Simply put, this was the comedy of horrors. It reminded me of Chelsea-Barcellona, except that Denmark didn't just park the bus. To quote a friend, they parked the bus, flipped it over, and set it on fire. Also, unlike Chelsea, Denmark has very little actual talent this year. With all that said, despite Denmark's many flaws (which will become painfully evident in the next two games), the Dutch deserve the hardest spanking. They shot a total of 27 times, over half of which on goal, and didn't even come close to scoring, save for one occasion with van Persie and another with van der Vaart. They pushed, and pushed, and pushed, and dominated three-quarters of the pitch for three-quarters of the game, and then completely wasted every chance they got. It's not uncommon for a dominating team to remain scoreless, but I've rarely seen such impressive technical and tactical dominance result in no goals. Denmark's strategy of defend and counter would have failed miserably if they had faced a team that lived true to its own strategy and capitalized on even one-tenth of their opportunities, but that was not the case. And since at the end of the day the scoreboard is God, and you don't argue with God, that's all she wrote. Now the Dutch are in deep trouble. As van Marwijk remarks, they must beat Germany to have any shot at passing. Nor should Oranje fans be reassured by the fact that "the play is there, the goals will come." In football, ironically, it is much harder to score than to play well. When you play well and don't score, you feel impotent. When you play badly and still score, you feel lucky. And while lucky teams sometimes win; impotent teams always lose.
Goals: Krohn-Dehli (D), 24'
My match rating: ★ ½
My man of the match: Snejder (N)
Official report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights
GERMANY-PORTUGAL 1-0
Easily the most entertaining game of Euro 2012 so far, and honestly that was easy. Both teams are technically proficient and tactically savvy, and struck an intelligent balance of fast offense and guarded midfield. The merengues Ozil and Ronaldo set the pace on their respective sides, proving once more, if ever that was necessary, that contemporary football is ruled by midfield-minded wingers with a keen eye and a clean touch (sorry, Sneijder: almost gone is the era of the trequartista). I was most impressed by the stability of both teams, who stuck to the plan and never fell apart... at least before the final ten minutes, when the brain is low on oxygen and the muscles high in lactic. If that's true, Germany's win is an accident, in the sense that they scored on an episodic counter that could have happened to either team. If anything, the clearest opportunities were Portugal's, with a shot off the bar and a seemingly easy tap-in that got deflected. If Netherlands don't get their heads out of their asses, Germany will sweep this and Portugal will come in second three or five points behind. Judging from these first two games, at least, that's my prediction: NL and DK out.
Goals: Gomez (G), 72'
My match rating: ★★★
My man of the match: Ozil (G)
Official report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights
Official report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights
Easily the most entertaining game of Euro 2012 so far, and honestly that was easy. Both teams are technically proficient and tactically savvy, and struck an intelligent balance of fast offense and guarded midfield. The merengues Ozil and Ronaldo set the pace on their respective sides, proving once more, if ever that was necessary, that contemporary football is ruled by midfield-minded wingers with a keen eye and a clean touch (sorry, Sneijder: almost gone is the era of the trequartista). I was most impressed by the stability of both teams, who stuck to the plan and never fell apart... at least before the final ten minutes, when the brain is low on oxygen and the muscles high in lactic. If that's true, Germany's win is an accident, in the sense that they scored on an episodic counter that could have happened to either team. If anything, the clearest opportunities were Portugal's, with a shot off the bar and a seemingly easy tap-in that got deflected. If Netherlands don't get their heads out of their asses, Germany will sweep this and Portugal will come in second three or five points behind. Judging from these first two games, at least, that's my prediction: NL and DK out.
Goals: Gomez (G), 72'
My match rating: ★★★
My man of the match: Ozil (G)
Official report ---|||--- Player ratings ---|||--- Photos ---|||--- Highlights
GROUP B STANDINGS
| team | points | wins | ties | losses | goals+ | goals- |
| DENMARK | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| GERMANY | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| NETHERLANDS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| PORTUGAL | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
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