Euro2012: Germany group winners, Netherlands home pointless

The 2012 European Championships continued for the Group B teams tonight with their third and final round group matches in the Ukrainian cities of Kharviv and Lviv. The Group of Death lived-up to its billing as Germany moved into the quarterfinals with a 100% record, a 2-1 win against Denmark; while their archrivals the Netherlands went home without a point following their 1-2 loss against Portugal, who made it through besides the Germans.


GROUP B

Portugal 2-1 (1-1) Netherlands
Goals: 0-1 Rafael van der Vaart (11'), 1-1,2-1 Cristiano Ronaldo (28',74')

Portugal needed a brace from Cristiano Ronaldo to overcome the Netherlands 2-1 to qualify for the quarterfinals as a disappointing pre-tournament title candidate the Oranje ended their campaign without a point.

The Netherlands looked better early on and struck in the 11th minute through a brilliant Rafael van der Vaart strike, but Cristiano Ronaldo finally found his form though he first missed two chances before scoring in the 28th minute past Maarten Stekelenburg.

After the break both sides had their chances, but Cristiano Ronaldo ensured Portugal's passage into the quarterfinals as the Dutch continued to miss chances galore. It ended 2-1 for Portugal, who now face the Czech Republic in an interesting quarterfinal.


Denmark 1-2 (1-1) Germany
Goals: 0-1 Lukas Podolski (19'), 1-1 Michael Krohn-Dehli (24'), 1-2 Lars Bender (80')

Germany won 2-1 against Denmark to score their third win in as many games to move into the quarterfinals, while Denmark after the loss have to go home. Lukas Podolski gave the Germans the lead, only for Michael Krohn-Dehli to equalise before Lars Bender scored a late winner for the Germans.

Germany looked the better side early on, but Thomas Müller missed two easy chances very early on and it seemed a matter of time before Germany would go into the lead. It happened in the 19th minute when following a throw-in Thomas Müller played the ball across the face of the goal for Mario Gomez to deflect for Lukas Podolski to bury the ball in the net. A special occasion for Podolski then it was his 100th international cap tonight. But Germany's lead only last five minutes as Denmark surprisingly equalised through Michael Krohn-Dehli following a corner. Germany continued to have more of the game against defensive Danes, but they lost their flair the longer the match lasted.

Initially Germany was able to pick the holes in the Danish defence, but especially captain Agger and Kjaer did an excellent job. But the Danish knew with Portugal leading with quarter of an hour to go that they needed to beat Germany to progress, but when they started to venture upfront the Germans scored off a counter-attack as Mesut Özil looked for substitute Miroslav Klose, but found an overlapping Lars Bender, who made no mistake to score his first goal for Germany.

Germany won 2-1 to maintain their 100% record at Euro2012 and now they face Greece in the quarterfinals.