In the second round of Group B, Croatia will face Germany, the favourites to win the European Championship, and although people are unanimously optimistic that Germany will win the final victory, the Croatians, who have created countless miracles, clearly do not intend to sit still.

Boss Bilic is hoping his side can take a mental boost from Wembley's win over England and says his side are ready to play against Germany.

He expects his players to perform well against Germany: "It was one of the most important games for us because we have shown that a football team from a small country like Croatia can beat a team from a big country like England, even though every player in their squad is very good. The win against England has given us a huge confidence boost as a team and now against Germany as well, so I'm confident that my players will be at their best in the game. ”

That confidence has also made Bilic hungry to get all three points against the favourites Germany, and if he can get his way, Croatia will be in the quarter-finals.

'We have a lot of confidence in the whole team now and I know we are a strong team and we have the quality to beat any opponent.

If you want to beat the German team, Bilic's biggest reliance is Modric, the core of the Croatian midfield, who is known as "Little Cruyff".

Bilic says he has high expectations for Luka Modric, a player who is on the rise and will be the best player of the tournament: "It's not like I'm putting pressure on him, but I really think he can reach that height. ”

Modric's midfield partner Kranica also said he is a Croatian football superstar: "Luka Modric is the master of our team. ”

At just 22 years old, Modric is a very well-rounded player, and he also contributed to Fiorentina's treble this season, although he did not participate in the final due to injury, but Modric's role is not overlooked.

Modric excels at both feet and has an innate sense of passing and quick thinking, which makes his passing extremely accurate. He can play the role of playmaker behind the striker or as a left midfielder.

In the opening group game against Austria, he converted a penalty created by his team-mate early on, but although his performance in the subsequent games was not as good as one might think, Croatia head coach Bilic is convinced that sooner or later Modric will explode: "He is improving every day, getting better and better day by day, in this European Championship and throughout his career. ”

The final result of this game surprised everyone, the favorite German team lost to Croatia "unexpectedly", two goals from Srna and Olic made the German team go home, and it was Dicgan's teammate Modric in Fiorentina who provided the assist for Olich.

Germany's Schweinsteiger was also sent off for a retaliatory foul in stoppage time, a defeat that cast a shadow over Germany's prospects of qualifying.

There were no major changes to the starting line-ups for both sides, with Croatia simply replacing Petrić with Rakitic and Germany's starting line-up being exactly the same as in the previous game against Poland.

Another very interesting detail of this game is that a total of twelve players from the starting line-up of the two teams are playing in the highest level of Germany, so the rivalry between the two teams can be seen as an internal competition in the Bundesliga.

But for the Germans, who have cultivated Croatian players, the final result is certainly what they don't want to see, and Hamburg's striker Olic scored in the second half to seal the victory for Croatia, which also made Croatia basically confirm a qualifying place, while Germany need to fight Austria in the final round.

Croatia relied on Bundesliga players to defeat the German team, and the reason why this team has so many Bundesliga players, in addition to the fact that its own country has a similar geographical location and cultural level to Germany, more importantly, at the level of Croatia, a league like the Bundesliga is more suitable for the development of young players, the competition is not as fierce as the Premier League or La Liga, they can have stable opportunities to play, and can grow in the team advantageously, Rakitic is a good example, This season, the 88-year-old has even more assists than Franck Ribery, the heart of Bayern Munich's team.

Germany's 2-1 defeat to Croatia was a surprise result, and Loew was unable to complete his dream of qualifying early, and he also expressed his disappointment in an interview with the media after the game.

"Overall, we played quite weakly, we had significantly worse control of the game than our opponents, and the players didn't manage the game well through the midfield passes, they played too many high balls in the game, and the players had problems running without the ball, so they didn't play well together, and the passing accuracy was not enough, so Croatia had to do a better job in these areas."

As Loew said, Croatia did a very good job throughout the game, and Loew scratched his head when they lost the game, and he said that he needed a day to take stock of what Germany lost and how to improve, and to guarantee that the team would improve before the final game against Austria.

'We were all disappointed to lose the second game, now let's find out why, maybe I can name some of them now, but we have to sit down and analyse and find out all the reasons for this result and try to improve it. It was a big blow for us to lose this game after our win over Poland, but we still had a chance to show a different side against Austria. ”

Loew was very disappointed to lose against Croatia, who broke a 12-year winless run against Poland in the last game of the European Championships, and this game against an opponent who had not lost in 10 years, the Germans rewrote the record again.

Had it not been for Podowski's face-saving goal in the second half, the painful memories of the German international of Klinsmann's generation at the World Cup in France ten years ago would have reproduced tragically in Klose's generation.

The German media had been optimistic about the team's group progression in the opening win over Poland, but now all optimism will be dissipated with this defeat, and some similarities can be found in this game compared to the game a decade ago, with a different score but an exact outcome.

The European champions led by Vogts played 352 and Loew's 442. Despite the differences in formations, the tactical characteristics of emphasizing wide attacks and relying on high strikers to score have been inherited.

In the 1/4 game in '98, the German team was quite passive in the first half, Hasler was targeted by Stanic, Heinrich and Tanat, who were in charge of attacking on both wings, rarely crossed, and Klinsmann and Bierhoff had too few chances to form an effective shot.

In this game, the Croatians' technical superiority was once again on display in the first half of the game, and the German team's forward twin towers, Gomez and Klose, could not even threaten the Croatian goal in the first half.

The game was similar, but the scoring process was different, the three goals were scored in a quick counterattack, and the two goals of Croatia today were out-and-out positional attacks.

Bilic, who played in that game as a member of the team, is now the coach of the Croatian team, and he empathizes with the technical characteristics of the German players.

In the two warm-up games before the European Championship, the German team has already exposed the problem of slow central defenders, and the German team ten years ago has the same technical shortcomings, and if they want to deal a devastating blow to the Germanic tank, Bilic knows that the attacking breakthrough must be selected in the opponent's central defensive position.

Olic is not known for his speed in the Bundesliga team Hamburg, and if he wants to break through in the central defensive position, he must implement a two-wing cross strategy, but Mertesacker and Metzeld's height advantage is quite obvious, which requires the choice of footwork for the player's cross.

Low flat! Keep the ball low!

The Croatian deliberately avoided the left side of Lahm's line, and Janssen on the right was seen as the key direction, and the Bayern youngster made a series of mistakes throughout the game, and Croatia's first goal was due to Janssen's clearance error.

Ten years ago, the German team was also the favorite to win the bid, and the team of the European Cup champion team was copied by Vogts in the French World Cup. Today's Loew, its main framework is also based on the third place in the World Cup, and has not been significantly adjusted.

While stability is important, it is also true that change is lacking.

The Germans, who pursued stability and lacked change, lost, lost their wives and lost their soldiers, and Schweinsteiger, who came on as a substitute, received the first red card of this European Cup, and the German media unanimously pointed the finger at the stupid foul of the piggy after the game.

In stoppage time, Schweinsteiger was fouled in retaliation after being tackled by an opposing player, and the referee directly showed a red card, which also caused Schweinsteiger to be unable to play in the next game of life and death between Germany and Austria.

Germany have already played two group stage matches, and those two games don't have many good memories for Schweinsteiger.

He was originally the main force of the national team, because in the first game against Poland, Loew changed the formation and let Fritz, who had more breakthrough ability, start, and because Podolski played well in the right midfield position before, Schweinsteiger could only be relegated to the bench.

In the end, Loew's move proved to be a wise one, as Fritz's several breakthroughs tore through the Polish defence, and Podolski's brace was the biggest contributor to the victory.

Before the game against Croatia, some media predicted that because Croatia's strength is a notch higher than that of Poland, Loew is likely to adjust Schweinsteiger, who has a better overall view and control, back to the starting lineup, but the German coach obviously hopes that Fritz can continue the form of the last game, so the piggy was put on the bench again.

However, the Germans underestimated Croatia's quality, and the right flank, consisting of Podolski and Janssen, could compete with their opponents in attack, but they were weak defensively, and Srner's first goal was caused by Janssen's clearance error.

And Fritz, who served as the starter, was in the face of Croatia's Robert Fritz. Kovac and Giorluka also lost the sharp breakthrough in the previous game, although Lahm did well in the first half, did not let the left side of the German team become a stage for Rakitic to show his talent, but the second goal conceded by the German team was precisely because Rakitic got a kick after shaking Lahm on the right side, and Modric received it in the middle and crossed the ball to allow Olic to shoot in front of the goal.

It is precisely because of the unfavorable control of the midfield, so Loew replaced Gomez with Schweinsteiger in the second half, and the piggy returned to the position of the fullback he is most familiar with, and Podolski and Klose partnered as two strikers, Loew of course hopes that Schweinsteiger can rediscover the rhythm of the field for the German team through his control of the game and the overall situation, and the fact is that after Schweinsteiger came on the field, the passive situation of the German team has indeed improved.

However, in stoppage time, an uncool act paid the price for the good piglets, as the opposing player tackled Schweinsteiger in the German half, who stood up and knocked the Croatian player to the ground, and the referee decisively showed a red card.

After the game, the German media even played the title "Pig's stupid red card" for Schweinsteiger's red card: "Bad defense is depressing enough, Schweinsteiger's red card in extra time is simply stupid." ”

Schweinsteiger, who had a rather unsatisfactory time at Bayern this season, hopes to help him regain his form through this European Cup, but Loew's change of formation and this red card have made the good wishes before the game a luxury, even if the German team can finally qualify or can go further, for this impulsive pig, Loew is afraid that he will have to be careful when using it.

Schweinsteiger paid the price for his stupid red card, but some people are more to blame for Germany's defeat, such as Mario who started alongside Klose in attack. Gomez.

For those civilian players who want to fly up the branches and become phoenixes, if they can perform well in Switzerland and Austria, then the stage of the European Championship is heaven, and if they perform poorly, then the trip to the European Championship will be a hell of a journey. Gomez is the epitome of a hell of a struggle to extricate himself, and after two nightmarish performances at the European Championship, Gomez has clearly lost all the trust of manager Loew.

The season that has just ended, is extremely wonderful for Gomez, although the Stuttgart team is only in sixth place in the Bundesliga, but Gomez, nicknamed "Super Mario", won the Silver Boot Award with 19 goals, such a brave state makes Gomez much expected by the German media before the start of the European Cup, Loew personally gave Gomez the No. 9 jersey full of glory to Gomez, which shows the weight of the responsibility of "Super Mario", but after two rounds of the European Cup group stage, Not only did the Bundesliga Silver Boot go unsuccessful, but it even squandered a number of good chances, and Gomez's poor performance undoubtedly disappointed everyone.

Gomez squandered two chances in Germany's win over Poland, but this did not affect Loew's trust in the Bundesliga silver boot, and German leader Bierhoff was even more convinced that Gomez could score against Croatia, so Podolski, who scored twice in the first round, could only play as a full-back, and Gomez was still a central striker.

After Croatia took the lead, Gomes had a great chance to equalise, Janssen's low cross fell right on Gomez's head, but the Bundesliga aerial giant's header went wide of the woodwork, Loew probably wouldn't have imagined that it was Gomez's first shot of the game, but also the only one by 'Super Mario'.

In the 1/8 final between Germany and Sweden in the World Cup two years ago, Gomez witnessed Podolski's popularity in the stands, and in the European Championship between Switzerland and Austria, Gomez felt the gap between himself and Prince Porti on the field.

According to the latest news, Bayern Munich and Gomez have signed a work contract, and "Super Mario" will replace Podolski, the prince of Porti, who has scored three goals in two consecutive games.

After the first game against Poland, Gomes didn't care about wasting two chances, but he just said: "It's just a fraction of a second, and in the first game I just wanted people to see that I gave it my all, that I was aggressive enough and that the important thing was that the team won." ”

Germany's 2-0 victory did mask a lot of problems, and Gomez's lack of attacking force was the most crucial part of that, after all, for a player with no major tournament experience, playing as the main Indian center forward of the German national team at the European Championships is not something anyone can bear.

It is undeniable that Gomez did perform well in the 2007/2008 season, but the valuation of a player is not only based on his performance in the league, but also on the Bundesliga's role in highlighting the value of goalscorers. Strikers such as Alves, Herrich, Dundee and Bogdanovic have also been smash hits in the Bundesliga, but no player has been able to withstand the baptism of time, and Gomez is clearly another so-called god who has been falsely touted.

Gomez's journey to the European Championships was destined to be a disappointment, and for Croatia's main striker, Olic was destined to be a great memory.

In the past season, Olic scored 14 Bundesliga goals, second only to the glamorous trio of Tony, Gomez and Kuranyi.

In addition, Olic is also a true "German son-in-law", and he has a German wife like his national team teammate Krasznich. However, it was Olic who became the "nightmare" of the German team at the European Championship.

Olic is not a shining star in the Croatian team, he has many years of international experience as captain Mateo Kovac, and he does not have the much-anticipated eye of rising star Luka Modric.

But the Hamburg striker was the biggest contributor to Croatia's two successive victories, with Olic scoring a penalty in less than three minutes in the opening game against hosts Austria, which was converted by Luka Modric to give Croatia a narrow 1-0 victory.

In the match against the German team, Olic created scoring opportunities for his teammates many times, and finally scored a goal himself to seal the victory for the team. The "German son-in-law" also smashed Germany's dreams of qualifying early and pushed his opponent to the brink.

It is worth mentioning that Olic has always been able to play well against strong opponents in Croatia, and in the final game of the European Championship qualifiers against England Wembley, Olic scored the winner to help Croatia win 3:2 and keep England out of the European Championship.

Now in the European Cup, Olic has continued his true character as a "strong team killer", slashing the German team down, showing outstanding talent, and it seems that in this European Cup, Olic will also become an important chess piece for Croatia and will play a more critical role in future games.

Croatia's 2-1 win over Germany may be the first upset since the start of the European Championship, but Croatia, who kept England out of the final in qualifying, may not be surprised by any further upset on them, because they have already done it.

As the core of Croatia's new generation, Modric also won the best of the match for the second consecutive game after winning the first match against Austria, and he also came to the post-match press conference with coach Bilic after the game, facing the double honor of winning Germany and the second consecutive best award, Modric was unusually calm.

'It was just a normal game, we played real football and that's what we should be happy about.' Modric was very mature and barely said anything about his own performances.

Compared to the first game, Modric was a little further down in this game, with captain Nico. Kovac formed a double midfield, just like he did at Fiorentina, and although he was small, he also shared a lot of defensive duties, and even received a yellow card for tackling Frijns in the final stoppage time of the game, but Modric completed the task from organizing the attack to sharing the defence.

Coach Bilic also praised the lover at the press conference, when asked by reporters which is more perfect, this Croatian team or the Croatian team that was the third in the world that year, Bilic did not hide the importance of Modric to this team: "The Croatia team back then had the core of Boban and Suker, but now we play more as a whole, and Modric is the core of this overall team." At that time, most of Croatia were tall and strong players, but now we can see that we are more technical, except for Modric, Rakitic, Srna and Kranichar who are all in this style, which also allows us to have more tactical changes in this team. ”

Luka Modric agrees with the coach: "Today's win was an overall victory, everyone played perfectly, which allowed us to control the situation on the pitch, even if the second half started a little passively, but we quickly found our rhythm, there is a lot of time left for us, the chances are naturally very good, we will try to prepare for the next game." ”

Asked about his new position in the national team, Modric said: "The midfield position is not new to me at all, and after moving to Fiorentina this season, when my manager Mr. Prandelli and captain Rod told me, 'Luka, It's your new position' and I really thought they were crazy because I had never played in that position and I didn't believe I could show my characteristics in a midfield position, but the end result proved that they were right, I really like my position and I have the ability to contribute more to the team in this position! ”

There are many people who are popular!

This is the case with Luka Modric now, with his excellent performances at Fiorentina last season and his stunning performances in the last two European Championships, Modric has attracted the attention of many big clubs, including Arsene Wenger, who is the best at developing young players, and Real Madrid, and Juventus are rumored to be keen to get Modric to complete the revival.

Modric was very indifferent to the many transfer rumours: "I appreciate the praise that people have given me, but now that I am a Fiorentina player, all I can think about is playing for Fiorentina and the national team, and when last season was over, my captain Rod told me that he would give me a Champions League final next season, and I am very much looking forward to it, yes!" That's right! I'm going to stay at Fiorentina next season, I have four years left on my contract with the Purple Lily, and I respect that contract a lot! ”

Modric is a big hit, as the most well-known star in Germany Ballack seems a little lost, for this defeat, Ballack is naturally to blame, his sluggish state in this game is also disappointing, which also has a fatal impact on the whole team, the lack of this midfield "engine", the operation of the Germanic chariot also began to fail, and finally was trampled by the "Eastern European Iron Horseman".

In the first round of the European Championship against Poland, Ballack's performance was also very eye-catching, passing and shooting well, and became one of the team's heroes, but in the game against Croatia, Ballack was no longer in the limelight, most of the time he disappeared from the field, creating a very limited threat to the opponent.

However, Ballack is still the person who runs the most distance in this game, and it can be said that the performance is very positive, but unfortunately he wasted most of his time on useless switchback runs, due to the frequent mistakes of the team, it is difficult for the German team to organize a decent offensive in the front, and Ballack is also difficult to organize the rhythm of the German team in the past, which has also become a major factor restricting the German team's victory in this game.

As the team's playmaker in midfield, Ballack failed to mobilize the whole team well in this game, and at the same time gave the opponent more opportunities to take advantage of.

Ballack has had high hopes for years to lead German football to new glory, but since the moment Ballack wore the captain's armband, there has been no end to the suspicion of him, and many believe that Ballack does not have what it takes to be a leader.

He doesn't have the innate domineering spirit of the previous German captains Kahn and Mateus, let alone the talent to lead the team.

Lost the group stage of the European Cup in 04 and was blocked by Italy in the World Cup final in 06, Ballack always falls short in the face of honor, it depends on this European Cup, whether Ballack can withstand the pressure and prove his ability.

Ballack is not only given the captaincy of the German team, but is also seen as the favourite to compete for the title of star of the year at this tournament.

However, judging from Ballack's performance against Croatia, he is still a long way from this honor, and consistency and excellent performance are essential, Ballack's immediate priority is to lead the team back to life as soon as possible and lead the team step by step on the right track, it is clear that Ballack still needs to do more.

The Germans lost and pulled off their first upset of the tournament and may have the potential to be dark horses compared to Belgium, Romania, Turkey and Russia.

The other match in the group, Poland and Austria, was lackluster than the level of attention it received, with the two teams drawing 1-1 after 90 minutes of dull battle.

For the Austrians, this result would have been acceptable if they had not played on their home soil, and even though Poland were a second-tier team in Europe, they were clearly superior to them.

However, it is a pity that we failed to achieve a victory under the circumstances of occupying the right time, place, and people.

Austrian football has been dormant for a decade, the last time they appeared in international competitions, was in the 1998 World Cup in France, and the two opportunities to participate in international competitions since then have not been grasped, in the 2004 European Championship qualifiers, they lost to the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, and the 2006 World Cup qualifiers were off to a good start, drawing 2:2 with England, who were very vocal about winning the championship at the time, but in the end they still missed the qualification, and were deprived of tickets by Poland, and both qualifiers were left third in the group.

In the first half, the youngster Nihak, who played for Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga, helped the team take the lead, and in the next game, they still had the opportunity to extend the score, but unfortunately Kulic failed to seize the opportunity twice in a row.

God will punish those who slack off, and the Austrians were punished in the second half as Poland seized a chance that wasn't a chance and equalised from distance through Smolarek.

The Austrians paid the price for their carelessness and saw the three points in their hands turn into one, but there was a good note that the other hosts, Switzerland, had already taken the lead and kept the suspense until the final round.

In Group B, Croatia have won both games and advanced early, followed by Germany with one win and one defeat, Poland and Austria are all drawn and defeated, and still retain the hope of emergence.