UEFA Euro 2012: Ranking Group B After Day 2

Day two of Euro 2012 has come to a close and “The Group of Death” as it has been aptly named, did not disappoint in its first outing.

Holland faced Denmark and Germany faced Portugal.

Denmark scored the upset by beating Holland 1-0, starting their Euro 2012 campaign with three points.

Holland will lick its wounds and focus on winning their next two games so as not to cut their Euro 2012 dreams short.

It was an explosive match with excitement and flair shining through. In a less exciting, yet more atmospheric match, Germany looked extremely strong in its win against Portugal.

Who played the best football? I have ranked the teams in order of worst to best based on their performances tonight.

Denmark

Denmark may be surprised to find themselves at the top of the table and at the top of this list.

They played an excellent game of football. They held of Holland with near perfection.

Their defence was pretty much unbreakable and when Holland did squeeze through, Denmark did enough to force over 25 errors on goal from Holland. Their sloppy passing let them down in terms of possession.

A deflected cross from Poulson came in to Krohn-Dehli and he put it straight through the goalie’s legs.

It made their tactics look extremely smart as it was like they were waiting for an opening against the ferocious Dutch players.

Towards the latte rend of the first half Denmark are began to attack on a more frequent basis, making more of their chances than their opponent.

The second half was much of the same; Denmark remained strong at the back to secure the three points.

Hats off to them.

Germany

Germany attempted to dictate the play in tonight’s game a lot like Holland did just an hour before.

However, they did this with less success, allowing Portugal through their defence a lot more often than they should have done.

Nevertheless, they remained strong at the back up until the final minute where they slacked off a little bit. They still forced errors form Portugal’s last gasp effort.

Gomez’s headed goal in the 72^nd minute was hit with precision after the cross took a lucky deflection off a Portuguese defender.

This seemed to break the stalemate in what was, up until this point, a boring game.

Germany showed they will pose a real problem to Holland as they dominated possession. However, the Germans they really need to be capitalising on their chances more often.

Netherlands

Holland dominated Denmark until the Danes scored. Holland took it eye off the ball (literally) in the 24^th minute as Denmark fired one into the back of the net.

Holland's shots just didn’t hit the target, though their defence wasn’t bad. The gentler pace resulted in a more fluent game than we saw in yesterday’s contests.

Holland continued to dictate the play after the surprising goal, showing no signs of panic.

A mistake from Denmark’s goalkeeper resulted in Robben hitting the post in an unlucky attempt to equalise.

Holland continued with a formidable attack when they came out of the tunnel from half time, recreating what they did in the first half and keeping Denmark on the back foot.

They were unlucky, but their defence let them down.

Portugal

Portugal did not allow Germany to break through their defence in the first half, remaining strong at the back.

They didn’t show the flair they're capable of, resulting in a rather stale game of football.

Portugal tried to attack a few times but not as often as Germany did. They came closest to scoring in the first half as a shot bounced of the cross bar and off the line.

Pepe was not impressed. Ultimately, the Portuguese let themselves down in the second half by not keeping track of Gomez as a cross was accidentally deflected towards his head.

After this goal, Portugal launched into counter-attack mode, making for an exciting 15 minute conclusion.

The excitement peaked in the 87^th minute as Portugal came within inches of scoring an equaliser.