Euro 2012: Germany overpower the Greeks!

The 2012 European Championships is now in the quarterfinals with Group B winners Germany taking on Group A runners-up Greece at the PGE Arena in Gdansk, Poland. Germany convincingly won the Group of Death with three wins, while Greece surprised everyone by making it into the knockout stages.


QUARTERFINAL #2

Germany 4-2 (1-0) Greece
Goals: 1-0 Philipp Lahm (39'), 1-1 Giorgos Samaras (55'), 2-1 Sami Khedira (61'), 3-1 Miroslav Klose (68'), 4-1 Marco Reus (74'), 4-2 Dimitris Salpingidis (89', pen)

There was a lot on tension ahead of this tie due to the Euro crisis, but Germany showed their class and potential in a 4-2 victory against the 2004 champions Greece, who surprisingly were outplayed by a very potent German attack in Gdansk, Poland.

Germany coach Joachim Löw surprised many with numerous changes to his starting eleven. Jerome Boateng as expected returned into his right-back position for Lars Bender, but Löw changed three of his four attacking players with only Mesut Özil retaining his place. Marco Reus started for Thomas Müller on the right, André Schürrle started for Lukas Podolski on the left and Miroslav Klose upfront for Mario Gomez. The gamble would pay-off then these players would create a lot of problems for the Greek defence.

Germany started the match with the intention to seal matters as early as possible, not allowing the Greeks to think about an upset. But an early Klose goal was disallowed due to an alleged offside. Germany kept possession and tried to outplay the Greeks and it worked except for scoring goals and they had to wait until the 39th minute for captain Philipp Lahm to curl one in, another of his rare but important goals in a big tournament like 2006 and 2008.

After the break Germany seemed to lose the plot a little and allowed a regrouped Greece too much space and the equalised through Giorgos Samaras off a counter-attack in the 55th minute was the result. But this didn't shock Germany as they reorganised themselves and again went out into attack and scored three goals in just 13 minutes. First it was midfielder Sami Khedira who gave the Germans their lead back in the 61st minute of a rocket under the bar, then Miroslav Klose scored his 64th international goal off a header in the 68th minute before Marco Reus got a deserving fourth in the 74th minute off a rebound.

Greece was beaten by now and they got an undeserving handball from an unintentional handball from Jerome Boateng a minute from time, which Dimitris Salpingidis would put in to reduce the deficit.

It ended 4-2 for Germany, who won their fourth match at Euro2012 and their 15 competitive match in a row which is a new world record. Their opponents will surely know the Mannschaft is ready for all opponents and the title with their coach Joachim Löw willing and able to change formations according to his plans and the opponent.