EURO 2012

Ita was very fkning classy - only thing is there was no way they were losing from 2-0 down but still good (as was much of the 1st SF).

Germany haven't been Germany sine Euro '96, have they? Something sad about that. Their back line was totally exposed.

Cassano and (hate saying this) Mario were awesome...but still Mario has to do it in the final, and he's just as likely to lose his rag and get sent off.

Bosque to drop Silva for the final.

Navas and Llorente to come on at some point.

Jesus Navas coming on at some point is a bold prediction.

lol yes yes ok.

Silva's not been great

Silva/Negredo out, Pedro/Cesc in.

pirlo vs the best midfield in the world is pretty delicious

did we ever agree that the ilf fantasy league winner got final say for the year or anythin

like cristiano ronaldo, i don't want that responsibility.

eh he scored an unmarked header (gk might have done better) and cunted one in, hardly definitive.

The desperation for him to be hailed as a current great makes me want to ronan the shit out of ye tbh

lol... that said let's not forget how many chances he completely fucked up in the england game. he's still a cartoon character, so far away from ruthless.

really hope italy can do it now, spain have taken on a really grim feeling. never hated cesc at arsenal but he has this gurning, whinging, ref-baiting face these days that makes me despise him.

he's turned into an ugly man, i think?

i'm missing the reference unless that's simply a direct slur.

he used to be such a looker though
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CBrg2cTGKFU/Rw_AKNLq1CI/AAAAAAAAAM8/fFDvudb11YU/s400/Fabregas.JPG

no, you have me rightly

it is weird how he has come to represent the cuntish face of that brutally arrogant team. i think pique spitting on the official's head as they were supposed to be celebrating a world cup was a grim watershed. cesc is like the new ronaldo in terms of smug fuck ref whining though. that smiling face and constant shake of the head is horrendous, someone needs to have a word.

Phil Brown tried to warn us...

Say what you like about Fabregas, but at least he wasn't too homophobic to play in England.

But...the manner in which he was dressed!

Germany were disappointing last night, their lack of experience was sorely evident. There were three (I think? Cassano, Pirlo, Buffon) World Cup winners in the Italy team and it showed, they played the game exactly right, and bashed Germany on the counter-attack. Schweinsteiger was totally off-key, when on his day he's an amazingly effectively strings-puller. They didn't seem to know what they were doing. Kind of gutted, as I've really enjoyed watching them pull teams apart.

Cassano isn't a wc winner.

de rossi and barzagli are though.

I don't think Germany's problem last night was lack of experience really, except maybe at the back. On their day they could have beaten Italy, probably comfortably.

tactics seemed wrong. who was meant to be getting at pirlo? ozil? kroos? case of what alan hansen would term "who goes for it? you go for it? i go for it? no one goes for it".

not sure Buffon played with a WC winner's command all night tbf

who was on the right? There was no space made for ozil/khedira to operate in the middle, nobody stretched them

Yeah he fumbled badly two or three times very early on and was lucky there was someone there to clean up after him.

italy didn't look comfortable when balls were whipped into the box (lol buffon almost designed that o.g. earl on), and had no natural full-backs, should've ran at them and put some balls into the mixer, low! easy, bish bash bosh.

Cassano's "I'll win the WC because I was born when we wont it" thing always confuses me (given that they actually did win it when he was about 25, but not in the squad).

In my mind De Rossi is still only about 22, but I'm living in Roma's past there.

xpost - Yeah, that's the point, Jim - Italy didn't look amazing or impenetrable, but Germany didn't have the werewithal to take advantage, and Italy did, and I put that down to experience and big-game temperament.

I actually think Germany screwed up cos they did try to plan for Italy. Went away from their classic shape which BM play and most of Bundesliga and tried to narrow up the midfield. Meant nobody played wide-ish right and Poldi wasn't offering anything left. Of course if they'd played as normal it may have meant the 4 central MFs for Italy dominating anyway but better to go with your usual style I think.

Having said that they hadn't come across 2 CFs as good as Cassano and Balotelli so far in the tourney either.

a lot of the players from that german team played in the world cup semi last time around and the euro 2008 final. they're not lacking experience on the big international stage, especially when compared italy. players who are not experienced in the latter stages of international tournaments who played last night for italy: cassano, balotelli, montolivo, marchisio, thiago motta, diamanti, antonio di natale (played in a euro quarter final).

spain are gonna batter italy. vialli may think that spain won't be able to close pirlo down, but I'll be surprised if he isn't completely neutralised. The german's passed their way through the italian defense too often, and it was only rushed finishing that saved them. I certainly don't think they'll be as effective closing down the spanish as the portugese were. Iniesta's been a POTT, and he hasn't even hit full stride yet.

If Spain play to their full potential they just won't let Pirlo have the ball in the first place.

The german's passed their way through the italian defense too often, and it was only rushed finishing that saved them

italians had the better of the chances though.

Anyway as discussed upthread, current Spanish midfield rollcall of cuntishness - Busquets >> Fabregas > Xavi >>> Silva >>>>> Alonso > Iniesta.

Possibly being a bit harsh on Alonso there.

also we've already seen spain vs italy. admittedly italy using 3-5-2 instead of the diamond. and we saw that italy could compete with them, match them. until they started fading near the end of the 90 minutes though (which might be the key here).

spain are gonna batter italy

They might win, but they won't batter them. I think it will be very close.

forced to predict an italy win by the maths of my work sweepstake. would probably predict 0-0 at 90mins otherwise.

yeah it's gonna be similar to the first Spain - Italy i think except with both sides a little more into their rhythm. think this is a quality match-up of styles.

munich last night

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/417543_10150897424081510_1034356037_n.jpg

Busquets >> Fabregas > Xavi >>> Silva >>>>> Alonso > Iniesta.

busquets is a cunt obviously but he has been quiet this tournament. fabregas has really developed as a cunt since moving to barcelona.

He was always a cunt, even at Arsenal, it was just less noticeable because he spent most of his time doing his sad Victorian orphan face (most recently perfected by one L. Modric).

What's Silva done? That's a lot of >s.

Signed for City. He seems fine but I wanted to patronisingly convey the exalted goodness of Xabi and Iniesta.

LOL @ Arsenal buying Podolski.

spain are gonna batter italy

Man, I want Italy to win so much, it's like 2006 all over again!

All this Spain hate makes me sad.

He was always a cunt, even at Arsenal, it was just less noticeable

I think people started swaying towards the cunt view following the Hull City spitting and sneering and wearing a squinty leather jacket thing. Then the will he/won't he go to Barca thing and I can't remember what other shit - but it's been a growing viewpoint for almost three seasons.

i wanted spain to lose because i promised myself when they won the world cup 2 years ago that i'd stick a tenner on them every other week to win this thing and kind of never got round to it apart from the first tenner. i'm ambivalent about this final now.

I kinda want them to break the three-tournaments-in-a-row record actually.

The playing without a forward thing is the deal breaker for me tbh