Euro2012: Germany vs. Portugal

Germany's Mario Gomez heads home the game winner (AP Images)

Euro2012's Group of Death continued Saturday night with Germany vs. Portugal.  With Denmark actually picking up three points earlier in the day vs. the Netherlands, it's likely that both of these teams knew they needed the full three points to keep pace in the group.  The Germans had the added pressure of being one of the favorites to win the whole thing.

Shades of Chelsea and the Champions League final began to emerge for the Germans, many of whom play for Bayern Munich.  Portugal played a pretty thorough defensive game for most of the match and frustrated Germany in front of goal.  Mario Gomez earned his first chance of the match on 2 minutes, as he headed a cross from Jerome Boateng on target, but Portugal 'keeper Rui Patricio made the save rather comfortably.  In the 9th minute Lucas Podolski tried his luck from just outside the area, but again Patricio was up to the task.

As for Portugal, they did enjoy a decent bit of the ball in the first half, but as usual, they seemed to struggle putting all of their individual talent together to carve out good chances on goal.  Their best chance of the first half came right on the 45th minute when Pepe managed to head a corner into the crossbar.  The ball bounced right back down on the line but the German defense was able to clear before it crossed, sending the two teams into halftime still scoreless.

The second half proceeded along much the same lines as the first, but Portugal did try to attack a bit more.  Cristiano Ronaldo sent a shot wide of the target in the 49th minute, then he had another chance in the 65th minute, being set up by a nice cross from Coentrao, but Boateng just got his foot in at the last second to block the shot.

Germany finally broke through the deadlock in the in 72nd minute.  With his manager prepared to sub him out, Gomez finally won his redemption.  Sami Khedira sent a nice cross into the middle of the box and Gomez rose to head it home brilliantly and give Germany the 1-0 lead.

At the point Portugal didn't really fancy their chances of advancement if they came away with nothing, so they started to pile on the pressure.  The last 10 minutes produced a flurry of chances.  In the 82nd minute, Ronaldo drove a shot in on goal that Manuel Neuer was able to parry away.  This resulted in a couple of corners that Germany managed to clear.  Then in the 84th minute Nani hit a cross/shot that again clanged off the crossbar.  Finally in the 88th minute Varela had a point blank look at Neuer's far post, but somehow the German 'keeper managed to dive in and save it just in time to preserve the 1-0 win for Germany.

NOTE:  In more bad fan behavior news, Germany has been cited for the fact that their fans tossed grapefruit sized wads of paper at the Portugal players. Those of us who have had our teams play in some Latin American countries think, "Well, at least it wasn't bottles of urine."  Portugal was also cited for delaying the 2nd half kick.