Giants Germany were surprisingly held 0-0 by underdogs Latvia in their Euro 2004 Group D match Saturday in Porto, Portugal.

Dominated from the beginning, it seemed that only time matters that Germans would win the game, but Latvia's strong defence gave the Germans too much to conquer and put them into dangerous brink, where they might be outcasted off the tounament.

Only 30 seconds into the game, Aleksandrs Isakovs of Latvia brought down Philipp Lahm and English referee Mike Riley showed his first yellow card of the game, also the first booking for Latvia and the earliest one of the European Championship.

Twelve minutes late, Germany got their first real chance when Stuttgart striker Kevin Kuranyi's attempte was denied by Latvian goalkeeper Kolinko, who celebrates his 29th birthday today.

The Germans controled almost the first half of the game, but the best opportunity of the match came to Latvia.

In the 40th minute, Maris Verpakovskis beat a string of German defenders to rush into the goal, but his attempt was saved by Oliver Kahn whose grandmother was a Latvian.

After the break, the Germans also tried their best to score, and only see every time when they closed to the point to break the deadlock, but failed.

Fredi Bobic had an enormous chance to break the deadlock in the 67th minute when he failed to tip in a low pass from the left wing with the goalkeeper to beat.

And Miroslav Klose wasted the best chance for Germany with a diabolical header at the end of the game, as he kicked the ball from the right of the field, missing by several yards and leading to the goalless draw.

In their respective group openers, Latvia lost to the Czech Republic 1-2, while Germany tied the Netherlands 1-1.