Germany Vs. Portugal, Euro 2012: Halftime Score, Poor Match Tied 0-0
It hasn't been a terrific 45 minutes of football in Lviv, which will suit Portugal just fine. Germany, one of the big tournament favorites, haven't looked anything like the team that dazzled at the World Cup and coasted through Euro 2012 qualifying. They're having quite a tough time creating chances against Portugal, and it's 0-0 at halftime.
Lukas Podolski has been poor for the Germans, regularly shanking shots and making the wrong runs off the ball when his teammates attempt to locate him. Here is a summary of Podolski's performance thus far.
Bastian Schweinsteiger, who hasn't looked like a world beater since he broke his collarbone in February, is looking a bit off the pace as well. He was dominant for Germany throughout qualifying, but looks like a shell of his former self at the moment.
Portugal aren't brilliant, either. It's just generally been a poor match. Portugal are sitting back and countering, but they're not getting the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo on the counter, while their center forward Helder Postiga has put in a poor performance thus far.
Just before the stroke of halftime, Portugal created the only great chance of the entire first half. On a corner kick, the ball deflected off the head of Mario Gomez and fell to Pepe, who was completely unmarked. He tried to place a shot into the top corner, but hit the underside of the crossbar. The ball bounced on the line, but didn't cross it as Germany dodged a bullet.
Basically, other than the late Pepe chance, neither team looks like scoring. Both managers are going to have to make changes to their team at halftime, or at least give some kind of fiery speech. This really has not been one for the neutrals, and both teams’ supporters have to be disappointed.
We have live coverage of the game in our Germany vs. Portugal, Euro 2012 StoryStream. For more on Euro 2012 and the entire world of football, follow @SBNationSoccer on Twitter.
