Euro 2016: Germany, Poland play out goalless draw

Germany coach Joachim Loew surprisingly picked Mats Hummels at centre back instead of Shkodran Mustafi for his side’s second Group C game of Euro 2016 against Poland on Thursday at the Stade de France in Paris.

Germany and Poland edged closer to the Euro 2016 knockout stage after playing out the first 0-0 draw of this year’s tournament at the Stade de France in Paris on Thursday.

Germany's Mesut Ozil is shown a yellow card by referee Bjorn Kuipers for bringing down Poland's Grzegorz Krychowiak.(REUTERS)

Neither side had a shot on target in the first half of their Group C encounter in the French capital.

The result, which left both teams with four points in Group C, knocks Ukraine out of the tournament.

Germany coach Joachim Loew surprisingly picked Mats Hummels at centre back instead of Shkodran Mustafi for his side’s second game of the European Championships.

Loew, who had been expected to give Hummels more time to rest a thigh injury, made no other changes to his starting line-up for the world champions’ opening 2-0 win over Ukraine.

Midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger, who came on as a substitute to score Germany’s second goal against Ukraine, started on the bench again.

Match commentary:

Poland’s first-choice goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was ruled out by the thigh injury he sustained in his side’s 1-0 victory over Northern Ireland.

His place is taken by Lukasz Fabianski but Szczesny is expected to return for his team’s final group game against Ukraine.

Starting XI:

Germany:

Neuer, Höwedes, Boateng, Hummels, Hector, Kroos, Khedira, Müller, Özil, Draxler, Götze

Poland:

Fabiański, Piszczek, Glik, Pazdan, Jędrzejczyk, Krychowiak, Maczyński, Błaszczykowski, Grosicki, Milik, Lewandowski