Friday, June 13, 2008

EURO'2008 GAME 12: GROUP B AUSTRIA 1 POLAND 1

Austria and Poland both lost their first game and this draw will mean both are probably are the way home this weekend, neither look good enough to progress, but it will be the Austrians who are more buoyant as progress is in their hands and they were saved by a 93rd minute penalty that not all refs would give.

It was Premiership ref Howard Webb who awarded it after the second bout of penalty area wrestling

Austria should have been ahead early on but Celtic keeper Boric made three good saves before the Poles, whose fans outnumbered the home side, grabbed the lead on half-hour with their only chance and this was controversial too as Guerrero netted while clearly offside.

After the Poles survived a more obvious penalty shout early 2nd half, the game was going nowhere and drifted to the 1-0 result until that late, late penalty netted by 38 yr old Vastic became the oldest scorer in Euro Finals history and he will get free beer for life as offered by a Vienna brewery.

At least it meant the co-hosts, who have now won just 2 of 18 games, avoided the early exit embarrassment that the Swiss had. Progress will only happen if they beat the Germans in their final game, a tall order but it's taller for the Poles who can only progress by beating Crotia by a greater margin thatn the Austrians manage. Book your flight home boys!

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