I'm going for the Portugal win this year. I see potential in it... The italian team could pull it off,but this is the year that they will have "zero" luck....and all kinds of effort. Other favorite to me seems Germany...but some reson, I don't see them keeping it together for the final game. Guess we will find out soon enough.
The heart is there more than anything, you can see it when they play, that's the difference....the passion on the field is usually what gives you the edge. Italy seems to have it too for the first time in ages.
Italy and Portugal will only win 1st place in 'most tatoos' category.....I'm putting my money on Germany or Spain. Would be nice to see an upset win by Russia or Croatia though, they have alot of heart and strength.
http://i.minus.com/ic8qpVI6n4Fk9.gif It was a perfect time to bring out my Welbeck jersey last night.
Germany has a shot, Spain is done....they are yesterday's news. Russia and Croatia aren't going anywhere unless it's fixed
Terrible way for England to loose but it was by far the best game of the tournament. Now if only Italy can play like that for the rest... I was one of only 5 people wearing an Italian jersey in a British pub....don't know how I made it out alive....
did we watch the same game? That was boring, and slow paced....bad way for England to lose, but ,lets face it, Italy was the better team in this entire game. If Italy play against germany the same way as today, they will lose. The game to see is weds Spain and Portugal. I see the Portugal victory here, And then at the final. I see a Germany Portugal final.
Boring? Seriously? It was an exciting match dude. There could have easily been 5 or 6 goals. Maybe it was the danger of me being in a bar full of drunk Brits...
Definetly more of a game for a real football connaisseur than the average (I-only-watch-euro-&-world-cup) type of fan to appreciate this one. Italy seemed to dominate all aspects for a full 120 minutes. Italy deserved this game hands down and it's too bad penalty kicks had to be the deciding factor. An in-game goal would have been better. Not sure why England was so short on ideas today, especially in overtime with a team that seems to be more physically fit than italy...
Italy having possession 62% of the time and all 35 shots on goal were from the centre line..with the English wall of 7 players back,and Italy doing the exact same play 33 times...I classifie as boring but hey, if you guys found it exciting...thats great.
It was a beautiful lesson italy gave the english today. I don't care where the shots were from but 35 shots is something you see at a hockey game. That being said, italy was a little predictable and kept going in the middle when they could have gone on the sides a little more. That contributed to them not scoring despite totally dominating the game. England was also pretty spectacular at blocking shots today... Not a boring game at all...not sure what you watched but today was a nail-bitter and one of the best 0-0 game ever.
I wouldn't go as far to say Italy gave England a lesson. If anything, Italy should have learned the lesson. Taking 35 shots from 200 meters out will not win you a game. They could have easily lost with that type of performance. Playing like this on Thursday against Germany will not yield the same outcome for sure. The only reason it was a nail biter was because they couldn't get past the English defense, using the exact same play over, and over, and over.As i said, glad you guys enjoyed, I thought it was a boring game.
Agreed - what a match...I'm an Azzurri fan, and I never felt it was in the bag. Credit to England, their counter attacks weren't always pretty, but never far from accomplishing their intent.
One team had the ball the whole time while the other just looked at them almost in awe...800 completed passes vs. 300 for England. It was indeed a lesson...too bad Italy screwed up on too many chances...especially Balotelli and DeRossi.
