Germany vs. Croatia - The Battle of Lukas (Podolski) vs. Luka (Modric)

Thursday, 12 June 08, 04:48 PM · Comments(0)

Podolski is not really the nicest of the players. I have German friends who actually hate the kid. But at age 23 he has definitely gained the respect of the world of football with 49 caps and 27 goals for the National Team since 2004 when he had his debut.

He rarely misses a chance to score and even though he doesn't have the dribbling ability of a Cristiano Ronaldo or the drama factor of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic the Germans can always count on the young striker to decide matches.

Germany also has other great players to work the ball with the typical discipline and efficiency that already gave the country three titles in the competition, the last one in 1996. Ballack, Lehmann, Frings, Klose, Neuville; represent the experience and Mertesacker, Schweinsteiger and Mario Gomez join Lukas Podolski on the young and talented side of this well balanced team.

As for Croatia, the team once known by playing a style closer to the South American football in times of the defunct Yugoslavia, qualified for the final stage of this Euro as one of the possible surprises but the injury of their Brazilian-born striker Eduardo came as an enormous bucket of icy cold water on the Croatian squad. The team is still dangerous with the brothers and long-time team leaders Robert and Niko Kovac. On the youth side the most dangerous player is Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric.

Both teams won their opening matches. Croatia beat co-hosts Austria by the minimum score on a penalty executed by Modric and the Germans beat Poland by 2-0 with Podolski scoring twice and showing respect to his Polish descent and refraining from celebrating.

Whoever wins this one will have their ticket to the quarterfinals almost guaranteed but I'm predicting a 1-1 score for this one.

Germany vs. Croatia - The Battle of Lukas (Podolski) vs. Luka (Modric)

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