Match thread: EURO 2012 Final : Italy vs. Spain

[EKBATAN]

Some people on Twitter are claiming that Spain's third and forth goal were classless and they shouldn't have scored more.

What do you guys think?

I personally don't agree. This is a competitive sport after all. The point is to score goals and beat the opposition by as much as possible. What was Spain supposed to do? Keep the ball in their own half the rest of the game?

the 3rd goal i would understand but the 4th goal was bs

[JaanevarAjeeb]

Italy tried to do the same thing to Germany, but just couldn't finish- they would have run up the score if they could. This is a competitive sport and a final to top it off.

Also, Prandelli knew that Chiellini and Motta were coming off serious injuries, so he took calculated risks (and failed) by playing them.. You can't really blame Spain for taking advantage of the situation, Italy would have done the same. That being said, Italy played hard and didn't park the bus and for that they earned my respect. I would also say that the first game was pretty even, and if you read the analysts' reports they actually gave the slight edge to Spain in chances and meaningful possession.

Also, Spain is your 2nd team lol so you shouldn't be too upset because they made history in many ways, even though it was at Italy's expense. I just don't want to see a WC repeat, because that would be a bit much. If Argentina can employ the same playing style as Spain, they have a chance, but we all know that Argentina is tactically weak, although individually an all-star team..

[EKBATAN]

Italy tried to do the same thing to Germany, but just couldn't finish- they would have run up the score if they could. This is a competitive sport and a final to top it off.

Also, Prandelli knew that Chiellini and Motta were coming off serious injuries, so he took calculated risks (and failed) by playing them.. You can't really blame Spain for taking advantage of the situation, Italy would have done the same. That being said, Italy played hard and didn't park the bus and for that they earned my respect. I would also say that the first game was pretty even, and if you read the analysts' reports they actually gave the slight edge to Spain in chances and meaningful possession.

Also, Spain is your 2nd team lol so you shouldn't be too upset because they made history in many ways, even though it was at Italy's expense. I just don't want to see a WC repeat, because that would be a bit much. If Argentina can employ the same playing style as Spain, they have a chance, but we all know that Argentina is tactically weak, although individually an all-star team..

to answer the highlighted part, running up a scoreline on an evenly matched game is fair....but Spain knew italy was done....and like i said the 3rd would be fine cuz u wanna put the nail in the coffin...2-0 lead is not a good cushion so yes u should always go for the 3rd in a 2-0 game...cuz all it takes is 1 goal and they're back in it.....but again thats in a fair match up where both teams have enough players...


spain is my 2nd team but i have been disappointed in their style lately...its the same as whats happening in la liga with real and barca, they like to beat up on helpless teams but when they play good opposition, they keep a 1-0 score line and just pass the ball around. In 2008 and 2010 they were a little better, more entertaining, now they're just repeating the same stuff and it doesnt always work, like how they couldnt beat portugal or italy in the first match...or even croatia, they barely scored at the end (which was sort of off-side anyway) but this same team, take a few of their good ones like xavi and iniesta and they are nothing. Where as teams like italy, germany, holland, brazil have a certain style they can play with various players.

[JaanevarAjeeb]

I agree with you for the most part, but you have to admit that it is unique for a team to get results with a 4-6-0 formation (no natural strikers). If you remember the last WC, Spain scraped through 1-0 the whole tourney, excluding the first game loss to Switzerland. That has been their style throughout their reign. In this tournament, they have had games with multiple goals and I really enjoyed watching Jordi Alba (yes, he will be Barca's to compensate for Dani Alvez deflecting to the hated ManCity) as well as Fabregas. Jordi cut open the French defense, so technically I should dislike the guy but he is amazing- his runs remind me of our Kia when he was younger. As far as the 3rd and 4th goals, that is what Torres likes to do (like he did to Barca in the CL semi's), and he got the golden boot for the assist to Mata. You have permission to hate Chelsea (Mata and Torres are Chelsea players) but not Spain- I don't think Del Bosque AKA Wimpy instructed them to annihilate Italy, they just took the initiative after being subbed on.

[soniq]

" Fairplay: Spain goalkeeper Casillas asked the ref to end the game earlier out of respect for Italy "

[dokhtar92irooni]

^Captain Casillas what a classy player

[EKBATAN]

I agree with you for the most part, but you have to admit that it is unique for a team to get results with a 4-6-0 formation (no natural strikers). If you remember the last WC, Spain scraped through 1-0 the whole tourney, excluding the first game loss to Switzerland. That has been their style throughout their reign. In this tournament, they have had games with multiple goals and I really enjoyed watching Jordi Alba (yes, he will be Barca's to compensate for Dani Alvez deflecting to the hated ManCity) as well as Fabregas. Jordi cut open the French defense, so technically I should dislike the guy but he is amazing- his runs remind me of our Kia when he was younger. As far as the 3rd and 4th goals, that is what Torres likes to do (like he did to Barca in the CL semi's), and he got the golden boot for the assist to Mata. You have permission to hate Chelsea (Mata and Torres are Chelsea players) but not Spain- I don't think Del Bosque AKA Wimpy instructed them to annihilate Italy, they just took the initiative after being subbed on.

that is where prandelli messed up on.....his first game which italy played much much better and could've (should've) won, they played 3-5-2 so that compensated for spain having 6 midfielders

this game however he switched to 4-4-2 which left italy 4 man mid against 6 of spains' (and some of the best midfielders of the world) so you see why italy was playing so unfair after motta went down, it was basically 2 mids against 1 of italy....there is no way any team can compete with that

whatever dige, im over it....im proud of italy for going this far and this team will be back better under prandelli in 2 years...biggest problem could be pirlo...montolivo is good but no one can replace pirlo...he can still play another 2-3 years but as a full 90 min. player for 7 games in a month...not so sure.....but the likes of rossi, cassano, giovinco, balotelli, nocerino, marchisio, abate are def. the ones to watch in the next few years

[EKBATAN]

and as far as spain being classy....perhaps casillas was somewhat, but not so sure about the coach and the rest. He brought in TWO strikers as subs which means he DID wanna run up the score line and for some player like torres to get a golden boot when he's been the laughing stock for the past 2 years is just beyond ridiculous. So yea it was at expense of italy....they said we have the chance to run up our scoring average, people will talk shit since we scored 8 in 7 games in WC, so lets bang up on a team thats depleated.

Pure class spain, well done!

[Kaveh Ahangar]

Good to see the Iranian-American 'Italian anti-defamation league' working overtime in the International forum.