Germany vs Ukraine- An unbalanced game

The world champions began their quest for a European Championships with a rather unconvincing win against Ukraine with a 2-0 win in Lille last night. While the scoreline suggests otherwise , it was Ukraine who created more chances in the first half and Manuel Neuer was on his toes as he was forced to make several crucial saves in before the break. Here are a few events that could have altered the final scoreline.

 

• Yevhen Konoplyanka scores in the opening five minutes as Manuel Neuer acrobatic save isn’t enough to keep out his powerful shot from the edge of the box. 1-0 Ukraine inside the first 10 minutes! From there on there was only Ukraine and they add another as Jerome Boateng’s effort to clear off the line isn’t enough , 2-0 Ukraine at HT, upset on the cards.  Germany started the second half on the up and Ukraine seemed to have run out of gas, and despite creating several chances they fail to score. There was no need for Ukraine to push everyone forward in the stoppage time corner , no counter attack for Germany and no goal for Schweinsteiger. 2-0 at full time, Germany’s poor run into the tournament continues with a shock defeat!

• Germany could have won more convincingly looking at their second half performance , Ukraine were not offering any help to themselves and Toni Kroos could have easily scored from his long range shot , same was the case for Muller and Andre Schurrle who also tried their luck from outside the box.  Germany could and should have won by a margin of 3 or 4 goals considering their second half performance.