Euro 2008

Germany’s players celebrate victory over Poland

The last two European Championships haven’t proved fruitful for Germany but two years after a third-placed finish at the World Cup, they look revitalised.

A comprehensive victory over old foes Poland ensured the perfect start was achieved for the favourites.

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Poland-born Lucas Podolski netted two very different goals to settle the affair. The first was a simple tap-in after Miroslav Klose broke the floundering Polish offside trap and unselfishly passed to his Bayern Munich team-mate. Podolski has been frozen out at the club, but his performance for country intimates his tremendous ability.

Klose will also claim an assist for the second, although his failed overhead kick can hardly be described as a deliberate pass. Nonetheless, it fell kindly to Podolski who confidently thrust the ball into the top left-hand corner. Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc could only stand and watch as Poland thoroughly under-whelmed in their first ever Euros.

Their defence was a constant cause of concern - Germany repeatedly beating the poorly set offside trap - while Jens Lehmann kept his gloves a pristine white. Maciej Zurawski came close in the opening period, shooting narrowly wide, while Marek Saganowski did manage to force a save from Lehmann late on.

A complete performance from the 2002 World Cup finalists appears to confirm their position as favourites. The defence, as ever, was fantastically resolute while the attacking department was typically efficient. Top billing goes to Podolski, though, with the forward in irrepressible form having had a point to prove to those at Bayern that he deserves a regular starting place. And if they are not interested in promoting Germany’s top young talent, several other major clubs are.

Leo Beenhakker must be wondering where it all went wrong. After impressively finishing ahead of Portugal in qualifying, Poland looked out of their depth and will now surely struggle to make the latter stages. The Dutch coach is a hero in the country, but must ensure Poland end their recent habit of failing at major tournaments.

Capable of beating both Austria and Croatia, results that would send them into the quarters, Beenhakker has to first reorganise an incompetent defence and increase the paltry service to the front men. Some of the spirit of their qualification campaign must be rediscovered promptly; else, Poland will suffer yet another group stage exit.

• Fulham manager Roy Hodgson, a member of the nine-man team of experts that form the UEFA Technical Team deemed Podolski man of the match.

“I think he was the obvious choice for the award because, apart from playing very well, he scored two goals. However, it would be unfair to say he was the difference between the two teams, because I feel the two central midfield players, [Michael] Ballack and [Torsten] Frings, were very important. But it would be hard to justify not giving Podolski the award because he was very impressive and scored both goals.

“Germany are a hard team to beat because they have a lot of experience, pace and strength in their team. I thought the Polish had an equal share of possession but came up against a strong defence. At 1-0 down they were having to chase the game so they were always in danger of being caught on the counterattack as they were obliged to throw people forward. But they can feel a little hard done by.”

Tags: Euro 2008, Germany, Germany 2-0 Poland, Leo Beenhakker, Lucas Podolski, Miroslav Klose, Poland

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