14th June, 2012, Kharkiv (Ukraine): Netherlands, the World Cup 2010 finalists were beaten by rival Germany quite convincingly last night in their Group league clash in Kharkiv. Spectators and football fans around the world expected to see a balanced game, but it was Germany that took the spotlight as they dominated much of the game.
Germany scored their first goal as Mario Gomez converted a brilliant pass from Bastian Schweinsteiger when it was only 24th minute into the match. Gomez hit the net again in the 38th minute. These two goals, in the first half, were enough to set the tone for the rest of the match. In the second half, Netherlands saw a ray of hope when van Persie scored for the orange brigade in 73rd minute. Both the teams missed some good goal scoring chances throughout the match.
After back to back two losses in two games, Netherlands is now on the brink of a mortifying early exit from Euro 2012. After the game, Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk blamed their lack of coherence in defense. He added that they gave too much space to the Germans. Now, Netherlands’ hope to reach the quarter finals are not fully dashed as they have to depend on the result of Germany vs Denmark match and they also have to beat Portugal with a good goal difference.
