Croatia scrape to win over Austria
An early penalty from Luka Modric gave Croatia an unconvincing 1-0 European Championships Group B opening win over a plucky Austria side at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna.


Rene Aufhauser's clumsy tackle felled Ivica Olic in the third minute, and new Tottenham midfielder Modric calmly slotted the ball past Juergen Macho to score the quickest penalty ever in European Championships history.
Austria can take heart despite the defeat, as they outplayed an ordinary Croatia side - the game came in the light of 10,000 of their own fans signing a petition calling for their withdrawal from the tournament to avoid humiliation at the hands of their "superiors".
For the first half an hour Croatia looked the far more technically gifted side.


But Croatia missed injured Arsenal forward Eduardo, his composure in front of goal absent along with his presence on the pitch.
Olic and strike-partner Mladen Petric both went close but were denied by poor finishing with the head and left foot respectively.
But, playmaker Andreas Ivanschitz aside, Austria are a big, powerful outfit and their superior strength showed as the match went on.
Sebastian Proedl and Aufhauser both should have levelled before half-time but sent free headers wide as Austria piled the pressure on their guests, particularly from set-pieces.
Austria were sas wasteful in front of goal as Croatia, and Proedl missed with another free header a few minutes before the break.
The second half continued in a similar vein, as Austria played a direct game to try and get back into the match.
Slaven Bilic's men were, however, more effective on the counter attack, with Petric and Olic both going close and the latter drawing a cynical foul from Proedl that could have seen him sent off but only resulted in a yellow.


Middlesbrough defender Emanuel Pogatetz was lucky to stay on the pitch too, booked for his protests at the penalty and then somehow getting away without a second yellow card when he manhandled and then hacked at Olic just outside the Austria penalty area.
There were some nervy moments for Stipe Pletikosa in the Croatia goal and, as the match reached its conclusion, Austria were attacking in waves and again could have drawn level through veteran, Croatian-born substitute Ivica Vastic.
Subs Korkmaz Ozcan and Roman Kienast also caused the Croats problems, the former which his tricky dribbling and the latter with his direct forward play.
The team that beat England twice in qualifying were hanging on by the end, with Pletikosa's handling sometimes unconventional but ultimately effective as he kept Vastic, Kienast and Korkmaz from levelling for Austria.
And, in the final seconds of injury-time, Kienast shaved the upright with a superbly improvised flicked header from just inside the box for Austria's final chance to get something from the game.


But Croatia held on for the win as the second of the co-hosts - derided as whipping-boys before the tournament started - lost their opening game despite a good performance.

Podolski double downs Poland

A brace from Lukas Podolski gave Germany a 2-0 Euro 2008 Group B opening win against their local rivals and the country of his birth, Poland.


The Bayern Munich striker moved to Germany as a toddler and his muted celebrations reflected his origins.
Fittingly, both goals were set up by Miroslav Klose, his Bayern team-mate and another naturalised German of Polish birth.
The first, on 20 minutes, saw Klose unselfishly lay the ball on a plate to Podolski after a superb through-ball by Mario Gomez.
The second was an unintentional assist after he mis-hit a shot into the path of the former Cologne striker.
Germany had just too much quality for the Poles, who endeavoured but lacked a cutting edge up front that was given away by the listing of Maciej Zurawski in the starting line-up.
The ageing Larissa forward, whose career peaked two years ago in his debut season at Celtic, looked off the pace and barely threatened the goal of Jens Lehmann.
It made the decision to leave qualification goal-hero Radoslaw Matusiak at home look like a bad one, while the impact of Brazilian-born forward Roger at half-time showed that there were more suitable options in the squad.
It could have been so different - Poland had a great chance to open the scoring in the first minute when Lehmann dropped a high ball in the area.
They also should have levelled 15 minutes after Podolski's opener when Zurawski dragged his finish wide after Wojciech Lobodzinski got the better of the hesitant full-back Marcel Jansen and put the perfect low cross in for the Poland captain.
Poland played well enough for the second half hour of the match, and Legia Warsaw winger-forward Roger - who was only given a Polish passport weeks before the tournament after less than two years in the country - caused lots of problems for Germany's slightly shaky defence by switching flanks and running at the full-backs after his half-time entry.
He almost scored just before the hour with a cross-shot from the left, while Racing Santander striker Ebi Smolarek was given a tough offside call when he raced through to put the ball in the net soon afterwards.
But Germany always looked like they could step up a gear, content to sit back and hit the Poles on the break, and when their adversaries tired Joachim Loew's men were able to pick them apart at will.
Michael Ballack - who had a solid if unspectacular game in a deeper role than he performs at Chelsea - forced a quite superb save from Celtic shot-stopper Artur Boruc, while substitute Bastian Schweinsteiger should have picked Klose out when put through on the right.
They got the all-important second goal when, on 72 minutes, a comedy of errors by Poland's defence culminated in Steaua Bucharest full-back Pawel Golanski handing the ball to Schweinsteiger, who set it up for Klose to shank into Podolski's path.
Poland almost got one back with seven minutes remaining after Roger again caused problems, drilling in a dangerous cross from the right this time, although Lehmann's reflexes were equal to the cross and the subsequent ricochet.
After Croatia's 1-0 victory over Austria earlier in the day, the win put Germany top of Group B on goal difference.
If Germany against Croatia on Thursday creates a winner, they will be guaranteed a quarter-final place, while Poland and Austria both have to win when they face each other to have any chance of progressing to the knock-out phase.

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