Yevhen Konoplyanka threatened for Ukraine but they exhausted, with Bastian Schweinsteiger adding a late second.
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A second-half victor from Arkadiusz Milik steered Poland to a 1-0 victory in Euro 2016 Group C as Northern Ireland’s first appearance at a major finals for 30 years ended in disappointment.
A Germany fan had said before the world champions’ opening game against Ukraine on Sunday that he would name his son, whose birth is imminent, after the team’s first goalscorer.
“Germany is a machine”, he shrugged, when pressed for how the promise of the first half – when they had an effort cleared off the goal line – failed to translate into a result.
Manuel Neuer, captain in place of Bastian Schweinsteiger, was exemplary in the first half, but a goalkeeper who has freely admitted to being bored by playing for Bayern Munich and Germany must have wondered why he was suddenly being forced to stake a claim for man of the match.
We are yet to hear from Uefa on this new incident but many will be hoping that the reaction from authorities is consistant across the nations.
Former Everton defender Shkodran Mustafi opened the scoring for the 2014 World Cup winners before Schweinsteiger doubled his side’s lead after an outstanding cross by Mesut Ozil.
Manuel Neuer made two exceptional saves to deny Ukraine in the first-half and Jerome Boateng made a smart goal-line clearance after nearly diverting the ball into his own net.
In the beginning of the second half, two long distance shots from Kroos and Khedira were saved by Ukraine goalkeeper, which did not allow Germany to extend the lead.
They had the better opportunities to score in the first half and must have wished they could still call on the services of Andriy Shevchenko, who scored their only European Championship goals four years ago and is now part of Mykhailo Fomenko’s coaching staff. We have to keep our motivation high. “We’ll have to raise ourselves in the tournament and hopefully already against Poland”, said Neuer, referring to the team’s game at Stade de France outside Paris on Thursday. Shortly before halftime, Ukraine’s Andriy Yarmolenko saw his goal ruled out for offside.
One game in and three points closer to topping Group C, Germany’s European Championship is off to the start they sought, late Schweinsteiger addition or not.
Despite keeping 68 per cent possession and creating the early chances, Germany also showed rare vulnerabilities which Ukraine were unable to exploit, but other teams will.
Valencia defender Mustafi powered home the opener from Toni Kroos’s free-kick after just 19 minutes of Monday’s (AEST) game.
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We had to stop the Germans scoring and we weren’t able to do that – we conceded two goals. I think the players understood perfectly the difficulties they were going to face when you play a side like Germany.
