Thursday night saw the first goalless draw at this summer’s EURO 2016, as Group C contenders Germany and Poland played out an underwhelming 0-0 draw inside Paris’ Stade de France.
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We have to live with the point though.
The two nations have been made to wait for progression into the final eight, which has been shaken up Northern Ireland’s 2-0 victory over Ukraine earlier on Thursday.
Milik passed up another glorious chance to score in the second half, before Mesut Ozil flew straight up the other end to force Lukasz Fabianski into making a decent save. However, we didn’t really have any answers going forward.
Neither goalkeeper was troubled in a largely incident-free first 45 minutes in Group C.
Despite a drab opening half in the French capital; neither national team coach opted for a change of personnel at the interval, but thankfully the second-half started in lively fashion.
But within seconds of the restart it should have been ahead.
Kamil Grosicki’s cross found Arkadiusz Milik, who appeared to only have to guide the ball into the net, but with the goal at his mercy he barely connected and it went agonisingly wide in front of the passionate Polish supporters.
Poland, 1-0 victors over Northern Ireland in their opener, faced an early threat as Mario Gotze headed Julian Draxler’s swinging cross wide of the target.
Germany, despite enjoying the majority of the possession, had rarely tested Lukasz Fabianski in the Poland goal.
But, despite a string of half chances in the final 20 minutes, neither side looked like finding the breakthrough.
Neither team could sustain attacking pressure, and a point suits both after their opening wins.
The entire first period was dragged out with few and far goalscoring chances for the crowd to savour, with neither side ready to take a risk and go all out for the three points on offer.
The first 0-0 draw of #EURO2016 comes in #GERPOL.
While the match may not have been a spectacle, it does leave both teams in a strong position to qualify for the last 16.
Poland will now lock horns with Ukraine while Germany will take on Northern Ireland for a place in the last 16.
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One definite effect of the draw was that pointless Ukraine are eliminated from the tournament.
