On July 02 2016 08:04 GTR wrote: with portugal looking very unconvincing so far i wouldn't be surprised at all if wales makes it to the final
Portugal gets a lot of criticism, most of it over the top. I guess they aren't a well-liked team lol.
Let's be honest, they dominated every group stage game, and were unlucky not to win one (and as it turns out, Iceland weren't pushovers).
They showed that they can defeat a superior team in Croatia, one of the most impressive teams of the tournament, exhibiting more tactical prowess in one game than eternal dark horse Belgium did over the last few years.
If Ronaldo would have taken one of his chances against Poland, which he would have on any other day, that would have been a fair win against a tough opponent.
Also Portugal is not a one man team, that's just not fair to say. They have better team work than many other sides and Pepe (I?) and Renato Sanches showed very good individual performances in the quarter finale, for example, while Ronaldo wasn't really carrying the team every game.
Definitely Portugal have looked decent in the knockout stages. Solid defensively and they have done enough to grind out their chances, which normally Ronaldo would have buried. It has been frustrating to watch though as they just don't seem to mesh as well as they could going forward. Feels like Ronaldo and Nani aren't creating the space or finding each other as often as you would like in a 4-4-2, and the looks they have been giving each other just shows they aren't happy about it either.
Some sites and rumors say that Germany plays with only 3 defenders against Italy, like when they played the last friendly against them and won 4-1. We'll see if that's a good choice. It's pretty likely true considering Löw said he'll change something.
edit: It's true:
No Draxler W T F. Lmao everyone was praising him last game, saying he's locked for the next match and Götze must be sad. Now neither of them play. :D
Löw is gonna get a lot of shit if this backfires. And rightfully so. This is a move that is either genius or stupid. I guess we will see how it plays out
But honestly i thought he learned what happenend when he tried to be clever vs italy :/ please don't let that happen again..
On July 03 2016 03:24 BlackCompany wrote: Löw is gonna get a lot of shit if this backfires. And rightfully so. This is a move that is either genius or stupid. I guess we will see how it plays out
But honestly i thought he learned what happenend when he tried to be clever vs italy :/ please don't let that happen again..
Maybe they think Italy cared about the friendly where Germany won 4-1 and think that was a good formation against Italy. We'll see.
Ok back to the football, Germany vs Italy, you will struggle to find a game bigger than this with two giant footballing nations going head to head for a place in the semi finals. Many side stories to this game, but most notably we have the fact Germany have failed to beat Italy on 4 occasions in knockout football, all the times Italy win, so will it be the same again this time? Will Italy continue being the German Kryptonite or will the Germans led by Low, avenge the past and conquer the Italian defensive masterclass. I see this game as being very close first and foremost, Germany and Italy rarely concede goals, this tournament alone Germany have concede a grand total of 0 and Italy have conceded just the 1 in a game against Ireland where they made many changes to the first 11. This means it will be all about the team that takes their chances when they come as you are imaging their will be few and far between, that brings us to the Germany vs Northern Ireland game, now the similarities here are in the way Northern Ireland defend where they put their bodies on the line throwing themselves in the way of the ball with all their body to stop a shot or block a pass, this is what the Italians are gonna do to the Germans when they come forward, so they are going to need to be on point with their attacking play to grind this side down. However as shown vs Ukraine in matchday 1 and vs Slovakia, the Germans are prone to counter attacks due to how many they commit forward in attacks and how high their defensive line is, this will be exploited by the Italians and again it will come down to whether Italy take their chances. Tough, tough game to predict but have to make a choice based on history here and on what i have seen.