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		</div><p><b>Germany 2 Ukraine 0</b></p>
<p>World champions Germany began their Euro 2016 campaign with a 2-0 victory over Ukraine.</p>
<p>Shkodran Mustafi&#8217;s 19th-minute header and Bastian Schweinsteiger&#8217;s stoppage-time breakaway ensured Joachim Low&#8217;s side got off to a winning start at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in Lille.</p>
<p>Yet Germany did not have things all their own way and Group C rivals Poland and Northern Ireland will have been heartened by some of their defending, particularly from set-pieces.</p>
<p>They were certainly grateful to goalkeeper Manuel Neuer for some fine first-half saves and a spectacular goal-line clearance from Jerome Boateng as Ukraine proved to be dangerous opponents.</p>
<p>Neuer was called into action after just five minutes when he dived at full stretch to keep out a fierce first-time shot from Yevhen Konoplyanka.</p>
<p>Germany should have taken a 13th-minute lead when Julian Draxler&#8217;s cross was headed back towards the penalty spot by Thomas Muller, but Jonas Hector&#8217;s standing foot slipped as he shaped to shoot and the ball disappeared into the stand.</p>
<p>However, six minutes later their pressure told when Toni Kroos swung in a free-kick from the right and defender Mustafi, a reported target for Liverpool who was previously at Everton but never made a Premier League appearance, powered his header into the top corner.</p>
<p>They almost doubled their advantage when a superb pass over the top from the impressive Kroos was brought down by Sami Khedira, who then fired his shot too close to Ukraine keeper Andrei Pyatov.</p>
<p>But while they looked shaky at the back, Ukraine continued to threaten at the other end with Neuer having to tip Yevhen Khacheridi&#8217;s point-blank header over the crossbar.</p>
<figure id="attachment_92042" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-92042" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/image-108.jpeg"><img src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/image-108-1024x682.jpeg" alt="Jerome Boateng&#039;s efforts save Germany." width="640" height="426" class="size-large wp-image-92042" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-92042" class="wp-caption-text">Jerome Boateng&#8217;s efforts save Germany.</figcaption></figure>
<p>Boateng then had to scramble back to acrobatically clear his own deflection from Konoplyanka&#8217;s cross off the line, before Andriy Yarmolenko had a goal disallowed for offside as Ukraine finished the first half strongly.</p>
<p>Germany went in search of a killer second goal after the break and a 30-yard Kroos drive clipped the angle of the goal.</p>
<p>Benedikt Howedes then crossed from the right but Draxler was unable to keep his header down after sneaking in ahead of his marker.</p>
<p>Pyatov denied Khedira with a diving save and comfortably dealt with a deflected effort from Mario Gotze, while substitute Andre Schurrle scuffed a good chance wide.</p>
<p>German hearts were in their mouths three minutes from time when Mustafi&#8217;s back-header flew over Neuer, but the ball bounced out of the reach of Ukraine sub Yevhen Seleznyov.</p>
<p>And three minutes into stoppage time Germany broke from a Ukraine corner and Mesut Ozil&#8217;s cross was converted by substitute Schweinsteiger to seal a comfortable, if not entirely convincing, victory.</p>
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