After Croatia were already almost guaranteed first place, they were just playing for a one hundred percent win record in this game. However the Polish needed a win and the other result between Germany and Austria to go their way to get through to the next round, but it was never going to be easy against the Croatians who had won their two previous games convincingly.
Croatia started well, putting the Polish defense under constant pressure, forcing save after save from Poland goal keeper Artur Boruc who in full truth had a truly excellent game, keeping everything that came his way in the first half out of his goal.
Poland never really created much of a threat in the first half, and Croatian goal keeper Vedran Runje seemed fairly bored, but still commanded his defense well when called upon.
In the second half Croatia really came alive, putting Boruc and his defense under relentless pressure, with the Polish manager Beenhakker going crazy on the touch line.It was inevitable when Croatia scored the first goal of the game.
It came on the fifty second minute, Klasnic (who has had two kidney transplants) calmly converted the ball in to the back of the net after Danijel Pranjic pulled the ball back from a surging run down the wing.
The Polish looked increasingly beaten as the game went on, and could do nothing to stop the Croatians maintaining their unbeaten run.
Overall a good performance by Croatia, who have put Poland out of the tournament for good. Tonight’s results mean that Croatia top the group with nine points, the first team to do so so far in the competition, Germany follow with six points and Poland and Austria are knocked out of the competition.
After both teams lost their first games, they needed to win this one. Neither team had even scored in their first game, so they needed to win for pride if nothing else. Austria came out dressed in all red, with the Poles opting for all white.
Almost immediately Austria took control, making several decent chances, but failing to optimize them. Then the real chances started rolling in. Time after time the Austrian forwards would be caught out by the brilliance of Polish and Celtic goal keeper Artur Boruc, but Austria really should have been three nil up within thirty minutes.
And on that thought of thirty minutes, Poland got a chance at the other end, and very strongly against the run of play convert the opportunity into a goal, something which Austria will regret that they didn’t do. The ball came in from Marek Saganowski, with the Austrian goal keeper getting finger tips to the initial shot, but then knocking it past his own defender and straight into the path of Roger Guerreiro, who slots the ball home to score his first ever goal for his adopted country, Poland.
After that Poland started to play a bit of football, keeping possession well, and suddenly Austria weren’t getting chances, let alone scoring them. Half time and Poland were well on top.
In the second half Poland continued to dominate, making several good chances and maybe could have had another goal or two, where as Austria really struggled to find any momentum, getting increasingly wound up.
There were no real highlights in the second half until the third minute of injury time, when an Austrian free kick was played in and a man in red went down, Howard Webb pointed to the spot. Ivica Vastic made no mistake from twelve yards, slamming the ball into the top corner.
Overall, not a good result for either team, as they both needed a win. But Croatia will be happy, being the second team through to the knock out stage.
