Italy NT haters please report here!

[K. Nader]

The Germans made a tactical blunder by playing too forward early and forgot defence altogether. They should have played with caution and tried to win it late. I am also very mad at this useless goal keeper Neuer... he is just too easy to beat.

But it's been something like this usually going back decades, before Spain became an important team since 2008: Italy beats Germany, Germany beats Argentina, and Argentina beats Italy.

I definitely agree with this. A few points:

We should have started Reus, Klose, and Muller from the beginning of the match. Why?

- Klose is more of a 'work-horse' than Gomez is and is willing to move into the opening to receive the pass. With Gomez, you have to find him and make sure to give him the perfect pass as it's unlikely that he'll be running around much. When you have two men marking you and your not willing to hustle and rather choose to remain stationary, it's unlikely that you'll get a chance to score. Ozil and Klose are definitely a much stronger combination in the sense that they are able to 'connect' on plays.

- Every coach will always have a soft spot for a certain player - regardless of how poorly that individual plays, he'll still be selected to the starting XI. In Low's case, that player is Podolski. Don't get wrong, Podolski has been one of the most consistent players for the German NT in the past but this wasn't to be his tournament. Perhaps it's the fact that he was pulled back to a more midfield position in Low's 4-2-3-1 system whereas in the past he was always paired up front with Klose. Regardless, there were very few German attacks coming from the left until Reus came in and brought some pace and creativity.

- The Muller/Kroos starting XI switch is slightly more understandable than the others. If you noticed, Germany employed a 4-3-3 system today rather than their 4-2-3-1 system. Given their offensive approach, they wanted to use a slightly more defensive Kroos to mark Pirlo - especially considering that Ozil rarely gets back to play defence. Unfortunately, by the time Italy were up 2 - 0, there no real need for Kroos.

Overall, I still that this German side is the strongest in the world right now and has the strongest 23-man squad. The fact that they entered this championship as the youngest team and managed to play some of the most attractive football speaks volumes of what they're capable of come the 2014 World Cup. Unfortunately, they went for too much too early against Italy and that cost them the match (and the tournament). Had Germany slowed down after their initial 15 minute onslaught, they could have controlled the match while tiring the Italians who had 48 hours less to rest than the Germans. I honestly thought that this would be one of those games that would end 1 - 0 due to a late German goal but I guess Germany was overly ambitious today.

[persiangodfather]

haters gonna hate nothing you can do

[EKBATAN]

I watched the replay last night, please go back and watch each goal from like a min. before it and see what happened that let up to the goal. Just pure amazingness......spain and germany could learn a thing or two from italy

[palangheTM]

Italy NT haters please report to super mario!

[EKBATAN]

Italy NT haters please report to super mario!

as great as he is, it was a TEAM effort....he didnt create those goals himself, like i said go back and watch the game to see how beautifully he was set up.

[KeonKish]

as great as he is, it was a TEAM effort....he didnt create those goals himself, like i said go back and watch the game to see how beautifully he was set up.

Cassano and Pirlo have been italy's stars in my opinion. Cassano is such a pain in the a$$ to any team he plays. He's smart, Fast, and uses very unique moves which throw the opponents off.
And Pirlo.... Well he's just pirlo. He knocks up balls in the air like it's no big deal and they somehow always manage to land in a SUPER dangerous place.
I am very curious to what formation spain will use to attempt to shatter this combo.

[Adesor Vafaseya]

as great as he is, it was a TEAM effort....he didnt create those goals himself, like i said go back and watch the game to see how beautifully he was set up.

would that also apply to another footballer of Iranian origin, who is retired now and goes by the surname D.?

[JaanevarAjeeb]

Italy did play a better game against Germany. Germany suffered from overconfidence, which may be expected given that they topped the Group of Death undefeated, and destroyed Greece in the manner that they did.

However, I think if it weren't for Loew's tactical mistakes, the difference between the two teams would not have been so pronounced. First of all, I'm not sure about the triangular mid-fw formation against Italy, as well as playing 3 holding midfielders in Kroos (he is a defensive mid), Khedeira, and Schweinsteiger. Honestly, after the disastrous display against Greece, I really don't understand the insistence of playing Schweinsteiger instead of Reuss or Goetze for that matter. Boateng was also an absolute disaster, as he was against Greece.

People do have to give it up for Italy's performance as well as Balotelli's sharpness in converting chances provided by Cassano and Pirlo- yes, they were great passes, but we have all seen Ronaldo, Rooney, and the like being set up just as well, but not converting.. Again, preparation wise as well as tactically, Germany had an off game, which is unacceptable in tournament mode. However, to make this result an overarching statement that Italy is much better than Germany is also wrong. We all saw how Germany played against Portugal, Holland, and Denmark and how they scored 3 goals after an equalizer against a pesky Greece team that played similarly to 2004- would Italy have played identically against these teams? It is hard to say. Congrats to Italy and Italy fans as they did play attractive and attacking football, but we shall see how they play against Spain. I really hate to watch another deadlock PK final, and most of us are anticipating this kind of final...

[KeonKish]

would that also apply to another footballer of Iranian origin, who is retired now and goes by the surname D.?

Nobody in asia was comparable to Daei.
Balotelli is an average european national team striker. ( which means he's pretty good)
You can't compare.
Yes I Agree that daei is over worshipped but he had a harder task than a man on a european team.

[JaanevarAjeeb]

would that also apply to another footballer of Iranian origin, who is retired now and goes by the surname D.?

Who was it that setup Azizi for our qualification? Who was it that provided the assist for Kia's goal against the USA? Who's presence usually distracted the opponent's defensive line for golden opportunities that others converted? Charand nagoo

[Adesor Vafaseya]

Who was it that setup Azizi for our qualification? Who was it that provided the assist for Kia's goal against the USA? Who's presence usually distracted the opponent's defensive line for golden opportunities that others converted? Charand nagoo

avvalandesh Moadab bash Aghayeh Janevareh Ajeeb.
dovomandesh, there is one answer to your questions: TEAM WORK!
same applys to all the goals Daei scored and Azizi assisted him numerous times in AC96 = Team Work!

hope now ther is no more "CHARAND" to be understood!

[dokhtar92irooni]

I hope no one shoots me for saying this but I don't get what's so special about Ronaldo I find him to be very overrated. I didn't see one satisfying performance by him in the Euro and only saw him miss a million of good chances I don't get how he's one of the best in the world while someone like Balotelli beatifully converts those two golden chances and doesn't get half as much attention

[KeonKish]

I hope no one shoots me for saying this but I don't get what's so special about Ronaldo I find him to be very overrated. I didn't see one satisfying performance by him in the Euro and only saw him miss a million of good chances I don't get how he's one of the best in the world while someone like Balotelli beatifully converts those two golden chances and doesn't get half as much attention

Ronaldo is over rated. But his specialty is not straight up striking, his specialty is his extremely dangerous and soft touch on the ball. As a striker ballotelli is more of a "daei" type. He will also improve with age , he is still very immature.

[NFL]

Reporting as requested.
Fu#ck Italy.

[KeonKish]

Reporting as requested.
Fu#ck Italy.

GIFSoup

umad?