Croatia humbled but should have humiliated Germany, knocking the tournament favourites off their perch in what turned out to be a powder keg of a game.

Slavan Bilic’s side won 2-1 and played some outstanding possession football, while Germany imploded and had Bastian Schweinsteiger sent off.

Dario Srna’s 22nd minute strike sounded an onslaught that did not end until referee De Bleeckere blew for full time.

The Vatreni kept the Mannschaft at arms length for much of the game, keeping the ball better than their rivals.

Bilic solved the problems which made Croatia’s first match against Austria such a nervy encounter, adding a fifth man, Ivan Rakitic, to midfield, deploying a 4-4-1-1 formation.

The change paid dividends and played to Croatia’s strengths, giving their talented middlemen more time on the ball.

Tottenham signing Luka Modric kept Germany on the back foot throughout the first half, bisecting the Joachim Löw’s defence on a couple of occasions.

Per Mertesacker and Christoph Metzelder had to be at their very best to cut out the 22-year-old’s telegraphic passes, which almost set Ivica Olic one on one with Jens Lehmann.

Germany boss Joachim Löw fielded the same side that had been so convincing against Poland, but his team could not get started let alone impose its energetic game on the Croats.

The Germans looked just as capable as their opponents in the opening stages, but could never get behind the Croats.

Löw’s men utilised the flanks and tried to find front men, Miroslav Klose and Mario Gomez, who were often judged offside.

The Vatreni signalled their intent from the 11th minute when Olic beat Lehmann to a cross, only to be ruled to have fouled the former Arsenal stopper.

Olic was a constant thorn in the Germans side, twisting and turning them
inside out, earning Croatia several dangerous free kicks.

His work preoccupied each of the German back four, freeing up space for their five-man midfield in the final third.

Srna stole into one of those gaps in the 22nd minute, beating Marcell Jansen to Daniel Pranjic’s cross to open the scoring.

Croatia then proceeded to torment Germany and should have doubled their lead minutes later through Portsmouth trequartista Niko Kranjcar who was teed up by Olic just inside the box, only to rifle the ball over the bar.

Kranjcar was to go close again, but not before Michael Ballack burned Stipe Pletikosa’s gloves with a wicked swinging free kick from 35 yards after 32 minutes.

The German’s should have gone into the dressing room at half time 3-0 down, but Kranjcar could not find the net, not even when Corluka’s pass from the right, touched on by Olic found him free again four minutes from the interval.

The 23-year-old snatched at the ball and Lehmann easily saved it, giving Löw’s side a reprieve.

The Germans came out in the second half with a lot more purpose, but just when they looked like getting a handle on the game it slipped out their grasp.

Schalke youngster Rakitic mishit a cross, which surprised Lehmann, hit the post and fell in front of Olic who deserved 63rd minute goal.

Down but not out, the Germans set about getting themselves back in the game and duly did so against the run of play.

Philipp Lahm launched a ball in from the right, which Lukas Podolski smashed in with the power we have all become accustomed to 10 minutes before the end to set up a nervy finish.

Croatia’s win, however, was never in doubt as Löw’s substitutions changed the game for the wrong reasons.

Bastian Schweinsteiger’s introduction started off well enough with a shot that flashed across Pletikosa’s goal, but ended in disgrace as he earned himself a red card for pushing Jerko Leko after 92 minutes.

A melee ensued, demoralising the Germans who were eventually put out of the misery by the referee’s final whistle, which also heralded Croatia’s qualification for the quarter-finals.
Croatia (probable): Pletikosa; Corluka, R. Kovac, Simunic, Pranjic; Srna (Leko 79), Modric, N. Kovac, Rakitic, Kranjcar (Knezevic 84); Olic (Petric 71)

Germany (probable): Lehmann; Lahm, Metzelder, Mertesacker, Jansen (Odonkor 45); Fritz (Kuranyi 81), Frings, Ballack, Podolski; Gomez (Schweinsteiger 65), Klose

Sent Off: Schweinsteiger (G) 91

Ref: De Bleeckere (Bel)

Ref From channel4.com

Cristiano Ronaldo believes Portugal have a great chance of winning Euro 2008 if they can play as they did in the 3-1 win over the Czech Republic.

Ronaldo scored one goal and set up another in the win which put Portugal on the brink of the quarter-finals.

"Our main aim was to get to the next phase. I’m very happy to have helped my team-mates to win," said Ronaldo.

"We played well in the first match and again in this match. If we carry on like this, we have a good chance."

Ronaldo scored with a low drive to put Portugal back into the lead in the second half after Libor Sionko had cancelled out Deco’s opener.

And the Manchester United winger handed substitute Ricardo Quaresma a goal on a plate when he squared for him to tap in late on and seal the win.

Ronaldo added: "We played very well, although Czech Republic played very well in the first half. It was very difficult to penetrate their defence.

Paulo Ferreira played down Portugal’s chances of winning the tournament

"We know how to sacrifice everything for the good of the team.

"We have now got a big chance but must respect our opponents because they too have a mission - they want to win, as we do."

Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari was surprised with the decision of opposite number Karel Bruckner to start with Milan Baros up front rather than Jan Koller.

"We had planned to play against a starting XI that would include Koller," said Scolari, who later in the evening was named as the new Chelsea manager.

"The fact Baros was there didn’t make life easy. We faced difficulties because they had four or five in midfield and we had two wingers so we didn’t know what to do."

The victory maintains Portugal’s 100% start following their opening-day win over Turkey.

Ref From BBC SPORT

Turkey emerged from the thunderstorm in Basel victorious thanks to a dramatic injury-time winner from Arda Turan, but co-hosts Switzerland are left wondering would could have been after surrendering their half-time lead and slumping out of the competition after just two games.

Turkey boss Fatih Terim made a number of changes to his team following their opening day defeat to Portugal, switching to a 4-3-1-2 formation. Three of those changes were forced on him by injuries to Emre Belozoglu, Gokhan Zan and Colin Kazim-Richards, while Tumer Metin replaced Mevlut Erding to provide more support for strikers Nihat Kahveci and Tuncay Sunli.

Switzerland made changes of their own in attack following the tournament ending knee injury suffered by captain Alexander Frei during the Czech Republic loss. To compensate for that absence Coach Kobi Kuhn gave Hakan Yakin and Eren Derdiyok the nod up front, dropping Marco Streller.

A furiously fast paced start to the match saw both teams surging forward, but neither side could find the space in the final third to carve out a clear-cut chance in the early stages. Hakan Balta had to briefly step off the field after just 10 minutes after a clash of heads left him with a nasty cut to the side of the head, but he was soon back on without any lasting signs of injury.

The game slowed after the frantic start as the weather started to deteriorate, with heavy rain and a strong wind hindering play. As the conditions continued to worsen the game started to become scrappy and the fouls increased.

Tuncay tried to worm his way through the Swiss defence, but couldn’t find room to turn and Philippe Senderos eventually slid the ball clear. Arda Turan’s cross caused problems in the Switzerland penalty area, but the ball was scrambled clear and Yakin’s low drive on the counter-attack forced a good save from Volkan Demirel low at the near post.

Volkan was soon called into action again as Switzerland were awarded a free-kick in a dangerous position. Tranquillo Barnetta’s low effort had the Turkish ‘keeper at full stretch to steer it round his left-hand post with a fingertip save.

Udinese midfielder Gokhan Inler was penalised for blocking Tuncay right on the edge of the Swiss penalty area following a purposeful run by the Middlesbrough forward. Goalkeeper Diego Benaglio failed to deal with the resulting free-kick and Arda’s header skimmed the wrong side of the post.

As the first half-an-hour drew to a close the conditions were approaching unplayable as an increasingly waterlogged pitch slowed down the ball. Switzerland found the breakthrough tough after Derdiyok broke the offside trap and rounded Volkan before squaring the ball across the goal-line for Yakin to tap into the open net, although ball stopped in a goalmouth puddle and nearly didn’t reach the FC Basel star at the back post.

Yakin missed an almost identical chance just three minutes later when a Valon Behrami cross found it’s way all the way through to him at the back post, but this time he inexplicably knocked the ball wide from inside the six-yard box. Turkey tried to push back and Gokdeniz Karadeniz got on to the end of a great high ball from Arda, but couldn’t bring it under control and Ludovic Magnin cleared the threat.

Amazingly the torrential downpour came to a sudden end during the half-time break and the stadium staff in Basel frantically tried to clear the standing water from the pitch. However, UEFA made an announcement that if the weather got any worse in the second 45 minutes then the match would be abandoned and replayed the next day.

With his team struggling to combat the difficult conditions, Turkish Coach Terim made the brave decision to use two of his available substitutes at the break, with Semih Senturk and Mehmet Topal replacing Gokdeniz and Tumer Metin.

They threatened straight away with an Arda free-kick whipped towards the penalty spot, but Hakan was booked for knocking the ball on with his hand. Turkey were pushing men forward in search of the equaliser they desperately needed and Semih thought he had found it as he rolled the ball past Benaglio, but the whistle had already gone for offside.

Five minutes later he was celebrating, though. Nihat curled a deep cross towards the penalty spot and Semih drifted round the back of Magnin and Senderos to power the header through the hands of Benaglio in the Swiss goal. The co-hosts tried to hit straight back, but Hakan made an excellent last-ditch challenge to toe the loose ball out of Yakin’s path.

The game closed down as the midfield battle got into full stride, but Johan Vonlanthen nearly made an immediate impact after coming on as a substitute, but Servet Cetin stepped in to halt his mazy run at the last moment. Turkey responded as Tuncay was released, but his angled cross-cum-short was just too far ahead of Nihat sliding in at the back post.

The pressure was mounting as the game entered the last 10 minutes, with both sides looking nervous as they pushed for the winner knowing that conceding a goal at the other end would all but guarantee their elimination from the tournament.

Switzerland nearly found the breakthrough on the break when Inler slide the ball through for Vonlanthen, who laid the ball off for Yakin to strike but his low effort was too close to Volkan to find the back of the net. They were given another chance from a free-kick after Inler was tripped by Semih on the edge of the Turkish penalty area, but Magnin’s shot was deflected wide by the wall.

The end of the game was delayed by a cut to the head of Turkey defender Emre Asik as the fourth official displayed the four minutes of added time to a huge roar from the crowd. But two minutes after the end of 90 minutes Arda delivered the knockout blow to Switzerland. He cut inside from the left wing and his shot was deflected off Patrick Muller to loop over the helpless Benaglio and into the net.

There was no time left for the Swiss to hit back, meaning the co-hosts are the first team to be eliminated from the tournament, while all now rests on Turkey’s match against the Czech Republic on Sunday. This result also hands Portugal the mathematical victory in Group A and a place in the quarter-finals.
Swizerland: Benaglio; Lichtsteiner, Mueller, Senderos, Magnin; Barnetta (Vonlanthen 66), Inler, Fernandes (Cabana 76), Behrami; Hakan Yakin (Gygax 85), Derdiyok

Turkey: Volkan; Altintop, Servet Cetin, Hakan Balta; Emre Asik, Arda, Tumer Metin (Mehmet Topal 46), Gokdeniz Karadeniz (Semih Santurk 46), Mehmet Aurelio; Tuncay Sanli, Nihat (Kazim-Richards 85)

Ref: Michel (Svk)

Ref From channel4.com