[caption id="attachment_16430" align="alignnone" width="580"]Germnay drew with Poland 0-0. Twitter Germnay drew with Poland 0-0. Twitter[/caption] Internet Desk: On Sunday in Lille Germany showed their best qualities, the qualities that won them the 2014 World Cup and make them so favoured in France. They played incisive intelligent football and when they were ahead they managed the game to perfection. Last night in Paris we saw the opposite story, the flaws to this champion side, the reasons to suspect that they will not do this July what they did two years ago. Because there can be a strange looseness to this Germany side, a complacency of easy passes, and it was on show again at the Stade de France in this 0-0 draw. Poland were the better team, more organised, more focused and far harder-working. They created the best chances and on another day Arkadiusz Milik would have won them the game 2-0. Robert Lewandowski was expertly shackled by Jerome Boateng but this is certainly not a one-man team. They are, in fact, a tribute to coordination and hard work. This point puts both Germany and Poland on four each, ensuring their passage through to the last-16. Both teams will expect to win their third game but with Poland set to face Ukraine, and Germany against Northern Ireland, it may well be the Poles who win the group. And on this evidence that would be quite appropriate. Sensing the importance of an early goal in this type of game, Germany flew out from the very beginning and should have taken the lead before Poland had the chance to organise. Julian Draxler darted down the left and hung in a cross for Mario Goetze, who won the header but could not direct the ball under the cross-bar. It was just one fourth minute chance but there is always the danger with Goetze that his confidence will drop and that is what appeared to happen here. The problem for Germany is that he is their ‘false nine’, the man whose movement is meant to create the opportunities for Draxler, Thomas Muller, Mesut Ozil and the rest. But if he is not moving then Germany are blunted. Toni Kroos was the best player of the first half, unsurprisingly, but even he is only in the team to start moves, not to finish them. The best striker in the whole tournament is Robert Lewandowski, and as the first half went on Poland were more confident in their ability to get him the ball. The sharp gasp from the whole Polish end when Lewandowski made one half-chance, blocked by Mats Hummels, shows his hero status, and he is able to do things that no-one else can. It barely needs to be said that Lewandowski would have given Poland the lead with the chance that Arkadiusz Milik missed with the first move of the second half. Kamil Grosicki broke down the right and crossed to the near post, but Milik misjudged his run and dive, barely touching the ball as it flew past him. But that moment was proof that this was a real game, and that Germany could expect to cruise through it. Goetze missed another clear chance at the other end but the flow of attacks were more in favour of red shirts than white. Lewandowski then dragged a free-kick back to Milik, who shot into the side-netting. When Jerome Boateng had to bound across the pitch to make a goal-saving tackle on Lewandowski, the most impressive single piece of play in the game so far, Germany realised that they were up against very serious opposition indeed. That is why Joachim Low made the first change, replacing Gotze with Andre Schurrle, a more dangerous, quick and confident forward. Had Low made that change when handing in his team-sheet to Uefa earlier in the evening, it might have been an easier night.

Euro 2016: Flaws come to the fore for world champions with a goalless stalemate against Poland