A second-half header from striker Mario Gomez may have been
enough to give Germany a 1-0 win over Portugal on Saturday in their
opening Euro 2012 match, but coach Joachim Löw said he was still tense
about their upcoming games.
Löw has said he was wary of the Netherlands in their next match on
Wednesday following their shock defeat to Denmark - even thoguht Germany
got off to a good start in the competition.
After victories both in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008 and the
third-place play-off at the 2006 World Cup, this Germany's third
straight win over Portugal in major tournaments to give Germany a
winning start in Group B which was watched by over 22 million people in
Germany alone.
"It was a really close game, but it has given us a good start," said
Löw, whose team now face the Netherlands on Wednesday in Kharkiv.
"We did well in defence, we worked hard which wasn't always the case in our warm-up game.
"We have work to do up front with the tempo; it was there in phases, but we have to be more consistent."
Despite the attacking threat posed by Portugal captain Cristiano
Ronaldo, the Real Madrid star had a subdued night by his own lofty
standards and he rarely got the better of his marker Jerome Boateng.
Löw sprang a surprise before kick-off by leaving out experienced
centre-back Per Mertesacker for the match at the Lviv Arena, the
smallest of the eight Euro 2012 venues, in front of 32,990 fans.
Bayern Munich's Holger Badstuber partnered Borussia Dortmund's Mats
Hummels in the centre of defence with captain Philipp Lahm at left-back
and Bayern's Boateng on the right.
Veteran forward Miroslav Klose, who turned 34 on Saturday, was left on
the bench with goal-scorer Gomez starting as the lone striker.
After Denmark's shock 1-0 win over the Netherlands earlier, victory give
Joachim Löw's Germans an early advantage in the pool, which has been
dubbed “the group of death”.
"I am sad about the result, I felt we controlled the game and defended
well," said Portugal coach Paulo Bento, who had opted for a 4-3-3
formation with Ronaldo leading the attack.
"We had bad luck when the ball hit the bar, while they had good luck
with Gomez's goal. We have to do everything to get the players fit for
Denmark."
Germany had the better of the opening exchanges with Gomez's header
forcing Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio into a diving save and
Arsenal-bound forward Lukas Podolski firing in a shot which the Benfica
star struggled to collect.
Zaragoza forward Helder Postiga picked up the first booking of the game
when he clattered Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and Portugal's first
attack came after 15 minutes when Ronaldo found space on the left.
With the Portuguese turning up the pressure and halftime approaching,
Badstuber was booked for a foul on Manchester United's Nani.
Madrid star Pepe came perilously close to putting Portugal ahead a
minute before the break when his strike beat Neuer, but deflected down
off the crossbar onto the goal-line to bounce away from danger.
The second-half settled into a nervy affair and with 25 minutes left a
great pass from Porto midfielder Joao Moutinho found Ronaldo in space,
but Boateng responded quickly enough to snuff out the threat.
The German was later booked for fouling the Real star moments later.
With Klose waiting on the sidelines to replace him, Gomez finally got
the breakthrough he had earlier promised when he met Sami Khedira's
cross to place his header outside the reach of the diving Patricio on 73
minutes.
In the dying minutes, only desperate defending denied Portugal an
equaliser as the German back line managed to squash a strike from
replacement forward Silvestre Valera, who had the goal at his mercy.
In Wednesday's next round of Group B matches, Germany face the
Netherlands in Kharkiv while Portugal take on Denmark back here again in
Lviv.
AFP/DAPD/The Local/jcw
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