Yep. Germany got lucky that Marchisio is no Balotelli, Gomez, Klose or Torres or Italy would have shot a 3rd and a 4th goal (I'm still not sure how Marchisio managed to miss both shots… maybe he had a bet going or something…
).
But the match could have gone either way. What would have happened if Pirlo had not saved Italy early in the game when he cleared that one shot from the goal line? If… if… if… who knows? Anything seemed possible at times…
Overall it was a pretty open match but a well deserved win for Italy who did not rely solely on counterattacks but who took the match into their own hands in the first half and made their play.
I will never quite understand, however, why some of these (especially Southern European) teams always stop making much of an effort after they lead 1:0 or 2:0. If you give the match away to a team like Germany who will gratefully accept the invitation and make their play if you let them, a match can easily turn around within a matter of minutes. If I were Italy I would have kept pushing, even at 2:0. You can't afford to lay back against a team like the Germans.
As for the finals, I have bit of a soft spot for Spain who are capable of playing a very attractive ball and who have a great team of awesome players who -in spite of their mad leet über skills- always appear to be humble, modest, 'tude-less and just generally pleasant fellas who always play fair.
Also, they can write history if they win the 3rd big title in a row so I'm wishing them a bit more luck than Italy like 51:49 in favor of España but I don't
really care… I'm just hoping for an attractive match (unlikely due to the importance of the match but one can at least hope, right?).