Euro 2012

Germany had a dozen chances, especially very early and in the last 20 minutes - but no luck at all. Corners was like 10 - 0 for Germany. The goal for Germany was more than deserved. 2 - 1 was the correct result. Italy was much better in the first half. There was no reason for them to do much after that.

One shouldn't forget though that italy had several counterattacks that were almost 100% chances that they managed to waste. It could easily have ended 4-1 or even 5-1 too. I am glad it didn't, that would have been a real trauma for our players - who still have one or two championships ahead of them. 2-1 is something one can come to terms with in good time.
 
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Yes to be honest before the penalty 3-0 was a lot closer than 2-1.
 
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Yes to be honest before the penalty 3-0 was a lot closer than 2-1.

Yup - many attempts and chances for Germany, but mostly weak ones. Few opportunities for italy - but almost all near 100% chances.
 
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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?).
 
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No, no, no. Y'all are way off. The tourney doesn't even start until August and Italy's not even in it. See? Are these some sort of prelims?
 
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:lol:
 
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The Bayer Munich block(Müller, Lahm, Schweinsteiger...) looked tired and overplayed the whole tournament and Schweinsteiger was injured and could only play at 70%.

Löw should have relied more on Borussia Dortmund players (= The Meister) and not Bayern Munich (= VIZE-Meister).
 
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Götze played the last 10 minutes agains Greece, that was it, I think. Reus and Hummels were the big newcomers this EM, I think we will see more of them in the future. The big dissapointment for me was Müller - he was such a great player at the WM, and we didn't see anything from him this time.

In General HiddenX is right, except maybe against Greece we never saw that fast and precise game that distinguished the German team in the qualification at the tournament. Maybe the long season for Bayern Muenchen (with the champions league) was a problem.
 
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Isn't Götze supposed to be, like, really really good? Did he even get a signle minute this tournament?

Götze was injured from January to April which threw him back big time. Borussia Dortmund was playing really well without Götze and back in April they were right on track to win the German championship without him.
The coach of Dortmund (Jürgen Klopp) did not want to take any unnecessary chances by changing the system to reintegrate Götze during the critical phase of the season. This meant that Götze did not play all that much throughout all of 2012. He nearly missed the entire second half of the 2011/2012 season and only got to play a little in the last few matches.
Given the very strong competition in the OM, Götze was never a serious option for Löw. I believe the only reason he nominated Götze at all was because Götze is young and a very promising player that might benefit simply from coming along to gain some tournament experience, even if it was a mostly passive experience for him this time.
 
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Holy crap… 4-0. I certainly wouldn't have predicted that.


Congrats to Spain. They're just lucky they didn't have to face the US. ;)
 
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Me neither.
 
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2 straight Euro championships and a World Cup Championship. And still young enough to defend their WC title in Brazil in 2014. Can you say dynasty? Lalas & Ballack said best team of all time. I dont have sufficient knowledge to voice an opinion. Anyone agree/disagree?
 
Well, it depends on how you count, for one single tournament there has probably been better teams, but to be that good for 4 years... well I really doubt that.
 
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I thought Spain was pretty boring and not entirely convincing for most of the tournament - but yesterdays game was fantastic, and proved that they deserved to win the tournament after all. Those passes leading to the first two goals - that was just incredible. Poor Italy!
 
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Sad it's over. Really enjoyed it. Champions League is starting soon? Is that another tournament or is it like the Premiere league? Not really sure. Anyone know a good site where I can get educated? Official site is ok, but not real clear. What exactly is this League? And doesnt it run the same time as other leagues?
 
Champions league is like a drawn out tournament of the european national champion club teams (down to 4th place in the national league rankings can enter the qualifying, I believe). It's pretty complicated, but wiki has a compact summary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012–13_UEFA_Champions_League
It will start pretty soon with qualifying, but will go on until the final in May next year.
 
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WOW! This was simply incredible. Who would have thought that anyone could score 4 goals against Italy, history's best defenders?

Without a doubt, this was Spain's best match of the tournament. Xavi's pass to Jordi Alba during the second goal was extraordinary. Italy did put up a good fight in the 1st half but after Thiago Motta's self inflicted injury, they had only 10 men left (they had already changed 3 players), and then it was game over. But still, I have never seen an Italy this broken, both mentally and physically.

Spain's trademark had always been to underachieve in a European or World Cup, despite having good players and a strong footbal tradition. And now, they make history by winning three tournaments in a row.
 
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