Ivan Klasnic scored Monday to give Croatia a 1-0 win against Poland

KLAGENFURT, Austria - Ivan Klasnic scored Monday to give Croatia a 1-0 win against Poland in a European Championship match stripped of significance by Germany's defeat of Austria in the other Group B match.
The 28-year-old striker became the first kidney transplant recipient to play at the European Championship, and in the 53rd minute he swept in a left-footed shot from a cross by stand-in captain Danijel Pranjic at Worthersee Stadium for his ninth goal in 30 internationals.
"I'm happy that I'm here at all," Klasnic said. "As I said once, this is like a bonus from God. It's like a dream. I thank God that I'm alive and that I can play football."
Croatia won all three group games for the first time in three tournament appearances. It will play Turkey in the quarter-finals Friday in Vienna.
"We are very proud because we played this match at such a high level and scored a third victory here," Croatia coach Slaven Bilic aid. "We didn't just play good - we played super."

Poland needed to win convincingly and hope Austria beat Germany in Klagenfurt to advance.
It got neither.
Germany silenced Polish fans by taking the lead in the 48th minute for an eventual 1-0 win over the Euro 2008 co-hosts. Five minutes later, Klasnic gave Croatia the lead after threatening the defence all night.
Poland coach Leo Beenhakker said the defeat summed up his team's tournament campaign.
"We have tried and it was not enough, and I think that was more or less what we saw the whole tournament," he said. "To be realistic, during this tournament we weren't good enough."
A second-string Croatia outclassed Poland for large parts of the match and it was only goalkeeper Artur Boruc who kept his team in the game. He twice rushed off his line to block shots by Klasnic and Ivan Rakitic after good passes by Mladen Petric had cut open Poland's defence in the first half.
In the 20th minute, Hrvoje Vejic flicked on a free kick with his head and Klasnic, lurking at the far post, just failed to get a foot on the ball.
In the 33rd, Klasnic used his chest well to control Petric's pass but Boruc dived at his feet to block the shot.
In January 2007, the German-born Klasnic suffered kidney failure. Shortly afterward, he received a transplant but his body rejected the kidney donated by his mother. A couple of months later, he again underwent surgery to replace the rejected kidney with one from his father.
Klasnic, who wears a fibreglass shield to protect him on the field, is one of a small number of professional athletes to return after an organ transplant. Without the protection, a kick could prove life-threatening.
"We had prayed for Ivan, but he's a brave man and he was encouraging us when he was in a dire situation," Bilic said. "We are happy to have him back.
"It is amazing that he came back to such a high professional level so quickly. It's a dream ending to a horror story."
Reflecting the urgency of its situation, Poland pressed for an early goal, but poor finishing again cost the team that had only scored only once in its first two matches.
Wojciech Lobodzinski put in a dangerous cross from the right in the ninth minute, but Croatia goalkeeper Vedran Runje punched it clear just before Jacek Krzynowek could head in. Two minutes later, defender Dariusz Dudka rose high above the defence at a corner but headed wide.
Croatia managed to stifle the creativity of Poland star Roger Guerreiro in the first half, not always fairly. Both Vejic and Nikola Pokrivac earned yellow cards for fouls on the Brazilian-born midfielder.
However, Roger was involved in Poland's best move of the match, crossing from the left in the 68th after substitute Euzebiusz Smolarek passed to Dariusz Dudka, but Marek Saganowski's powerful header was well saved by Runje.
Croatia had sealed a quarter-final place against Turkey with a match to spare by beating Austria 1-0 and Germany 2-1. Poland lost 2-0 to Germany and was denied victory over Austria by a controversial injury-time penalty for a 1-1 draw.
Bilic gave eight players their first start at Euro 2008, resting most of his first-choice team to avoid injuries or further yellow cards.
Despite needing a big win, Beenhakker dropped striker Ebi Smolarek and replaced him with Lobodzinski. Smolarek gave the attack fresh impetus in the second half as a substitute, sending a left-footed shot over the crossbar in the 81st. But by that time, Poland was just about out of Euro 2008.