In front of 14.000 spectators in the Allianz Arena in Munich the German fans saw their team starting concentrated without being reluctant as shown by Joshua Kimmich getting booked after only 7 minutes. Either way it was France who created the first proper chances. Paul Pogba missed a header after a corner kick before Manuel Neuer warded off a shot from Kylian Mbappé, one of the most noticable players of the french team until then. The chances for France became more serious and after 20 minutes the team led by Didier Deschamps took the lead: Mats Hummels drove the ball inside the own net after a cross by Hernandez.

Germany responded with Thomas Müller (22′) and Toni Kroos (23′) – without any success. After the goal, the game was played mainly in midfield in a harsh way by both squads. Only Ilkay Gündogan made it to the opposing penalty area, unsuccessfully (37′). The Germans controlled the ball pretty well but in most cases, the last and decisive pass was missing. That way, the first 45 minutes ended with a scarce lead for France.

The Germans came out pretty motivated in the second half. Especially Serge Gnabry challenged Hugo Lloris two times (54′, 57′), though without getting him into huge trouble. On the other side Germany had luck when Mbappe’s amazingly played-out goal was disallowed (66′). Afterwards, the match used itself up a bit, since none of the teams created chances indeed, until the 77th minute: Mbappe once again was stopped in the last instant. It was not the last scene in which Joachim Löw’s team benefited from the referee’s decision: the alleged 2-0 scored by Karim Benzema was disallowed as well due to an offside position of Mbappé during the assist. Germany collected its entire force to score the equalizer and had chances with Leroy Sané (87′) and Kevin Volland (90’+5). None of them could intimidate Lloris which meant the final win for France against the world champion of 2014.

Picture: ZDF

The national team of Poland lost its first game at EURO 2020 against Slovakia with… The team trained by Paulo Sosa opened the scoring in favor of their geographical neighbours with an own goal and suffered the last 30 minutes with one player less on the pitch before scoring the intertemporal 1-1 and conceeding the second and game winning goal by Milan Skiriniar.

Both teams started prette solid with Marek Hamsik on slovak side and Robert Lewandowski on the polish one. The former Napoli captain wasted a free kick from a very promising position, while the top goal scorer of the Bundesliga got stopped two shots by Slovakia’s goalkeeper Dubravka. A few instants later the ball landed inside of the net for the first time: in this case Wojciech Szczesny was the unlucky one carriying the ball with his right shoulder inside the goal after Mak’s shot from six metres (0-1). After taking the lead, Slovakia kept getting its opponent under pressure. Especially with Juraj Kucka who missed the target curtly (27′). Lewandowski, in the meanwhile, could not tie in to his services with Bayern Munich this season. In fact, it was Starkovic’s team that attacked constantly, keeping the lead until the end of the first half.

It took the Polish only 27 seconds after the kickoff to score the equalizer: Karol Linetty put upon a carlessness of the slovakian defense to beat Dubravka from 7 metres. The goal gave a lot of confidence to the team in red and white. It was Linetty again who had the chance to take the lead, saved by Dubravka (51′). Comparable with the powerplay known from Ice Hockey, the game was played only in the slovakian half until minute 62: Grzegorz Krychowiak, already booked, was sent off after a harsh foul on Hromada.

Considering the majority of players on the pitch, Slovakia was able to take control of the game: Haraslin (68′) hit the external net before Milan Skriniar scored the second goal for Slovakia after a corner kick (69′). The team led by “Lewy” was demanded but their reaction failed to appear, except for one single chance by Europe’s best striker (88′) and a last shot by Bednarek. So, it was Slovakia who concluded the surprises and conquested the first three points.