Loew: It’s like an F1 race without the warm-up

Germany coach Joachim Loew felt Mario Gomez’s winning goal in the Euro 2012 victory over Portugal justified his decision to start with the Bayern Munich striker ahead of Miroslav Klose.

Gomez scored a fine header as Loew’s side opened the Group B campaign with a 1-0 success in Lviv, joining Denmark at the top of the ’Group of Death’ after the Danes’ shock 1-0 triumph over the Netherlands.

Lazio front man Klose — scorer of 14 World Cup goals — has been struggling with a thigh injury in the build-up to the tournament, meaning Gomez got the nod up front.