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Spain have been pretty dominant really tonight. They're coasting towards the final - so it's Spain v Germany! The seasoned veterans of major finals against the perrennial underachievers. Time for Spain to finally break their duck for the first time since 1964?
Spain might miss David Villa, but they've still got far too much quality in the final third to fall short against Germany. The only argument I can make against Spain is the psychological element of having underachieved for so many years, but they looked extremely composed against Russia, so I don't think that'll be much of a factor. That's not to say that the result is a foregone conclusion, since anything can happen in a game like this. But Spain have been consistently impressive in the tournament so far, and they're clear favourites for me.
Spain win and it's fully deserved really. I wrote them off at the start of the tournament and I was wrong this time. Aside from a bright start and a brief period around 60-70 minutes Germany were desperately short of ideas tonight and as someone who loves great defences their defence has been painful to watch today. Against Turkey they made up for it with some good attacking but today Spain had their measure easily.
So well done to Spain - credit to Germany for making the final (not many in the UK will do so to be honest) but the best team won.
Wow, Spain have finally won something. What next, Liverpool winning the league? :D Made up for Fernando Torres. He deserved to hit the winner tonight, and Spain deserved to win both the match and the tournament.
With Spain winning, England and Portugal are now left standing in the 'no major trophies in ages/ever' room XD
England will need a lot of work if they want to just make the quarters and semis in 2010, thanks to the rise of Eastern Europe, like Croatia, Turkey, Russia, et al.
They did. I didn't want them to win, but they deserved to. Everton for the league though!Quote:
Originally Posted by Psychotic
I was really disappointed by Germany who I've been supporting. They really lacked passion and drive in the last two games. No overall quality and just didn't seem to either care so much or be able to live up to the expectations of them, which weren't that unreasonable. It was like watching England play.
It was quite funny though to see the BBC pundits talk about how 'average' Germany are as a team. That statement may bre true in terms on individual ability (Hansen saying they'd been poor through the whole tournament was a load of crap though) but that 'average' team has still made a World Cup final and semi-final and a European Championship final this decade. What does that say about England, BBC pundits?
Heath makes a good post about tonight above.
I wanted Spain to win, so yay for them. My brother is also happy because he had them to win on the sweep at his work, so he won. :jess:
also, I don't think England are going to win anything for years to come unless Capello is a miracle worker. which I hope he is. show us your magic, Fabio. :love:
I didn't think Germany played particularly well this entire tournament, with the exception of the Portugal match. And even then, the Portuguese defence made the German's job really easy.
Whereas Spain have been really good throughout this entire tournament. They had a slightly off day against the Italians, although Italy was playing some anti-football, and Panucci & Chiellini defended really well. Even in the final tonight, they dominated most of the game, and really could have scored 1 or 2 more.
So, I think Spain deserve their win. I was slightly biased towards them coming into the game, because they had been playing the more attractive football, but wasn't really bothered, because I was supporting the Russians.
I think England definitely do have the players to do well. It just seems that they get stage-fright whenever they play. What I also find is that there tends to be very little movement off the ball, which Mr Capello must get sorted. If England want to do well, they can no longer play long-ball rubbish. They need to play a good passing game (like the Spanish did tonight), and that means that the players off the ball need to be looking for space constantly. If they can get that sorted, and get themselves more comfortable on the ball, then England could do well. Otherwise, another disappointment.
Oh, and I reckon the Russians are going to do well in 2010.
Congratulations to Spain, who deserved their win tonight and deserved to take the whole tournament too.
And good news for England about the next tournament: UEFA look set to expand the number of teams in the European Championships to 24. We can't possibly fail to qualify now...can we?
Please don't tempt fate. I was actually a little sad when the national anthems were playing that England weren't there. But then I don't really have much of an attachment to the English national team. I support them, but I care more about Everton. Must be something to do with living in Wales!Quote:
Originally Posted by Cz
Actually the expansion to 24 teams might not happen until the 2016 tournament I think.
Ah. Then we can still fail for a little while yet. :up:Quote:
Originally Posted by charliepanayi
Wow, the BBC moderators were idiots. You can tell they definitely enjoy it when Germany goes out. This is one thing I still hate about living in England.