Germany's Mario Gomez sweeps home his second goal of the night after seeing off the challenge of Holland's Jetro Willems
The European Championship is unremitting. The match appeared to
tilt when Robin van Persie trimmed the Dutch deficit to 2-1, but
Germany were the more poised side.
Holland
are without a point in the group and do not have a full say in their
own destiny any longer. Germany lead with two victories but the Dutch,
with none at all, still have theoretical prospect of advancing to the
quarter-finals.
Their manager, Bert van Marwijk, was barely
heartened by that, knowing that his side, in practice, are on the verge
of elimination – they need to beat Portugal by two goals and for Germany
to beat Denmark. The outcome in Kharkiv virtually stripped the Dutch of
hope. Van Marwijk was wisely intent on complimenting the victors.
"Germany
has a very good team," he said, "with lots of passing. They can score
as they please. They're definitely favourites." Van Marwijk's opposite
number did not make a pretence of modesty. Instead he took pride in
detecting weakness in the defensive midfield pairing of Nigel de Jong
and Mark van Bommel. "We knew it could be dangerous if we got into those
spaces," said Joachim Löw a little smugly.
Animosity born of
Germany's invasion of the Netherlands in the second world war may have
receded to an extent, but this match still had an early intensity.
Germany hit a post as early as the eighth minute with a volley from
Mesut Ozil that also brought a partial save by Maarten Stekelenburg. By
then van Persie had faltered when allowed an opportunity and sent his
finish direct to the goalkeeper.
If the Arsenal forward was ill at
ease, he is not alone in finding it as hard to fend off tension as it
is to elude centre-backs. Indeed the opener from Germany in the 24th
minute was particularly creditable for the confidence and technique that
set it above the general tone of the night.
It was too easy for
Bastian Schweinsteiger to pass the ball straight through the middle, but
Mario Gomez still reacted beautifully, spinning to shoot beyond
Stekelenburg. Holland's angst would have bitten deep then with a
recognition that they were being outplayed. There is little mercy in the
tournament. The European Championship can take pride in its intensity
while it is still limited to 16 countries, but anxious coaches must wish
there was more room for error. This match posed a great challenge.
The
aim was simply to play well in defiance of the tension of the match and
the overtones that this fixture carries. There are, too, expectations
that have to be endured by footballers and their managers. Germany and
Holland are, respectively, third and fourth in the world.
In
essence, the Germans and Dutch must have seen a marvellous opportunity
at this tournament if they could just survive the rigours of this group.
Holland found it hard before the interval to demonstrate that they were
peers of the Germans. Löw's men were easily identifiable as the bunch
who won all 10 of their qualifiers for
Euro 2012.
The
misleading solace for Holland, such as it was, lay in the briefly
delayed ruthlessness of the Germans, In practice, they understood the
rich potential of counter-attacks when their opponents were obliged to
take risks if they were to escape this second defeat. The execution was
ideal for the next goal, seven minutes from half-time. Schweinsteiger
slid a pass from the right into the path of Gomez, whose crushing drive
flew past Stekelenburg.
The lead could have been greater but it
did not appear even then that Germany would rue the occasional bout of
wastefulness. Holland were unrecognisable as a side ranking high in the
world under Van Marwijk's management. They could not reach the stability
that would have been a start in countering ebullient and expert
opponents.
Recoveries are not wholly impossible but they are hard
to engineer in a tournament set at such a pitch. Sides seldom get an
easy game in which to establish some poise. Holland would have
understood that in the wake of the Denmark game, but the decisiveness of
Germany in those opening 45 minutes had been unanswerable.
It
might have been an exaggeration to claim that Holland still had hope but
there seemed nothing left to lose. The introduction of Klaas-Jan
Huntelaar and Rafael van der Vaart was intended to add the sort of edge
that might cut the opposition's lead. Even so, the principal difficulty
lay in keeping this contest taut.
There was a danger that Holland
would gradually be drained of whatever traces of optimism were still
left in them. Some of the hunger was gone from the match, but Germany
were thorough, striving to attack if only to drain a little more hope
out of the opposition.
Even their defender Mats Hummels demanded
two saves in quick succession from Stekelenburg. Some of the tautness
went out of the game, with Germany confident of the points and Holland
as convinced of inevitable defeat.
These are sides that each have a
taste for adventure, but only Germany seemed wise to indulge it.
Holland, for their part, strove to show that there was still hope within
them. Jérôme Boateng suffered for that when an attempt from Lukas
Podolski smashed against him.
Holland, all the same, had not
despaired. The gap was closed to 2-1 by Van Persie's unanswerable drive
from the left. Belatedly there was tension to the night, but it soon
vanished once more.
picked out captain Rafael van der Vaart
Italy 1-1 Croatia
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