da imperador bet： Lars Bender scored 10 minutes from time as Germany eased into the quarter finals of Euro 2012 beating Denmark to run out as deserved Group B winners.
da doce： Bender was on hand to stab home late on to secure his countries passage to the last eight as Morten Olsen’s side pushed for a winner that would have sent the German’s home. Joachim Low’s men had taken a 19th minute lead through Lukas Podolski but were pegged back by Michael Krohn-Dehli’s goal six minutes later to give the Danes hope of pulling off an unlikely upset as their opponents were made to sweat with Portugal beating Holland in the other group fixture.
Germany controlled a majority of the game and began with an intensity that Denmark struggled to match and were indebted to goalkeeper Stephane Andersen for denying Thomas Muller in the sixth minute. Low’s side were pretty much camped in the opposite half and passed the ball around fluidly as they patiently waited for a chink in the Danes armour to appear.
That came in the 19th minute as Podolski capped his 100th appearance with a goal. Muller’s low cross from the right was cleverly flicked on by Mario Gomez and the new Arsenal striker was on hand to blast home from seven yards.
The lead lasted barely six minutes though as Krohn-Dehli diverted Nicklas Bendtner’s cross past Manuel Neuer for his second goal of the tournament in a rare Denmark attack. Podolski then fired a free kick over the bar and Sami Khedira prodded wide from 10 yards as Germany endeavoured to regain their lead before half time.
Jakob Poulsen almost put Denmark in front just after the break when his strike shaved the left hand post before Neuer spilled a what looked like a routine save from Niki Zimling’s long-range strike as they grew visibly in confidence. Bendtner was then allowed to breach the Germany back line but couldn’t manage to lift the ball over Neuer as Holger Badstuber tugged at his shirt.
But as the Danes tired Bender struck the hammer blow to end the dreams of repeating their heroics of 1992 breaking forward to latch onto Mesut Ozil’s pass ahead of Miroslav Klose and cooly finished past Anderson for his first international goal to take Germany into the knockout phase with a 100% record.