek Rae points out that it's ten years to the day since Croatia put Germany out of the 1998 World Cup with that scintillating 3-0 win spurred by Davor Suker.
The referee's really wanking about with this corner. Finally it comes over and Metzelder can't keep his header down.
Oh, fantastic move from Croatia ended up with a great chance for Kranjar. He bangs it at goal but Lehman saved brilliantly.
Coming up on half time here and Croatia could easily be two up.
Gomez challenges the keeper, the keeper drops it and Klose sticks it in. In my book, that should be a goal but goalies are always overprotected by referees so it won't count.
Bilic is livid as Simunic picks up a yellow for time wasting as he blasts the ball into the stands.
Half-time: 1-0 Croatia.
Croatia certainly didn't read the script for this match. They've come to play and have caught a sluggish Germany off guard.
Second half starting....
German boss Low has replaced the dissapointing Jansen with the right sided attacking player Odonkor. That means Lahm has switched sides and Fritz has dropped to cover his spot on the right side. A bold move.
That move has stimulated the Germans but the Croatian defense led by veteran Robert Kovacs and his brother Niko in the holding midfield position is going to be hard to break down.
This game is exposing the main weakness in the German arsenal. Over the years in this position they could count on deadly strikers such as Muller, Rumenigge and Klinsman to pull a game out of the ashes. But apart from Klose, they lack real quality. Looking at the bench now, you've only got Oliver Neuville as an out and out front man.
Frings to swing over a corner... and it's cleared away.
Derek Rae, master of the arcane statistics, notes that Germany haven't scored from their past 93 corners.
That was tidy. Lahm played a ball over, Gomez nodded down but it was expertly cleared away again by the reliable Robert Kovacs.
Srna has gone down and is being escorted off the pitch. He should be able to continue. Yes, he's hobbled back on again having wasted a few precious seconds of time.
Gomez somehow got behind his marker but his ball dismally was played behind Klose. Those two have shown the chemistry of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman today.
GOAL! Croatia 2-0!
Lehman makes a hash of a cross that's deflected onto his near post, it comes out and Olic is there to poke it home. Jens look creaky on that one.
Olic got behind Mertesacker again and nearly crossed for Srna. They're running rampant now.
Here comes the Pigsticker - Schweinsteiger. He had a miserable season at Bayern where he lost his place to Franck Ribery. But he's on now in place of the dire Mario Gomez. Can he be the hero again as he was in the last World Cup.
Frings brings down Kranjcar and it's a free kick in a tasty position for Croatia. Lehman's looking shell-shocked.
Still thirty five minutes left for the Germans and we've seen more formidable rescue acts from them over the years but they don't look up for it.
On this showing, Spurs fans are going to have some fun with Luka Modric next season. He looks the business as do the entire Croatian midfield.
The German midfield, in contrast, particularly Ballack, have been strangely out of sync with each other. Not the Teutonic machine that we're used to watching, for sure.
If this result were to hold up, it would open up some possibilities for Austria. They looked game the other day against this Croatian side and if they could get a win it would set up a grandstand last match with Germany in Vienna.
Twenty minutes left now. This is slipping away from the tournament favorites. And this would surely be an even more surprising result than that Dutch win against Italy the other day.
You'd have to say that after the first two disappointing days of the tournament, Euro 2008 has come to life in the past four days.
Everything is going through the mercurial Schweinsteiger at this point.
GOAL! Never rule the Germans out. Podolski scores his third goal of the tournament. A cross comes over, Ballack knocks down and Podolski rockets it a half volley into the net.
2-1! Game on!
Ten minutes left - plenty of time for the Germans to dig this one out. A draw would be perfectly acceptable at this stage.
Kevin Kuranyi's coming on for Fritz now - an attacking move for sure. They've now got six players capable of scoring on the pitch.
Lehman pulls off a tremendous acrobatic save from a Kranjcar shot.
Schweinsteiger has made a huge difference. Odonkor, on the other hand, has merely dropped into the right back position.
The Croatian attacking players have done a brilliant job in taking the pressure off their back four in this last five minutes of the match. Croatian fans are whistling away but there are easily three minutes left plus stoppage time.
RED CARD! Schweinsteiger has ended a miserable day for the Germans by pushing over Leko after he'd ploughed into his back. Leko picked up a yellow as well but the Pigsticker is off!
Full-time: And that's it! Slavan Bilic will be rocking like a hurricane with his players tonight in Flagenfurt's city center. What a story!
Croatia 2 Germany 1
Interesting banter between all four contributors in the between game break. Rob Stone asks Andy which were the most intimidating places where he played. His answers:
The Den (Millwall)
Turkey
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