Bierhoff hails deserved win

Germany team manager Oliver Bierhoff believes his side deserved their 2-1 win over the Netherlands on Wednesday despite conceding.

Two first-half strikes from Mario Gomez put Germany into a commanding lead in the Euro 2012 clash at Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv.

Robin van Persie made it a nervous finish for Germany when he scored to make it 2-1, a goal Bierhoff felt could have been avoided.

The win sees Germany top Group B with a maximum of six points from two matches played.

“It has been an important win because we played against one of the best teams in our group,” Bierhoff said.

“Still I think we deserved (the win). We didn’t allow them many opportunities to score, though we could have scored more goals in the second half.

“I didn’t expect Holland to come back into the game. Their goal was unnecessary but we finally managed to preserve the lead.”

Germany defender Mats Hummels backed striker Gomez, who now has three goals from Germany’s two games but received criticism in some quarters for his performance against Portugal.

“Being criticised is part of being a footballer. When you’re a public persona there will always be people judging on you,” Hummels said.

“But I think if you score three goals in two games you’ve got quite a strong position.”

Pre-tournament favourites the Netherlands have lost their opening two games and now require other results to go their way if they are to progress from the group.

Striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar put the loss to Germany down to a lack of clinical finishing in the final third of the pitch.

“We didn’t take advantage of our first few chances,” Huntelaar said.

“The German team on the other hand scored with their first chance so the game went down easily for them.

“Still in the second half we tried to come back, after being two goals down we even scored but we didn’t win a point.”