At the start of play, Germany just needed a point to qualify, Denmark had to win to progress, Portugal had to better Denmark's result and Netherlands needed to win by two goals with Germany winning. All but Netherlands were going through at some point during the night, but it was Denmark who would ultimately miss out.
It looked like Netherlands were going to stake their claim on 11-minutes when Rafael Van der Vaart curled an effort past Rui Patricio from outside the box. Germany were then holding their end of the deal when a cross was turned in by Lukas Podolski on 19-minutes, a way to mark his 100th cap.
Then Denmark were going to go through on 25-minutes when Michael Krohn-Dehli headed them level. But their euphoria would only last for three minutes as Cristiano Ronaldo returned to his best, latching onto a through ball and slotting past Martin Stekelenberg.
The Portugal captain then made sure when a cross-field ball ended up at his feet. He moved inside before rolling the ball into the corner, the side he had just moved inside of, on 74-minutes. The group was then finalised ten minutes from time when Lars Bender was put through and the Bayer Leverkusen player slotted past Stephan Andersen. Group table:
Germany 9 +3
Portugal 6 +1
Denmark 3 -1
Netherlands 0 -3
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