Euro 2008 Report: Germany 2-0 Poland

The Germans kicked off their Euro 2008 campaign with a win over Poland thanks to a brace from Polish born Lukas Podolski.

The bookies favourites for the tournament showed why they are receiving backing with an impressive performance against the Poles. Problems off the field between rival sets of fans marred the occasion with arrests both before and after the game.

Poland decided to play with a rather ludicrous high line, which Germany fully exploited early on. Klose should've scored but tried to play in strike partner Gomez instead and that was just the start of it. After twenty minutes they finally broke the deadlock and it was all they deserved. Klose broke the offside trap again and was sent clear, he squared to the unmarked Podolski who coolly slotted home before showing real glass in not celebrating.

Germany had chances to wrap up the game before the interval but failed to do so and Poland would've been happy to get in at half time only one goal down. They came out in the second half and looked like a half decent side and peppered Jens Lehmann's goal from distance. We all know the German keeper is dodgy but not from long shots, you need to send in crosses, which he just can't deal with.

The Poles never looked like scoring despite some neat and enterprising build-up play and were indebted to keeper Boruc for a quite wondrous save from Michael Ballack. However the keeper could do nothing when after some schoolboy defending, Podolski fired in a superb volley from just inside the area to kill the game off.

The favourites most certainly impressed and with a relatively easy route to the final, they must be most people's tips to play for the trophy in Vienna in three weeks time. As for Poland, don't write them off just yet, but they'll need to find that playmaker who can open up a side.