Germany v Poland Thursday 16th June 2016 Kickoff 2000hrs
Football – European Championships – International
Both Germany and Poland got their tournament’s off to a winning start last Sunday, with the former securing a comfortable enough 2-0 win over Ukraine, whilst Poland seen off a Northern Ireland team who appeared happy to keep the score down. I imagine Thursday night’s match in Paris will be a different contest for both, but with the two nations knowing that a win would see them qualified, and almost certainly as group winners.
Germany were certainly not at their best against the Ukrainians in their opening game, but they never had to be. A bullet header from Shkodran Mustafi, who was only playing because of the injury to Mats Hummels, opened the scoring before Bastian Schweisteiger sealed the three points with a breakaway goal in injury time after coming off the bench. There were more than a few scares along the way as their opponents were rather profligate when presented with chances, but it was a solid enough start to the competition for the current world champions. Following much debate in the build up to the game about who would start as the central striker for Germany, Joachim Low opted to select Mario Gotze in a false-nine position, made famous by Spain in the last European Championships. Personally, I do not think it was an effective tactic with Gotze having little impact throughout, and I would not be surprised if Low looks to change away from it, if not tomorrow then at some point later on in the tournament.
No matter what level of football you play at, if you face a team who are willing to sacrifice any real attacking threat to concentrate on denying space in their own 18 yard box, it’s difficult. That was most definitely the case for Poland in their first game of Euro 2016 against Northern Ireland. Michael O’Neill’s men played as you would expect them to but the lack of an early goal meant Poland looked laboured towards the end of the first half. Fortunately for their sake, the breakthrough occurred just six minutes into the second half and turned out to be the winning goal. It would have been unthinkable for Poland to fail to get the three points against the Irish considering they have to face Germany and Ukraine. No disrespect to O’Neill and his players, but it would be a surprise if they manage to take anything off either of those teams. Poland can now approach the match with Germany knowing that a point would be an excellent result for them in their quest to reach the last-16, something they have never done at the European Championships, before.
These two teams are no stranger to each other having been drawn in the same qualifying group for these championships. The head-to-head for those two games read one win each with Poland being the first team to defeat the Germans in a competitive game after their World Cup triumph in Brazil earlier that year. Also, and probably more importantly for Poland as nation, it was the first ever time they had defeated that particular rivals. Germany got their revenge in the return game, however, putting in arguably their best display of qualifying when seeing Poland off 3-1 in Frankfurt. Both those games were competitive, though, and it’s likely that we can anticipate something similar on Thursday evening in the French capital. There are, of course, plenty that links the two nations (both historically and more appropriately in a football sense) and none more so than Poland’s star man – Robert Lewandowski. Having plied his trade in the Bundesliga for the last six years, starring for both Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, he will be well known to his opponents. On a personal note, Lewandowski will be looking to improve on his own performance against Northern Ireland where had unusually had to play second fiddle to his strike partner Milik.
Germany v Poland Betting Tips
Although these two have met four times in recent seasons – between qualifiers and friendly matches – Germany and Poland have never met in a European Championships. Everybody connected with Poland would have been delighted to get the monkey of never having won a game at this tournament off their back with that win over Northern Ireland but they can expect a much sterner test of their credentials in this game. That applies particularly to their defence which is an area of their team that has been found wanting on more than one occasion.
Germany often give their opponents a chance at some point during the game, as demonstrated by keeping just three clean sheets in their 10 qualifiers to get here. Manuel Neuer and Jerome Boateng performed some heroics to keep Ukraine at bay five days ago, but I’m not so sure they will be able to do the same against a Poland team whose attack is their biggest strength. A draw would not be a terrible result for either team but the bet I like most here is for both teams to score. We seen in the second round of matches played Wednesday that teams may be a little more attack-minded, and games more open, add that to the quality of attacking talent amongst these two teams then it’s set for entertaining fare.
Both teams to score 11/12 @ 888sport 3pts
