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Wednesday 13 June 2012

Netherlands 1-2 Germany UEFA Euro 2012 All goals and highlights



It was bad enough when they used to win with dour efficiency.

These days, though, we have to suffer Germany frolicking to victory with a swagger in their stride and with a crafty wink to the galleries.

Chelsea supporters would not have recognised Mario Gomez, the Bayern Munich striker who had the mother of all shockers in last month's Champions League Final, but filled the onion bag with a couple of absolute gems last night.

For an hour, at least, Arsenal fans would have performed a double-take at Robin Van Persie, the Footballer of the Year whose golden boots seemed to have turned to lead here in the Metalist Stadium these past few days.t might have been an exaggeration to claim that Holland still had hope but there seemed nothing left to lose. The introduction of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Rafael van der Vaart was intended to add the sort of edge that might cut the opposition's lead. Even so, the principal difficulty lay in keeping this contest taut.

There was a danger that Holland would gradually be drained of whatever traces of optimism were still left in them. Some of the hunger was gone from the match, but Germany were thorough, striving to attack if only to drain a little more hope out of the opposition.

Even their defender Mats Hummels demanded two saves in quick succession from Stekelenburg. Some of the tautness went out of the game, with Germany confident of the points and Holland as convinced of inevitable defeat.

These are sides that each have a taste for adventure, but only Germany seemed wise to indulge it. Holland, for their part, strove to show that there was still hope within them. Jérôme Boateng suffered for that when an attempt from Lukas Podolski smashed against him.

Holland, all the same, had not despaired. The gap was closed to 2-1 by Van Persie's unanswerable drive from the left. Belatedly there was tension to the night, but it soon vanished once more.

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