Klagenfurt June 16- Croatia beat Poland 1-0 as Ivan Klasnic scored early in the second half to give his team the maximum points in Group B. To reach the quarter finals, Poland had to gain a two goal victory against Croatia and Austria had to win against Germany. But, unfortunately for Poland, neither of the two happened and now Poland has to bid adieu to Euro 2008.
Poland-Croatia match began well for Poland but, they failed to pick up pace later. Croatia started gaining control and it was simply because of the superb performance of Poland goalkeeper Artur Boruc that the score remained at 0-0. Boruc's skills saved his team again when Klasnic opened a scoring opportunity for Croatia and then again as Klasnic attacked for a second time just before half time.
Klasnic finally managed to send the ball to the net in the 53rd minute. It was Pranjic who took the ball to the penalty area and Klasnicsent the ball to the net across Boruc. Smolarek was brought back to the field but that didn't change anything for Poland for a while. Roger Guerreiro's efforts almost saved the day for Poland. The team would have equalized the score had Smolarek's shot reached goal. But the opening that Zahorski was going to take advantage of, was blocked by Runje.
Bu losing to Croatia, Poland has to discard all hopes of reaching the Euro Cup quarter finals. Euro 2008 Group B results show Croatia in the lead, followed by Germany. Croatia will now meet Turkey in the quarter finals.
Final Score Poland-Austria match June 16
Poland 0-1 Croatia
Goals
1
