Zaza must've confused the penalty shootout with "strictly come dancing" . just who the hell did he think he was fooling with his wobbling and shaking on the spot.
I have to agree with pretty much all of this. To be fair to Busquets, he plays a different role than guys like Vieira and Keane. Those guys had a bit more of a box-to-box role, while Busquets's role is to stay back and actually retreat into the back line as his team attacks (basically, the fullbacks push forwards and Busquets drops back so that there are still 3 men back). But I agree that, by the nature of what role he plays and excels at, he isn't exactly a game-changer. Just a guy who is fantastic in possession and has great anticipation on defense. That's quite valuable, but by itself it doesn't win you matches. Overall, I think that Spain just doesn't have quite the quality that they used to have, or at least the squad Del Bosque chooses to play doesn't. Fabregas just had a bad season. Silva was fine this season, but I think it was his worst season in the last 5 years. Iniesta is still really good--and played well this tournament--but he's not at his peak. And they no longer have Xavi or Xabi Alonso. Busquets is better than he was, but still, the midfield is not what it once was. Meanwhile, Morata is not all that good (though he actually had a decent tournament). Nolito is a good player but not so good as to make up for the drop in midfield--which will always be the most important phase of the game for a Spanish team. I think Del Bosque should have played some different players in midfield. Thiago Alcantara instead of Fabregas seems to me like it would've been a wise choice to me, for instance. Maybe Koke should've been given more of a chance. But there's also just not much you can do to paper over the loss of a player like Xavi or even Xabi Alonso. When you lose some legends and some other players aren't in great form, it's not going to end well.
What made it worse is that zaza was brought on at the end especially to take a penalty ! I dont know what pelle was doing either .. awful penalties.
No. I was hoping that because: 1) He looked more nervous than others. On top of that he had a handful of shaky moments in the match, which Italy failed to exploit (near the end of the 2nd half where Pelle opted to shoot instead of pass for example). On an individual performance level he deserved it the most to fail. 2) He's still young and impressionable. Impressionable to the occasion; susceptible to tears in case of failure. 3) I liked Italy their tactical shrewdness, their patience, their team cohesion. While this is - in terms of stars - the weakest Italian team in living memory. 4) He's a Bayern Munich player, like Real Madrid a dubious club. 5) He's a German. The country that has first pick and used to rule UEFA as their backyard. Once again they received the match balls & specificaties earlier than all other national teams. 5) He has the Aryan look. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the 'right' hairdress. He would not be out of place as an extra in a movie. Most of all I hoped Italy would win (don't forget: had tougher schedule + fewer rest days). Then I also see them beating France, and that would have created an interesting final.
Yesterday two powerful "football curses" or "iron rules" faced each other: Germany's "Italian curse" of Italy always prevailing when the two teams meet in knock-out games and any team's curse of Germany always prevailing in penalty shoot-outs, regardless of the opponent (except for Germany's very first shoot-out in 1976). A titanic struggle unfolded yesterday to decide which curse would ultimately prove to be more powerful. Now we know it but we can see how powerful the Italian curse was that it made Germany miss three penalties in a shoot-out, an unheard of incident! Such was the force of the Italian curse, almost as powerful as a black hole .... but in the end, the curse of any team losing to Germany in a penalty shoot-out proved to be a tiny bit more forceful .... to me it was like finally seeing the Italian curse explode like a supernova!
5) He has the Aryan look. Blonde hair, blue eyes, the 'right' hairdress. He would not be out of place as an extra in a movie.
And yet after all that, the match still gets listed officially as a draw, as do all matches that are decided via penalties. So although Germany knocked* Italy out of a tournament for the first time, they have still never defeated Italy, officially. * Technically, I suppose an argument can be made that Germany knocked Italy out of Euro 1996.
It was the first time ever that Italy failed to beat Germany in a knock-out game. In 1970, 1982, 2006 and 2012 Italy won every time. So for Germany it was a step forward. Dragging Italy to a penalty shoot-out was the safest way to get rid of the curse. Germany in fact eliminated Italy in Euro 1996 by playing 0-0 in the last decisive group game.
Germany vs. France is going to be an amazing match. There's just so much talent on both teams. Pogba, Griezmann, Payet, Kante, Kroos, Muller, Boateng, Neuer, Ozil, Hummels, etc. Germany is marginally more talented I'd say, but France is playing at home. I'd say it's about as 50/50 a matchup as possible.
Anyone else thing Italy should have brought on Griezmann earlier, Eder was dead on his feet, Insigne would have more chance to make an impression with 30-35 mins as opposed to just over 10 he got.
i think France is a bit more favorite now for the reason Hummels is out (this is very bad for Germany ),gomez is out(contributed for 3 Goals) ,kedira is out and schweinsteiger is 50:50..if both kedira and schweinsteiger is out this is bad as well for the german team..Gomez is a diffrent type of Player than the other german offensive Players, this hurt a bit too im my opinion ..müller played good but not scoring in 5 games doesent make it better for Germany..
Italy were eliminated by a combination of the 0-0 and, more importantly, the Czech Republic's 3-3 draw with Russia. Russia were leading 3-2 in the 88th minute, a result that would have put Italy through to the quarterfinals despite their goalless stalemate with Germany. The late equalizer scored by the Czechs is what eliminated Italy, more so (imo) than the 0-0. Before kickoff Germany knew that a draw v Italy would win them (Germany) the group regardless of the Russia-Czech Republic result. They played to satisfy themselves. That the 0-0 also happened to eliminate Italy was happenstance. But it did greatly contribute.
If Germany had Gundogan, I would have definitely favored Germany. Even though Germany has many talented midfielders, I still think Gundogan is a very important because 1. first he is a very important ball recycle point especially when Kroos is tightly marked, like in the case against Italy a couple days ago 2.second, he has the pace, dribble and has the intelligence to link up the midfield with the forward, and he can exploit spaces up front so Kroos can have the space pull the strings with much more ease. For me, no one in the Germany NT can perform this role as well. Neither Kroos nor Ozil can play this role as well. 3. With Lahm out, Gundogan is such a special player I think he is probably the only one who has the ability to change the pace of the game, whether to make it slow or fast. If Gundogan were present, he could have performed the role of Modric, just like the Kroos-Modric partnership that worked so well at the club level.
Gomez is very important for Germany's NT, he basically played the role of Lewandoski who partners muller at the club. He is very important for Germany for holding the ball up front and in the aerial attack. With him out, I don't know what Low will do to replace him, because for me, Muller is not the player that fits the central forward, his best role would be behind the striker. Even so, I still favor Germany slightly because of the depth and quality in midfield and defense. But France is also a very talented team and since this will be in their home soil, so it is more like 50-50. I really don't know. I would have favored Germany a lot more if Gomez, Gundogan and Khedira were present.
Contrary to popular view after this game I was not exactly blown away by France's performance yesterday. I'm astonished that nobody is discussing complete tactical approach change by Iceland compared to any of their previous games. Imo it looks as if excitement got to their technical team and all of a sudden the decided to approach a game like they were some world beaters. Compared to all their previous games Iceland played a very high line similar to how the likes of Barca or Bayern (Boateng's famous game at Nou Camp) and it back fired spectacularly in the first 45 minutes which basically crushed their dreams. You cannot suddenly change your tactics that's been working wonders in arguably the biggest game in the history of your team. I saw France huffing and puffing when they played Romania and Ireland and imo the main reason was because those two teams were very disciplined and never really lost shape during their games. Iceland was exact opposite and probably too naive which gave France a chance to humiliate them. For the semis I still think Germany will win.
Agree. This France team is not as disciplined as Italy. But with Griezmann，Pogba，Payet and Giroud. They could offer France significantly more attacking options. Anyways, I still think the depth of Germany's midfield and defense is too strong(so far they haven't conceded anything except a penalty and that is scary) and they have showed how discipline they were against Italy. So, I still favor Germany.
Both France and Germany actually have a decent number of players out. It's really scary to think how stacked France and Germany could be if at full strength. France is considered the less talented of the two nations, but they could boast the following starting XI at full strength: Lloris, Sagna, Varane, Koscielny, Evra, Kante, Pogba, Matuidi, Payet, Griezmann, Benzema. Which is just a ridiculous lineup. An amazing generation from both countries.
My guess is either Howedes or Mustafi. And Wigel or Can for Khedira. Up front, Low would probably use Podolski or move Draxler up front to combine with muller and use Sane on the left side. Pure Guessing
That is a decent team. But France still lacks a player like Zidane/Xavi/Pirlo that can control the tempo of the game and link up the midfield. In the last game against Iceland, Pogba was playing at the base of the diamond as a deep-lying playmaker and it worked fine against Iceland. But against a much stronger side like Germany, I doubt it would be as effective. Pogba is an incredible player with amazing attacking talent but he is not a playmaker(against Poland, he dropped too deep to collect the ball and start the transition from defense to attack). To get the best out of Pogba, you need to put him in more advanced position to release his full attacking potential.