at euro 2008, pletikosa was named man of the match in croatia's opening victory against austria, making many saves to preserve croatia's 1–0 lead from an early penalty. on 16 june 2008, during the match between austria and germany, bbc pundit alan hansen stated his belief that pletikosa had been "the best goalkeeper in the tournament" up to that point, ahead of more well-known contemporaries such as petr čech, gianluigi buffon and iker casillas, although his colleague alan shearer said edwin van der sar had been equally impressive. however, buffon, casillas and van der sar were eventually voted to the team of the tournament.