BASTIAN THE PIG-FARMER DRIVES GERMANY TO THE LAST FOUR
Friday, June 20th, 2008 by Stuart Stratford
EURO2008 QUARTER FINAL 1
GERMANY 3 - 2 PORTUGAL
Germany strode into the Semi Finals of this year’s tournament, putting behind them a turgid Group phase and setting themselves on course for a rematch with Croatia. UEFA’s decision to halve the draw and ensure that the final could not be a duplication of the Group matches leaves the probabilty that both semi-finals will be exactly that.
Portugal fired the opening salvo’s in this match with Lehmann saving from Simao and Moutinho heading over from Chelsea’s new signing Jose Bosingwa’s cross. The latter miss was something that would be instantly regretted as Ballack and Podolski combined well on the left to allow the German forward to sprint and deliver a fine cross that Bastian Schweinsteiger arrived at speed in the area to slide the ball powerfully home.
The Portuguese were rolling from that shock and within four minutes were punchdrunk as Schweinsteiger’s freekick found Miroslav Klose unmarked on the penalty spot and he made no mistake with a firm header. Twenty-six minutes gone and the Portuguese staring down the barrel of the exit shotgun.
As they regained their composure, Moutinho suffered a knee injury that brought Meireles into the fray. The central midfielders gradually restored service to Ronaldo, Simao and Nuno Gomes, threatening positions attained and spurned equally quickly. With Scolari contemplating the words needed at half-time to turn the situation around, Ronaldo forced a good save from Lehmann and Nuno Gomes halved the deficit from the rebound.
With Deco leading the prompting, Portugal were never out of the game but in the sixty-second minute, their difficult task became almost as high as the Alps. Schweinsteiger’s free-kick was delivered and Michael Ballack manoeuvred Ferreira out of the way - legally according to the officials - to head home at the far post.
As the Germans sought to take the sting from the game, Portuguese opportunities were few and far between until with three minutes to go, Helder Postiga met Nani’s cross to reduce the deficit but it was too little, too late.
Tags: Euro2008, Germany, Portugal
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