My injury was healed, I feel very good. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue in that vein.
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Bastian Schweinsteiger’s goalscoring cameo for Germany in their 2-0 win over Ukraine was one of the best moments so far in terms of being a Manchester United fan.
“We haven’t shown everything yet”.
“We’ve learned a lot, we’re not at the level we want to achieve during this tournament yet, but it is a good start”, he warned. It’s a long tournament and we need everyone to be fit.
It was an intense and fast-paced game. Despite a late rally from the industrious Irish, Poland never looked likely to lose although coach Adam Nawalka said they had to adapt for the abrasive style of their opponents.
Ukraine finished the first half strongly with Andriy Yarmolenko having a goal rightly ruled out for offside. “We deserved victory. We were dominant in the second half”.
“It’s just incredible”, Schweinsteiger panted after the Group C match, out of breath following his brief but explosive return to competitive football after coming back from a long-term injury in his country’s last warm-up game before the finals.
“I think we will really have to put in some work”.
Manuel Neuer is the best keeper in the world and I told him this the other day.
But Germany heeded the warning and re-took control after the break, with Julian Draxler (twice), Kroos, Sami Khedira, Thomas Mueller, substitute Andre Schuerrle and then Ozil all going close. We have to forget about it now, we have to move on to the next match. When we did, we should have reacted quicker.
Second half started without changes in either side, as Ukraine looked to continue their solid period of play from the end of the first half. Wales showed all their famed team ethic to grind out a 2-1 win over Slovakia to become early group-toppers, and the attacking quality of Gareth Bale will provide a completely different dimension for England’s defence to deal with in a British “derby” which is unlikely to be settled by more than a goal. Germany are like a machine.
To steady nerves among his banged up players, Germany manager Joachim Löw said he has built a team so cohesive that no matter the starting 11, every player knows his part in the system.
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The officer added that the World Cups in Russian Federation and Qatar in 2018 and 2022, as well as the pan-European 2020 European Championship, were hard for hooligan groups because of high security, the threat of severe prison sentences and travel difficulties. Unfortunately we opened up and conceded a second goal, which hurt. Paul Pogba, in particular, will benefit from the additional self-belief provided by his team’s opening victory, and we can fully expect the French to thrive from now onwards.
