"Lack of pessimism"? Wooo-hooh! I really come across like that? That's cool 'cos I consider myself too pessimistic and too German sometimes. Anyway, maybe I used a generalisation but I was more referring to my personal point of view. Maybe I should deferr: When it comes to the banter/pride/traditional enemy side of football it's England for me. I would have pouted until the England game after the Euros had we lost at Wembley. Walking out of the stadium after the lads lost to England? NO! Awful. Oh the humiliation, oh the embarrassment! When I think about our biggest rivals based on the question, who beats us more often than we beat them? Who was a real pain in the bum at tournaments I would say Brazil and Italy (I want us to beat them so badly), maybe Portugal.
The WC and the Confed Cup 2005 semis. That is enough of a trigger for me to hope we will beat them at a WC once. However, I have to admit they look perfectly beatable since a couple of years. So it would be Italy for me. Beat them in a tournament and I can die happy. Maybe Spain or France but only so we can say we beat one of "those" teams again.
In a friendly, if I had one wish free I'd prefer beating Holland, beating Argentina or thrashing Austria. The latter should be in Vienna, though, I now think I'd want those whistles.
2005 confed cup game was a lucky win for Brazil If we are to win the euros, we will face two of portugal, czech republic or croatia in the quarterfinals and semis. Then it will be Italy or France; most likely. Could also be holland. So it's not the toughest route that it could have been.
Hello Im a English. I would be lying if I say that I hate playing against Germany, I actually secretly want to play you a lot. I think you German's underestimate how many Englishmen recognise the Dutch as your main rivals. Now I don't mean this disrespectfully I love both the Dutch and the Germans, but one thing that really bothers me is that it would make more sense for England to be Germany's main rivals (theoretically of course). Now i understand that Holland was occupied in the war and there may be other reasons why you are such big rivals. But with England, Germany has shared a monarch, fought against each other in 2 world wars, we've actually beaten you in a world cup final and the Dutch haven't ( no disrespect to the Dutch, i watched you in the 2014 world cup and I was impressed by your footballing ability, don't worry one day you will win the WC). So if there are any Germans or Dutch for that matter who would like to comment on this feel free i would love to hear your opinions
The Germans have historically long felt admiration for English, and still do. The German Kaiser was fond of the English despite later fighting a war against them, he was after all related to them, always hoped for an alliance with his "uncle" Edward and felt deely saddened and challenged when he was rejected. He was a bit of a tragic madman. When it would purely come down to war history or political history, France would be Germany's main rival. They had been Germany's hereditary enemy for a long time and it took quite a lot of effort from both sides and the post WW II time to change that attitude in both countries. Still, they are far from being Germany's football rival. Right now, I don't think any rivalry for Germans is defined by politics or wars. It's really only football history that matters at the moment. And the Dutch and Germans have their history when it comes to that. The Italians are another rival, but that's mainly because we always lose when it matters. Honestly, you can't compare the games between Germany and Holland in World Cup / European cup history with the 1966 final, which was mostly a fair game that was unfortunately decided by a wrong referee decision. Germany vs Holland is ugly, very ugly. I've never seen an English player wipe his ass with a German jersey like Koeman did. I've never seen an English player spit on the hair of a German player like Rijkaard did, and there are several other stories when it comes to the German-Dutch football rivalry. 1974, 1988, 1990 all important games that were full of that kind of stuff. It obviously isn't as hateful anymore as it was back then, but people remember that.
The Dutch have always been butthurt when playing germany... It seems like it was one way traffic and the Germans just beat them anyway
I guess you are too young to remember 1988... but I think you can also count Euro 2004 when Holland qualified from the group at Germany's expense.