If Germany are to land a fourth European Championship and their first major title since 1996 coach Joachim Loew will have to cut out this worrying tendency towards complacency.
The 23-year-old has reinvented himself as a midfielder to great effect, scoring three times and playing a key role in the quarter-final win over Portugal.
Croatia pulled off a memorable 2-1 win over Group B favourites Germany on Thursday to move to the brink of a place in the Euro 2008 quarter-finals.
With Michael Ballack back fit and in the form of his life, Germany look stronger favourites than ever to win Group B at Euro 2008, with Croatia, Poland and co-hosts Austria likely to be scrapping for second place. Ballack had an outstanding second half of the season for Chelsea and the 31-year-old midfielder capped a great performance against Serbia with the winning goal in the team's last match before departing for Switzerland.
Holder Roger Federer coasted to a 6-3 6-2 win over Robin Soderling at the Hamburg Masters on Thursday before second seed Rafael Nadal gave Andy Murray a claycourt lesson for his 21st birthday. Federer was barely made to sweat by the Swede and Nadal joined him in the quarter-finals of the 2.27 million euro (1.8 million pound) tournament by beating the 15th seed Murray by the same 6-3 6-2 scoreline.
Andy Murray put last year's Hamburg Masters nightmare behind him by beating Russia's Dmitry Tursunov 6-4 6-1 in the first round on Monday. Murray's stay in Hamburg last year was cut short when he suffered a serious wrist injury, a problem that caused him to miss both the French Open and Wimbledon.
Newcomers Franck Ribery and Luca Toni were on target to help Bayern Munich to a brilliant 4-0 win at Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Roger Federer came through a worrying second-set slump to beat Spain's David Ferrer 6-3 4-6 6-3 and reach the semi-finals of the Hamburg Masters on Friday.
Nicolas Almagro upset defending champion Tommy Robredo 6-7 6-2 6-4 in a bruising all-Spanish clash to reach the third round of the Hamburg Masters on Tuesday.
Defending champion Nadia Petrova was also shown the door in the quarter-finals of the German Open.
Platini, 51, defeated the Swedish incumbent Lennart Johansson, 77, by 27 votes to 23 in a poll of national Football Association presidents at the UEFA Congress.
© 2025 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances