With 6 points and the top spot of Group B guaranteed Croatia will rest some of the main players for tonight's match against Poland. Too bad for Germany.

But blame on the crazy UEFA rule that uses as first tie breaking criterion the direct confrontation and not the goal differential. I was surprised after the Croatians beat Germany when I heard that with that win they had already won the group. I thought, "wait a minute? Can't Germany get to 6 points too?" 

Well, they can, but it won't make a difference if they beat Austria by 10 goals and Poland beat Croatia by 12 goals. Croatia will still be first of the group because they beat Germany when the two played each other. Crazy UEFA rules.

Croatia's coach Slaven Bilic then did what any intelligent manager would do: rest his top players. Six footballers will come out of the bench to have a chance to play. They are: Dario Simic, Hrvoje Vejic, Dario Knezevic, Jerko Leko, Ognjen Vukojevic and Ivan Klasnic.

Poland will have to play all they can to win and at the same time follow what happens in the Germany x Austria match. The Polish will need more than ever to cheer for a Austrian victory, but not by a large goal differential. 

That's the scenario for tonight's matches!

Probable Lineups: 

90' (+3): Now the referee calling one foul after the other. Good for Croatia
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VS

Podolski is not really the nicest of the players. I have German friends who actually hate the kid. But at age 23 he has definitely gained the respect of the world of football with 49 caps and 27 goals for the National Team since 2004 when he had his debut.

He rarely misses a chance to score and even though he doesn't have the dribbling ability of a Cristiano Ronaldo or the drama factor of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic the Germans can always count on the young striker to decide matches.

Germany also has other great players to work the ball with the typical discipline and efficiency that already gave the country three titles in the competition, the last one in 1996. Ballack, Lehmann, Frings, Klose, Neuville; represent the experience and Mertesacker, Schweinsteiger and Mario Gomez join Lukas Podolski on the young and talented side of this well balanced team.

As for Croatia, the team once known by playing a style closer to the South American football in times of the defunct Yugoslavia, qualified for the final stage of this Euro as one of the possible surprises but the injury of their Brazilian-born striker Eduardo came as an enormous bucket of icy cold water on the Croatian squad. The team is still dangerous with the brothers and long-time team leaders Robert and Niko Kovac. On the youth side the most dangerous player is Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric.

Both teams won their opening matches. Croatia beat co-hosts Austria by the minimum score on a penalty executed by Modric and the Germans beat Poland by 2-0 with Podolski scoring twice and showing respect to his Polish descent and refraining from celebrating.

Whoever wins this one will have their ticket to the quarterfinals almost guaranteed but I'm predicting a 1-1 score for this one.

The first weekend of the Euro 2008 can be summarize like this: Great Saturday, Boring Sunday.

The opening match between Switzerland and Czech Republic had tears, strategic battles - Switzerland playing offensively and Czech Rep. all the way back in defense - and an undeserved Czech goal scored by a substitute player. It was great.

Then we had Portugal vs. Turkey. A very interesting match. Portugal hit the Turkish post three times, Cristiano Ronaldo made his traditional funny/frustrated faces and defender Pepe scored his first goal with the National shirt after an excellent one-two play. Turkey has a good team but not good enough to beat one of the favourites to win the title and at 93rd minute Raul Meirelles sealed Portugal's triumph.

Then on Sunday Croatia and Austria played one very boring match. The goal scored by Croatia on a penalty kick on the 5th minute set the final score and for the other 85 minutes I had to force myself no to fall sleep.

The so expected clash between Germany and Poland was a little better (or less worse). Podolski respect for Poland (he was born there) and for his Polish family was admirable. He didn't celebrate the two goals that seal Germany's victory and what a beautiful goal was that second one. But besides that none of the teams really impressed me.

But monday has finally arrived (football is the only reason to make me happy on a Monday morning) and right now I'm here at OleOle's HQ sitting next to my friend Frenchi just waiting for the (hopefully) two great matches of the day...