Day 6: Croatia shock Germany and Austria rescue a point

That’ll teach me for losing the faith. I’d thought before the tournament that Croatia would make the semis and now it looks like they probably will. Beating Germany 2-0 makes them group winners courtesy of the Austria 1 - 1 Poland result, so they will face either the Czech Republic or Turkey in the quarters - two teams that on this evidence they should beat well. Croatia were absolutely first-class against Germany yesterday, showing the discipline and organisation that was lacking from their second half against Austria. The switch to 4-5-1 definitely helped, though I was slightly disappointed by Niko Krancjar in the playmaker role - normally reliable in front of goal, he missed two relatively easy chances, which would have put the Germans out of sight. He worked hard though, as did every Croatian on the pitch, who in the end thoroughly deserved the win.

For me, actually, this was the perfect result. My Croatia prediction looks much better, and now the Germans can take a morale-boosting win over Austria in the final game (don’t pretend it won’t happen) and then beat Portugal in the quarters. They’re too good not to come back from this, and happily, the Prancing Prat will be the one to suffer for it. Then Croatia can beat them again in the semis and half of the table will be as I have foreseen.

A quick word on the Austria-Poland game - neither team played particularly well. Artur Boruc, who I’ve always thought of as one of the world’s best goalkeepers, played outstandingly well, but even accounting for his heroics the Austrian finishing was abysmal. They should have been 3-0 up within 15 minutes and Boruc should have been given no chance at all to deny them that. Instead, Christian Leitgeb and Martin Harnik (twice) made tame efforts and were punished for it by Roger Guerreiro’s goal. OK, it was marginally offside, but it was exactly what they deserved for being so impotent at the other end of the pitch. Three cheers for Southampton’s Marek Saganowski for getting the assist, carrying the torch for the mighty Saints at these championships while Rudi Skacel rots on the Czech bench.

I was glad to see Howard Webb give the Austrian penalty at the end of the game - it was a clear foul, but the kind that gets flagged up so rarely that it looks controversial. If more refs gave those decisions the game would be better for it.

Everything is falling into place. See you tomorrow.