VIENNA: Michael Ballack struck a thunderbolt free kick to send an unconvincing Germany through to the Euro 2008 quarterfinals with a 1-0 win over co-hosts Austria yesterday.
In Klagenfurt, Ivan Klasnic scored to give Croatia a 1-0 win against Poland in a match stripped of significance by Germany’s defeat of Austria in the other Group B match.
The 28-year-old striker became the first kidney transplant recipient to play at the European Championship, and in the 53rd minute he swept in a left-footed shot from a cross by stand-in captain Danijel Pranjic at Worthersee Stadium for his ninth goal in 30 internationals.
Germany, needing to avoid defeat to stay in the tournament, looked nervous in the first half but Ballack’s strike from 25 meters at the start of the second changed the game and took them through as Group B runners-up behind Croatia. They will go on to face Group A winners Portugal in Basel on Thursday.
It was the first time the three-times winners have reached the quarterfinals since last clinching the trophy in 1996 in England and only their second win since then too in the finals.
“The team put up a great fight. At the start we should have gone in front and the match would have been easier. The way it worked out we had to fight to the last minute,” Ballack said.
Playing its third European tournament, Croatia won all three group games for the first time. It will play Turkey in the quarterfinals Friday in Vienna.
A second-string Croatia outclassed Poland for large parts of the match and it was only goalkeeper Artur Boruc who kept his team in the game. He twice rushed off his line to block shots by Klasnic and Ivan Rakitic after good passes by Mladen Petric had cut open Poland’s defense in the first half. In the 20th minute, Hrvoje Vejic flicked on a free kick with his head and Klasnic, lurking at the far post, just failed to get a foot on the ball.
In the 33rd, Klasnic used his chest well to control Petric’s pass but Boruc dived at his feet to block the shot. In January 2007, the German-born Klasnic suffered kidney failure. Shortly afterward, he received a transplant but his body rejected the kidney donated by his mother.
