Unsurprisingly, unless you’re Alan Shearer, Euro 2008 favourites Germany cruised to a fairly easy victory against plucky Poland – with Lukas Podolski cracking home a super brace against his home nation.

Polish-born Podolski put Germany on the path to victory when he slid home Miroslav Klose’s pass from close range after 20 minutes, and what a strike it was for the second – belting the ball past the helpless Artur Boruc.

How impressive was Ballack, once against the most industrious player on the pitch covering 11,552km all told – whilst Klose reached a top speed of 30.86 km/h… A quite incredible effort from him, that could see him coming to London 2012 as a sprinter yet

Poland tried hard though, and covered 108,426km – more than Germany’s 108255m – but they lacked the initiative – and look likely to be heading out of the tournament, even at this early stage.

See you tomorrow for group C day – I’m VERY excited!! Stats, as ever, provided by Castrol - thanks Castrol!