How can it be the worst semi-final before they even play? Would you have preferred the teams that lost to these two teams to be the ones playing in the semis or perhaps the ones that didn't even qualify for the tournament? As much as Portugal has been defensive they managed to eliminate Croatia (that just beat the then tournament favourites) and Poland (that the mighty Germany couldn't beat). On the other hand Wales comprehensively beat Belgium (one of the tournament favourites) who were not short of confidence after their demolition of Hungary. Imo they deserve to be there based on their results. The funny thing is people would have been happier and perceive the tournament to be good if it was going to be something like Belgium vs. England/Spain although these teams couldn't beat their opponents. It is what it is.
German tabloid Bild predicts Germany will play 3-4-3. In contrast, Kicker-Chefreporter Karlheinz Bild insists that Germany doesn't need back three, and should keep going.
Spain just looked like a shadow of their old selves against italy.. i'm not sure if the formation change would have helped.. maybe it would, but players looked out of form, lacking in confidence and tired..
Yes, I agree with that logic. As I've said quite some times before: the hatred against South Korea in 2002 and Greece in 2004 was driven by money and spite. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/06/24/1023864552544.html It has since become clear that Blatter personally appointed his fellow countryman Meier for the job. But Portugal just plays horrible. Horrible in gameplan, intent and execution. They don't want to attack and don't really try to counter attack either. They have not a single win over 90 minutes in this tournament. Their defending is so-so too. It's like Argentina 1990, LOL. Wales has always been a country I don't like. They're overly relient on set pieces and free kicks (+ goalkeeper errors), and if you ask me they were very, very lucky to have played a totally imploded and discouraged Russia team. But yes, they deserve their place more than Portugal does.
Here's a funny anecdote... Denayer was yesterday by a distance the worst player of the team... His name means literally 'the sewer', 'the screwer' or 'the f*cker'. No exaggeration.
This penalty shoot out. Germany deserves but Italy is very great. Buffon is truely classic. First time Germany wins over Italy in tournament
What a shootout! So many chokes. @EdgarAllanPoet what do you think about Zaza's penalty? He literally hopped around like a bunny before it and then hit it nowhere even remotely close to the goal, both wide and high. Worse than ANY of the penalties we have been talking about in the last week. Made more hilarious by the fact that he was specifically subbed in in the 120th minute to take a penalty.
Germany misses three of their five PK shootout attempts and somehow still survives?? I'd say this takes the cake for luckiest team in the tournament (yes even more than Portugal so far) if they go on to win. Any other team in the world would have beat Germany in that shootout in that situation. That was the worst PK shootout from both sides I have ever seen!! The game itself wasn't that much better either. Very poor display from both sides.
Germany deserves nothing ,they won with the help of worst penalty shootout in euro championship history. Imo Conte deserves huge respect he literally turned possibly italy's worst ever footballing generation into genuine world beaters defeating the previous reigning euro championship winners Spain and narrowly losing to current world champions Germany. All in all I would say Italy have been the standout team in this tournament so far drawing Germany in the quarter finals was a bit unfortunate for them at such a relatively early stage in the ko stages. And yes Buffon remains the goat goal keeper or at least since Zoff and lev yashin I would put schmeichel and kahn slightly behind while neuer still has a shit load of work to do before he can even be classified as a modern goal keeping great.
I guess you could say that winning a shootout after missing 3 pks is lucky. But then again, they were the marginally better side in the match itself, so I wouldn't say it was particularly lucky overall for them to go through.
Of coarse it's lucky....lucky that the other team was even worse in missing that many PKs. It was incredible to see those quality players all miss like that.
Buffon has really lost a great deal of his reach and shot stopping. This was also visible in other Big Games e.g. the 2015 ucl final (and small games). Agree though that he is one of the best gk ever. The Maldini of the goalkeepers.
Also, has anyone figured out what Boateng was doing with his arms up like that? How in the world does that happen? He is, IMO, perhaps the best CB in the world, but that was a really bizarre and bad error.
Germany was the better Team..not much but better...so i dont know whats the fuss...Germany won with help of the worst Penalty shootout ever (missed 3)still better than a Team where wasnt sucessful with 4 Penaltys..neuer has to get credit for 2 saved Penaltys..
You forget" old "and "declining"in your list of possible reasons for Spain existing the euro's so early Xavi the conductor retired in 2015 Iniesta has been declining at a rapid pace since 2012 a few motm awards per season in "big games" over the last couple seasons does not change this reality Fabregas had an awful 2015/16 season with Chelsea and frankly the second half of his 2014/15 season was pretty mediocre as well busquets is busquets(a very good defensive midfielder but he is not a game changer at all(his impact in the final third is almost non existent and even compared to other great players who play/played his position his goal scoring record is extremely poor for Barcelona and Spain) 12 goals for Barcelona in nearly 400 club games compared to Patrick viera who had 40 goals for arsenal in around 450 games Fernando hierro had over 130 goals at club level which obviously included a substantial amount of pens Roy Keane,y.toure,Ronald koeman etc all have a significant advantage over busquets when it comes to goal scoring prowess and" the final ball" David villa was an integral piece of spains domination during 2008-2012 in fact I would say after xavi/iniesta he deserves the most credit perhaps even more than alonso.he has also long retired Spain has been living of past glories since 2012, their shocking defeat to Brazil in 2013 was the first sign and their groupstage exit in 2014 was the final nail in the coffin so to speak. del bosque is clearly a dinosaur had he retired in 2014 then maybe Spain could've stood a chance his biggest blunder this time around imo was leaving out Costa from the squad .diego Costa is the sort of world class attacking threat Spain desperately needed in this tournament nolito is very good but not quite elite and morata remains a world class talent but is not proven yet as a world class player,Costa could've been the player to provide Spain with that cutting and clinical edge in euro 16.
Heading to the PK shootout. We knew in football: 1) Germany has never beaten Italy in a major tournament. 2) Germany only lost a single PK shootout. That was in 1976.