Ballack's brilliance sets up showdown with Scolari

This has been a strange tournament for Michael Ballack. The statistics say he has run further than any other player in the Germany side, and yet he has openly admitted not being happy with the way he has played. Perhaps it is just modesty or, more likely, the high standards he sets himself. Either way, Germany have one of Euro 2008's more influential players - and that, in itself, should give them hope for the remainder of a competition in which, thus far, they have flickered without truly igniting.

Ballack's brilliant winner will be remembered as one of the outstanding moments of the tournament. It was also enough to soothe Germany's nerves and ensure their place in the first quarter-final against Portugal, in Basle on Thursday. Theirs has been an erratic start to the competition, but they were seldom threatened last night and their supporters will have enjoyed singing "auf wiedersehen" at their willing but limited hosts.

Austria will be politely ushered towards the exit and Ballack could be forgiven for relishing his part in their elimination after a period of patriotic fervour in which Martin Harnik, the Austrian striker, had talked of Germany "shitting in their pants" and the front page of yesterday's Osterreich had superimposed the Chelsea player's head on a nude model, with the headline "Rip the Germans' trousers off".

"A lot was said before the match," Ballack said afterwards. "I just think Austria bit off more than they could chew. To listen to them you would have thought we weren't good enough to kick the ball and it was Austria who had won the World Cup three times."

He was referring, in part, to Harnik, who froze on the night and was eventually substituted. Yet Ballack also let it be known he had seen the various newspaper jibes, and perhaps in hindsight the people responsible will feel they got a bit carried away in all the excitement. Page three of Osterreich had a mocked-up picture of Ballack's plane ticket home, which does not look so good now.

That said, one can only guess what the editorial team will be planning for the referee, Manuel Mejuto González, after his decision to send off both managers, Joachim Löw and Josef Hickersberger, shortly before half-time. The two men had had a little argument, lasting no more than 10 seconds, and appeared to have resolved whatever it was before González made it clear he was not a man to tolerate any form of misbehaviour. It was harsh, to say the least.

"They didn't do anything wrong," said Andreas Herzog, Austria's assistant manager, after Hickersberger had refused to attend the post-match press conference. "The referee just wanted to get attention. He should do his job rather than trying to put on a show." Löw, who also did not show up, could conceivably be banned from the dugout against Portugal. "The matter will go to our disciplinary body," said a Uefa spokesman.

Germany had begun the game in the manner of a side whose manager had pinned up all the offending newspaper articles - and there have been many - on the dressing-room wall. Austria are 87 places below them in Fifa's world rankings and the team in white looked vastly superior during the opening exchanges, Mario Gomez somehow missing an open goal after only four minutes.

Briefly the Austrians came into it. Once they had got rid of their nerves they started to pass the ball with a touch more confidence and, by half-time, had created a couple of half-chances of their own. Every so often they did something to remind us why they were the tournament's least-fancied side, but you could forgive them the occasional misplaced pass because they were obviously stretching every sinew to be the equals of their opponents. And, for a short while, Germany were rattled.

It did not last long, however. Four minutes after the restart Andreas Ivanschitz was booked for a foul on Philipp Lahm 30 yards from goal. The ball was touched into Ballack's path and he unleashed a right-foot drive which was still rising as it flew into the top left-hand corner of Jürgen Macho's goal. "It was world-class, absolutely sensational," Hickersberger later acknowledged.

After that, an air of inevitability descended. Löw could be seen high-fiving Boris Becker, Franz Beckenbauer and the other German VIPs in his new block of seats. Ballack, meanwhile, wore the smile of a man who had just proved a point or two.