2006 FIFA World Cup Group A

[3] His team were considered one of the favourites to win the competition with bookmakers offering odds of around 13/2,[4] but had received criticism in the country, notably from Bayern Munich general manager Uli Hoeneß who had labelled the side "a disaster".

[15] Defender Philipp Lahm gave Germany the lead after six minutes with a 30-yard curling shot from outside the penalty area that beat opposition goalkeeper José Porras and was described as "unstoppable" by the BBC.

Germany had further long range efforts soon after, before Costa Rica's Paulo Wanchope, already his country's record goalscorer,[6] equalised after 12 minutes after breaching the German defence and finishing past goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.

Costa Rica's Danny Fonseca became the first player to be booked in the competition after 30 minutes and the midfielder missed a chance to equalise shortly after half-time, heading wide despite being unmarked.

The Germans sealed victory three minutes from time with Torsten Frings firing in a long-range shot that beat Porras in similar fashion to Lahm's goal.

[16][17] Man of the Match: Miroslav Klose (Germany) Assistant referee: Darío García (Argentina) Rodolfo Otero (Argentina) Fourth official: Carlos Chandía (Chile) Fifth official: Cristian Julio (Chile) Poland and Ecuador had previously met once before their opening World Cup match, playing out a 1–1 draw during a friendly in November 2005.

24 minutes in, Ecuador took the lead when Carlos Tenorio got ahead of Marcin Baszczyński to head in after teammate Agustín Delgado had nodded the ball towards him from a long throw.

[21] However, Poland had struggled to make an impression and Jon Brodkin of The Guardian noted that they had "forced not a single meaningful save" from the opposition goalkeeper.

[22] In the second half, Poland began pushing forward with Mirosław Szymkowiak creating several near chances, the best of which sent Jacek Krzynówek through before being called offside.

[21] Man of the Match: Agustín Delgado (Ecuador) Assistant referees: Yoshikazu Hiroshima (Japan) Kim Dae-young (Korea Republic) Fourth official: Ľuboš Micheľ (Slovakia) Fifth official: Roman Slyško (Slovakia) This was the 15th international meeting between Germany and Poland since 1933 and their third in World Cup competition, having previously met at both the 1974 and 1978 World Cup finals, with Germany having never lost to their opponents.

Germany also continued to push forward and forced Poland goalkeeper Artur Boruc into several saves, while both Klose and Ballack were denied by the frame of the goal during the same attack.

[27] The win marked the first time Germany had beaten another European nation at a major international competition since defeating the Czech Republic in the UEFA Euro 1996 final.

[29][30] Ecuador manager Luis Fernando Suárez deliberately left his squad announcement until the latest time allowed, noting that he aimed to "not give any clues to our rivals".

[31] His side started brightly but Tenorio gave Ecuador an early lead, heading in from Antonio Valencia's cross after eight minutes for his second goal of the tournament.

Germany fielded a full strength side, but were forced to deny the presence of a rift between strike partners Klose and Podolski after the former had criticised his teammate.

[37] Klose gave Germany the lead after just four minutes, scoring from eight-yards after Bastian Schweinsteiger had capitalised on a failed clearance by the opposition defence to play in his teammate.

With a three goal lead, Germany made several substitutions to rest key players and saw out the game to finish top of the group, the fifth consecutive time that they had done so at the World Cup finals.

[38] Man of the Match: Michael Ballack (Germany) Assistant referees: Nikolay Golubev (Russia) Evgeni Volnin (Russia) Fourth official: Kevin Stott (United States) Fifth official: Chris Strickland (United States) Poland and Costa Rica had previously met on two other occasions, both ending in victories for the Poles, but this was their first competitive fixture.

Poland held the majority of possession early on but Costa Rica took the lead after 25 minutes, Gomez scoring via a direct free-kick which went through the defensive wall and the legs of Boruc who was unable to react.

[41][42] However, Poland equalised eight minutes later when Bartosz Bosacki scored his first international goal and his nation's first of the competition, volleying in off the crossbar from Żurawski's corner, the Poles' sixth of the game,[42] after Porras had failed to gather the ball.