Who Will Be In The Final

[RobbyRobson]

Germany!
A bad german team goes to the final and a good german team wins the whole thing!

[KumarsS]

I am hoping (and expecting) for a Italy v Germany final as we will be guaranteed an exciting final challenged by the 2 best footballing teams in Europe.

Remeber WC06, Italy v Germany was by far the most exciting game and the semi final between the same two in the 1970 WC has been considered to be the game of the century! (my agreement has nothing to do with the fact that Italy won both :rolleyes:).

Personally I believe anyone who underestimates Germany in any competition has no idea about football and is really fooling themselves.

*applauds* Same to you, sir!

[VCFan]

I am hoping (and expecting) for a Italy v Germany final as we will be guaranteed an exciting final challenged by the 2 best footballing teams in Europe.

Remeber WC06, Italy v Germany was by far the most exciting game and the semi final between the same two in the 1970 WC has been considered to be the game of the century! (my agreement has nothing to do with the fact that Italy won both :rolleyes:).

Personally I believe anyone who underestimates Germany in any competition has no idea about football and is really fooling themselves.

Aside from the fact that Germany (and Italy to a lesser extent) are the quintessential survivors of the football world, Turkey has 4 or 5 important players missing. There's no way a depleted Turkey can win against full-strength Germany... and if people will pull the "but there was no way Turkey would beat Croatia, or so we thought" card, let me tell you that Croatia and Germany are beasts of a different sort in the knockout rounds.

It's time for the Cinderella story to end.

[RobbyRobson]

Germany will bring Turkey back to reality. You will see.
Look what Germany did to Portugal. Friedrich made Ronaldo almost invisible.
If Turkey will play like today with no attacking scoring what-so-ever they will loose very clearly against Germany.

[Suyuntuy]

Germany-Italy, the Brazil-Argentina of Europe.

Although, as happens in the Conmebol, often one of the other teams wins the whole thing.

Even so, Germany-Italy is always the favored final (although it rarely happens in reality).

[glennaldo_sf]

France, for a while were there too

[ztnjv]

Germany-Italy in the final?

hmmm.

I like the idea...especially being Italian-American.;)

But somehow, I'm not too keen on that right now. Italy is not full strength and Italy's undefeated record against Germany in meaningful games is a badge of honor.:D...or should I say: :confused:

Any current Italian team without at least Cannavaro or Nesta on the backline...let alone BOTH...is not a 100% Italian side. But one of them being there would make me feel better. Too bad.

But anyway, I won't get too far ahead of myself. Before a GER-ITA final can happen, Italy will have to beat a very strong Spanish side and then most likely Holland (sorry, Russia). That's a long way from the final.

[Roland25]

Magat some hours ago said, “Turkey stands absolutely no chance against Germany”. I hope that our Mannschaft won't become as arrogant as Magat. If you underestimate any team at this level, you would definitely lose and are out. Let's not forget, we have not won our last three games against Turkey. We MUST take this game as seriously as a possible game against Netherland or Italy in final.

[Cris 09]

If Croatia and Germany meet in semis,Germany will loose not becouse they will play bad but becouse Croatia is just a better team.

WHEN GERMANY BEATS AND OUTPLAYS CROATIA I WILL SAY THEY ARE BETTER BUT TILL THEN WE HAVE A STRONGER TEAM.

I'm sorry, I didn't catch that the first time...will you please repeat it...

[Lahmfan]

I'm sorry, I didn't catch that the first time...will you please repeat it...
Hahaha,, ASS!:p

[Johannes]

why is everybody looking forward to a Germany - Italy final? They both played only one decent game this tournament. It's a shame that the brackets are so lobsided. You have to hand it to the Germans though, they peak when necessary. Let's see if Holland and Spain can do the same.

[Lahmfan]

why is everybody looking forward to a Germany - Italy final? They both played only one decent game this tournament. It's a shame that the brackets are so lobsided. You have to hand it to the Germans though, they peak when necessary. Let's see if Holland and Spain can do the same.
coz holland are too retarded AND stupid to win over romania on the last game!!!
you can only one against italy ... i dont see holland (as much as i love too!) in the final...but u had your chance to stop the italian, but nope... you had to go and show off...

mark my words very carefully ...

[Johannes]

coz holland are too retarded AND stupid to win over romania on the last game!!!
you can only one against italy ... i dont see holland (as much as i love too!) in the final...but u had your chance to stop the italian, but nope... you had to go and show off...

mark my words very carefully ...

puleaze....if we had lost it would be "these dishonest sob's are afraid of Italy, cowards, etc, etc". Germany didn't have the luxury problem of "throwing" a game since they lost against no. 15 on FiFA's list. Guess they would've done the "smart" thing ?
And we didn't "show off", if you saw the game you must agree that losing against that Romania team was kinda hard. Holland didn't even start to push until the second half. But I agree, giving Italy a life line could bite us in the ass.

Still, Italy and Holland still have to win their QF's first....

[ulyssesr]

Germany will bring Turkey back to reality. You will see.
Look what Germany did to Portugal. Friedrich made Ronaldo almost invisible.
If Turkey will play like today with no attacking scoring what-so-ever they will loose very clearly against Germany.

The result today was cruel on Croatia. Just literally seconds away from winning the game. How lucky can Turkey get? Unbelievable. First, the Peter Czech drop and now the loose scramble in the box on 121+. Lucky. This Turkey team facing Germany is decimated with suspensions and injury. They will be luck to get 14 players eligible for the game. I see Germany winning this game.

[blueguitar322]

puleaze....if we had lost it would be "these dishonest sob's are afraid of Italy, cowards, etc, etc". Germany didn't have the luxury problem of "throwing" a game since they lost against no. 15 on FiFA's list. Guess they would've done the "smart" thing ?
And we didn't "show off", if you saw the game you must agree that losing against that Romania team was kinda hard. Holland didn't even start to push until the second half. But I agree, giving Italy a life line could bite us in the ass.

Still, Italy and Holland still have to win their QF's first....Agreed, it was really Romania that gave Italy a lifeline....both with the missed penalty and the absolutely abysmal showing vs. Netherlands.

But all this stuff just assuming Italy will go through....I know history and all that but what matters is if the players believe it still applies.

Honestly, does Uruguay go into competitive games vs., say, Mexico or Portugal or Spain or a similar top-15 team and think to themselves "we've got 2 world cup victories, they don't have anything...we're clearly the better side"? Or does the U.S. rely on the history of them winning the very first WC game ever and placing third in the 1930 WC?

Greece, as terrible and boring as their style was last Euro, proved that it's current performance, not history, that matters. Therefore I'm not any more afraid of a Holland-Italy matchup than a Holland-Spain matchup. Class players on all three teams. And let's not forget Russia, who put on a brilliant show vs. Sweden and are coached by one of the all-time greats.

[VCFan]

Agreed, it was really Romania that gave Italy a lifeline....both with the missed penalty and the absolutely abysmal showing vs. Netherlands.

But all this stuff just assuming Italy will go through....I know history and all that but what matters is if the players believe it still applies.

Honestly, does Uruguay go into competitive games vs., say, Mexico or Portugal or Spain or a similar top-15 team and think to themselves "we've got 2 world cup victories, they don't have anything...we're clearly the better side"? Or does the U.S. rely on the history of them winning the very first WC game ever and placing third in the 1930 WC?

Greece, as terrible and boring as their style was last Euro, proved that it's current performance, not history, that matters. Therefore I'm not any more afraid of a Holland-Italy matchup than a Holland-Spain matchup. Class players on all three teams. And let's not forget Russia, who put on a brilliant show vs. Sweden and are coached by one of the all-time greats.

Agree that nothing's guaranteed yet, but LMAO at comparing Italy to Uruguay... one's at the bottom looking up, and the other is at the top (along with several other countries) looking around.

[FNU]

coz holland are too retarded AND stupid to win over romania on the last game!!!
you can only one against italy ... i dont see holland (as much as i love too!) in the final...but u had your chance to stop the italian, but nope... you had to go and show off...

mark my words very carefully ...
Actually, Holland were smart to win. If you were Holland, would you rather face a Spain who may have had an easy game against Romania, or a Spain that might have to go the distance with Italy?

[ForeverRed]

Yep, because both always get lucky, destruct the other teams play and not to mention the officials always favor both with calls.

http://img.sparknotes.com/content/sparklife/sparktalk/instructoart_cuckoo.gif

[blueguitar322]

Agree that nothing's guaranteed yet, but LMAO at comparing Italy to Uruguay... one's at the bottom looking up, and the other is at the top (along with several other countries) looking around.I said it's current performance, not history, that mattersso there's no way I'm comparing Uruguay to Italy. What I am saying is that a team like Spain isn't less dangerous because of past failures...and a team like Italy isn't more dangerous because of past successes (WC '06 aside, since it's recent enough that almost all players are still playing.)

[VCFan]

I said so there's no way I'm comparing Uruguay to Italy. What I am saying is that a team like Spain isn't less dangerous because of past failures...and a team like Italy isn't more dangerous because of past successes (WC '06 aside, since it's recent enough that almost all players are still playing.)

Okay, okay... I get what you're saying, I just couldn't resist :p BTW, in case anyone hasn't noticed, this Euro has shattered a lot of records, so all this pre-game banter about contrasting pedigrees is pretty useless IMO.