Despite scoring two goals, steering his side to victory and picking up the man of the match award, Lukas Podolski still admits having ‘mixed feelings’ for scoring against his country of birth.

Both Podolski’s goals, one in the 20^th minute and the other in the 70^th, were not celebrated. Podolski said, "Obviously I have mixed feelings. I was born in Poland and I have a big family there so it's a very important thing for me. We applied what we worked on in training and must push forward from here."

Podolski’s brace propelled Germany to the top of Group B on goal difference, but the striker was quick to brush away any signs of complacency. "As I said, this is the first step and we must continue – we can't relax. We have two days to refresh ourselves and then it's back to training and everything continues from there." Said the Bayern Munich forward

Podolski fought off competition from Michael Ballack and Torsten Frings to pick up the man of the match award.

"I think he was the obvious choice for the award because, apart from playing very well, he scored two goals. However, it would be unfair to say he was the difference between the two teams, because I feel the two central midfield players, [Michael] Ballack and [Torsten] Frings, were very important. But it would be hard to justify not giving Podolski the award because he was very impressive and scored both goals." said Roy Hodgson, a member of the 9 man panel that decides the recipient of the award.

Germany still have to play both Croatia and Austria, but the 3 crucial points against Poland have made qualification all but certain in Euro 2008.