Bender takes his opportunity for Germany

Lars Bender enjoyed a memorable night in Lviv as his first international goal earned Germany a third straight win in Group B – and also put him top of the Castrol EDGE Index.

The 23-year-old midfielder from Bayer 04 Leverkusen was filling in at right-back for the suspended Jérôme Boateng but that did not stop him getting forward to collect a Mesut Özil pass and slot the ball calmly past Stephan Andersen to maintain his team's 100% record at UEFA EURO 2012.

Bender, who scored from his solitary goal attempt, may be more accustomed to a midfield berth but his statistics showed he filled the full-back role ably. Besides an 81% pass completion rate, he ran 11.34km – second only to Sami Khedira in the Germany team – with 97 sprints and a top speed of 29.38km/h. His goal was his first from nine international outings.

Lukas Podolski, who broke the deadlock, worked hard down Germany's left side and hit the target with one of two goal attempts, earning a mark of 8.71. Third on the list was the Denmark scorer, Michael Krohn-Dehli. His second goal of these finals came from two attempts and the 29-year-old forward certainly put in a shift as one of three Denmark players to cover more than 11km.

Castrol EDGE Index: Denmark v Germany
1. Lars Bender (GER) 8.93
2. Lukas Podolski (GER) 8.71
3. Michael Krohn-Dehli (DEN) 8.67
4. Nicklas Bendtner (DEN) 8.57
5. Bastian Schweinsteiger (GER) 8.37

Key facts
1 – For the first time Germany have completed a EURO group stage with a 100% record.

2 – Denmark exit the competition with Michael Krohn-Delhi and Nicklas Bendtner as their only scorers on two goals apiece.

14 – Germany's victory extended their run of consecutive competitive wins to an all-time national record of 14.

19 – Germany have scored at least one goal in each of their last 19 games, their longest run since 1989-91 when they found the net in 20 successive matches.

100 – Lukas Podolski was making his 100th appearance for Germany, becoming the tenth player to achieve that milestone with the Nationalmannschaft.

Player view
Lars Bender: "It was a day of great joy for me. It was my first full match at a EURO, we reached the quarter-final and I scored the decisive goal. It was a day I will remember for a very long time."