Nobody gave the Croatian team much of a chance to defeat the German squad in their Euro 2008 soccer match. The Croatians had looked sloppy in their first game, a 1–0 win over Austria, while Gemany had dominated the powerful Polish team, 2–0.
Instead, the Croatian team hit the field fired up and inspired, while the Germans seemed listless and uncoordinated.
The game, started under dry skies for a change (although a light rain started up halfway through the first half) was even at first.
At 23:00 Croatia broke the deadlock as forward Danijel Pranjic drove a long looping feed from the left hand sideline all the way to the right goalpost. Croatian midfielder Darijo Srna slipped between the legs of defender Marcel Jansen, tipping the ball home.
Germany responded with immediate pressure, but Croatia held firm. Then at 30 minutes, Croatia again found weakness in the German defense, getting two players free behind the German defense. Croatia was unable to score, but the incident called into question Germany's concentration. Croatia earned the chance through careful ball management and patient passing.
With five minutes to go in the half, Croatia once again broke through the German defense, with four attackers swarming past two defenders Niko Kranjcar for a point-blank blast, but German keeper Jens Lehmann made the save.
Then three minutes later Germany missed another chance when they swarmed into the crease and actually managed to get the ball in the net, but a German player made contact with Croatian goalkeeper Stipe Peltikosa, bringing a whistle which nullified the shot.
Euro 2008 Soccer
Germany seemed to have the talent to beat Croatia, but seemed to be just a bit off stride, not quite coordinated as a team. Passes through the goal crease were too high, a little too far ahead or not quite on the mark. Germany had several opportunities on corner kicks, but seemed to be just a bit off the mark on every attempt.
Throughout the first half, Croatia maintained ball control, passing crisply and working as a team, while Germany just couldn't gel.
The second half started as a replay of the first with the German squad seeming uninspired and unmotivated, unable to mount a concentrated effort.
Croatia scored again at the 61-minute mark, as a long Croatian long shot deflected off a German defender, slipped past German keeper Lehman, and bounced off the post right onto the foot of Croatian forward Ivica Olic, who had beat his man and was open in front of the net. Olic tapped the ball into the open net putting Croatia up 2–0 and putting Germany deep in a hole.
Finally briefly, with twelve minutes left, Germany got it together as continued offensive pressure created an opportunity for Germany. Midfielder Bastiar Schweinsteiger pushed deep into the Croatian defense, causing it to collapse a bit. Schweinsteiger lost the ball to an aggressive Croatian tackle, but the ball bounced to another attacker who headed it to forward Lucas Podolski who drove a shot past Croatian keeper Peltikosaand into the left side of the net. (Podolski scored both goals in Germany's win over Poland.)
However, the hard-won goal did not provide the spark Germany needed to wake up and get back in the game. Instead Croatia pushed back, nearly scoring a third goal late in the match.
Finally with only a minute left in regulation play, Bastiar Schweinsteiger lost his temper after a hard tackle and pushed a Croatian player, earning himself a red card.
At the end, underdog Croatia took the win, and moves closer to a quarter-final berth.
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