Germany needs to find decent strikers in 2 years, then everything will be fine for them. They already have tons of new talent youngsters in other positions but have no decent young strikers at all.
@congthanhgiong Sane, Werner, Brandt are some options that still are yet to find their best position, can see one of them being worldclass in a few years time.
@Kendev- Brandt and Sane are probably best as wide men of a front 3 or of a 3 behind the striker. Both are well behind Draxler and Bellarabi in development (both of whom should be regulars for Germany imo) but are ones to look at for Euro 2020. Werner is not really the type of striker Germany need with Oezil, Kroos, Guendogan, Draxler and Bellarabi as the supporting 5. He is more of a scoring #10. They actually need somebody like Davie Selke, as I mentioned below. He is big, strong, can hold the ball up and has scored goals at every age group for Germany. Once he fills out (still a slender 21-year old), he will be the perfect foil for all Germany's creative midfielders. RB Leipzig are in the Bundesliga next season so we should see how both Werner and Selke do. My guess is one season and Selke signs for a bigger team.
This game in a nutshell: Germany played a beautiful dynamic football with great combinations but they couldn't score and made 2 huge mistakes that costed them the match.
Germany was the best team so far but had to overcome a lot of obstacles during the tournament. France was a good team too but under normal circumstances Germany would have beat them. Gomez, Hummels and Khedira out for the game, than the injury of Boateng during the second half. At half time it should have been 2-0 but destiny strikes again and Schweinsteiger causes the second penalty against Germany through hand ball. Than the slap stick goal that leads to the 2-0! Höwedes plays a ball sideways ! in the penalty area to Kimmich, which Hummels would have never done.
Özil, Kroos, Boateng, Hummels, Gomez, Kimmich ( except for his bad first touch that lead to the goal ) and also Draxler played a very good tournament. But some key players such as Götze, Müller, Schürrle, Schweinsteiger were totally out of shape. Despite of that Germany still managed to concede only one goal out of open play situations in 6 games and were also offensively the better team in almost every game .
@neumi17- Schweini was your best player last night. The penalty could've gone either way. Boateng had a poor tournament and continues to be the emperor's new clothes of CBs. Germany never missed Khedira or Boateng when he went off- Mustafi is actually a better defender. Hummels and Gomez definitely huge misses as I indicated before the game. Poland were better than Germany offensively in the group stages though. More cut to their play which Milik prevented being a Polish win. Germany definitely had the better general play once Gomez was brought into the team though and you probably would've won the Euros had he stayed fit. Loew isn't good enough to be German national team manager. From the initial squad to the first 2 games playing Goetze as a false 9 to not valuing wide players who can beat a man and create chances from out wide etc. He should be replaced & Germany need to look to develop their young #9s. Having no striker in this team is like putting sponge on the end of a spear.
@SteveHyland In Germany it is not seen that he had a poor tournament. In fact he get praised everywhere for his good defending and especially for his capabilities to build up the game. He had maybe two or three bad situations in the entire tournament but saved countless dangerous attacks with his solid defending.
@neumi17- I'm not surprised, which is why I refer to him as the emperor's new clothes of CBs. One day the footballing community will realise he is the weak link in both Bayern and Germany's defence then retrospectively notice how many game losing/drawing errors he has made from absolutely nowhere- even last night, the best chance for either team (Giroud's) was from a Boateng error. The chance only came about through his failure to win the ball in the air. Good defenders (Godin, Bonucci, Barzagli, Kompany) don't misjudge those. Add that to the penalty against Italy, another unforced error out of nowhere, his performance against Poland where he was at fault for BOTH Milik's chances being presented to him and you have 3 games which he could've been directly responsible for Germany losing. No better than we get from Cahill and in England we see him as a poor defender. It's just that Boateng has pace so can often make up for some of his positional errors a la Ramos/Thiago Silva.
Cont... The penalty was soft but I have sympathy with the referees because it did stop Evra getting a clean head on the ball so what do they do? There has to be a middle ground between penalty and no penalty for the challenges/incidents which clearly prevent a chance but aren't intentional. My vote would be for an indirect free-kick at the spot of the foul. A compromise which I'm sure managers of both teams would deem as fair. I don't think it changed the game as far as the run of play was concerned. Come the 2nd half, Germany were still the dominant team and struggled to create genuine chances, but it did make up the minds of Deschamps' men that they were going to play minutes 46-90 as they did minutes 11-45. I was pleased to see Schweinsteiger playing like his old self. Injuries have taken their toll but you never lose your ability. He wont be at the 2018 world cup but Bastian has been a large part of Germany's success and will be Germany manager one day, I'm sure.
@SteveHyland I'd definitely like limitations to penalties, for the sake of everyone. The punishment has to be proportionate to the crime. On the foul in question, the probability of scoring was very low. For the sake of argument, I'd estimate it at less than 0.05. But the referee punishes the foul with a penalty that leads to a goal with a probability of about 0.85. That doesn't make sense.
I said below I thought France would win 1 or 2-0 and ultimately was right. I also thought, but didn't say Germany would dominate (kind of obvious they would though, surely?). At the risk of overblowing my own trumpet, I also said Gomez was irreplaceable within this squad and I think I was proved right. Had he been playing for Germany, I'm almost certain they would've gone a goal ahead during their biggest spell of dominance in the first half. Just sticking a true #9 in the middle for the creative midfielders to play off makes them twice the team. Although they weren't slow or ponderous tonight, they were predictable and largely innocuous. Their best chances came from good old fashioned crosses into the box mixed with speculative efforts. Very un-German like post-Euro 2000 debacle. Koscielny, I thought, had an outstanding game. Pogba was poor, especially so given news of a £100m deal with Man Utd has been announced. £100m?! .......
@SteveHyland But you did see that they were the better team tonight and had 11-3 shots at the 65 th minute, yes ? I also assume you saw that France was hiding almost the entire time and was scared shitless despite having technical really good players ! If you complain about to little scoring chances for Germany you probably realize that France had NONE in between the 6 th minute and the end of the game. Both goals came after severe mistakes of Germany ! France would have never scored otherwise. So as much as I agree with you that we miss somebody who can score goals I totally disagree with your general analysis.Germany was better in all aspects of the game except finishing. With Griezmann and no penalty we would have won 3-0. Giroud was poor as usual against german teams, slow, immobile and technical limited .
@neumi17- Not sure hat there is to disagree with. I never even intimated France were the better team but then Germany didn't deserve to win either. Some of the players, the mouthy ones like Neuer, have claimed the loss was "unfair" but how many GENUINE goal-scoring chances did Germany create? None. Giroud's chance which Hoewedes got back to block was the best chance from either team the whole night. It's not enough to say "we dominated so we deserve to win". If you don't create any goal-scoring chances, you don't deserve to win, even if you have 99% of the ball. That is just the cold hard truth. Football doesn't reward possession or good general play in the first 2 thirds of the pitch. In the end, 2 errors won the game for France but had no errors been made, it would've been 0-0 after extra time. It wasn't a case of Germany missing good chances, it was a case of Germany not creating any and I'm not sure what you saw to indicate anything to the contrary.
@SteveHyland Yes, I agree that possession doesn't equal creative play but especially in the first half I counted a few good scoring chances for Germany, how come you didn't see them? In general Germany has worsen his ability to create a lot of opportunities through fast, flat combinations and wall passes on the ground and switched to more static crosses and shots from distance but still there were enough chances to score a goal. Müller and Can had both good opportunities in the first half, Kimmich hit the post...
@neumi17- It ultimately depends on how you define "Genuine" goal-scoring opportunities. Can's scuffed effort on his opposite foot, a speculative efforts from Kimmich & Schweinsteiger- which go in 5% of the time and a half chance for Mueller don't equal genuine chances in my book- even if they go in. They are the cherry on top goals which Arsenal create 5 of per game against most teams. If you create loads of chances and only score through those type of efforts, you can think "Well, we deserved it because we created loads" and I'd agree. However, when those are your BEST chances, it's clear you haven't created much. In the 2nd half, there were a few half-chances created from crosses into the box a la early-1960s football. It would've been different had Gomez been there but he wasn't and I don't think many non-Germans would believe Germany were really hard done by, even if France's performance on it's own didn't warrant a win.
What is wrong with the stupid penalties? First Boateng against Italy when they were winning and dominating the game at that point, no need at all. Today Germany was dominating the game and was a matter of time til they score the 1st goal but once again an unnecessary hand on the ball, surprisingly by the experienced Schweinsteiger. Why the coach doesn't tie their arms?
@denisgrad yeah Iceland totally dominated the game against Portugal and should have won that 4-1 or 5-1. Good point, very good, I see you can analayze games
@What4 considering the voting we are all united as never before:) I wish, with all my heart, France to have the feeling Portugal had in 2004 after the final
Not the most convincing victory: Germany was outrageously dominating and it's a penalty that changed the pace of the game. Bad for spectacle. That being said, the incapacity of the Germans to finish the plays illustrate the importance of strikers in football. Not having a replacement for Gomez (worse, not starting him at the beginning of the tournament) turned out to be a real problem. You may have the best midfield in the world - outstanding game by Ozil, Kroos, Kimmich - someone has to have the finisher instincts. My arrogant opinion, expressed below before the game, was to insert Podolski alongside Mueller, instead of Can, given that Schweini was able to start. Hindsight is 20/20, but one or two good strikes could have made the difference. Good try to sub in Sane, but it was too late. Anyway, the tournament's over now.
@antonsmith Great analysis but Low could have Prinz Poldi as striker... I know he currently plying his trade as left winger in german nt but using him as striker was not bad idea.
@antonsmith [continued]...at least France deserved their second goal, for sure, but it's much easier to play with a one goal cushion. But Les Bleus must be given credit for having developed much more depth in the forward position (Giroud, Gignan, Griezmann, Martial). When you can afford to ignore Benzema and still have that kind of depth, it's a clear advantage. They still don't have the majestic ball control of the German team, but they have strong players in all positions. It's like the outcome of that game was written in advance... perhaps on the referee's card.
@neumi17 You're right, I could retract that sentence, or at least clarify it. I meant that, at least, French players had to do some kind of work to capitalize on the opportunity for the second goal, and it happened during regular play time. But it's ultimately just a very bad mistake by Germany, and one that would not have happened with the regular defensive lineup. In contrast, scoring on a penalty is not much of an achievement, and I hate to see a match being decided that way. The referee became the man of the match (he truly is), and it shouldn't be. Even if I've finally managed to see one replay where the unintentional hand ball can be spotted, France had been utterly massacred during the entire first half: they looked like a second division team on the field, and I feel that their 1-0 lead at the half was completely undeserved. Had Schweini's hand not touched the ball, I do not believe that this sequence would have led to a goal.
@koziol.mutant Schweinsteiger dangerously passed to Hoewedes into the box. Hoewedes dangerously passed to Kimmich in the box. Kimmich had an unsuccessful touch, losing the ball to Pogba. Mustafi didnt stop Pogba from crossing. Neuer didnt fist the ball away. Schweinsteiger didnt mark Griezman successfully. These are the mistakes that led to the goal.
@koziol.mutant Exactly. Höwedes should have passed to Neuer or clear the ball. Neuer had a hand in that goal but he had to intervene or cross would have come to Giroud.
don't lose guys it is for the best we lost. so we won't carry the tag of favourites team in next year world cup. this just removes pressures on our shoulders. Yeah neuer made horrible attempt to catch/punch hybrid whatever he was doing it just messed it up.
I'm feel bitter about losing to the french team. But I'm know there huge silver lining at the end of the cloud. Congragulations France. I feel bitter but congrats you have good players in your team like Pogba a future ballon dor winner, greizmann and matudi who are definitely match winners as proven today. SIgh.
@Ffaris Yeah, can't win every time. Matuidi has played solid tournament but I wouldn't heap praise one him. Germany made France sit very deep in first half but still Pogba and Matuidi left space in front of defense and looked very uncomfortable. Second half was better but honestly Sagna and Evra deserve more praise for reading of the game.
@Castle yeah evra and sagna played well defensively that is what they were required. I just still believe of the refree who had great game all around allowed both evra and sagna to push and shove draxler all this time. That was just ridiculous.
@koziol.mutant If he doesn't score he looks like a spectator who is allowed to play a bit but looks stupid each time he touches the ball. Worst ball control of all players at the Euro...
@Castle That's right. If two of your defenders, which are one of the best players on that position are out - it's a very tough task. Two errors had took Germany out of the final :/
@wladi83 funny guy klose and podolski are both ethnic germans from area called Silesia-a territory fo germany- that was to Poland as gift by UN. Read history properly kid.
@Ffaris- Podolski isn't ETHNIC German, he is an ethnic Pole. Ethnicity has nothing to do with where you are born, raised etc. If I was born in Japan, I wouldn't be ethnic Japanese but ethnic Anglo-Irish who was born in Japan. In any case, Silesia is still predominately in Poland and the cities where Podolski and Klose were born, Gliwice and Opole respectively, are (as we speak in 2016) well into Poland, nowhere near German Silesia. If you were to go to those cities and say you were in Germany to a local, you would be castrated. Klose, in terms of heritage could be either German or Slavic but Podolski is 100% a Slavic surname. Schneiderlin and Griezmann were at least born in modern-day France so can claim to be geographically French. Podolski has no such claim. It's all politics though and the EU will try their best to make mainland Europe one block of autocratically-governed land with the capital in Belgium. Imagine that football team?! :-o
It was a penalty first in favor of Germany when they seized Draxler in that cross when Schweinsteiger dived...But yeah that's why I wish Germany to face us in the final instad of France...because of the penalty and red card bulls|-|its
Stupid boateng strikes again. He was solely responsible for gifting ze french chance that brilliantly prevented by Benedikt Howedes. God why do I only see his faults alone. He looking shaky against Ukraine only his great clearance saved the day. Then it was poland gifting two great chances to milik who could not convert it and then he made unbeliveable tackle against lewnadowski. Now this slow poke giroud made a total fool out this fool.
God Schweini why do you have to do this. Giving away penalty. There was no reason to do that. Even after we dominating the game. Plus why was Schweini so busy pulling along Pogba with him. If he didn't do that he could have connected Toni Kross corner quite easily. Damn it nothing is going well for us.
The game is not lost yet come guys lets do this.
Draxler the worst german player on the pitch! totally invisable and hiding. If he gets the ball he screws up.
You can always tell with Draxler, if the first two scenes are good he is gonna make a great game. If they are bad you can forge about him the next 84 minutes...
It's tough to bet against France at home, but look who they are playing. France must press their advantage in attacking speed if they are to have a chance. I think Germany will try to monopolize possession, while France will try to press high. Germany 2, France 1....but no result would shock me here.
Latest changes to the starting line up. Emre Can where you've put Kroos. Kroos where you've put Ozil. Ozil on the right wing where you've put Gotze. Gotze not in the starting line up. France squad is fine. Hope this helps.
I will have to give the edge to Germany! The france team played so far only against second rated teams and showed diffculties to overcome these!
Germany 2 -1 France
@What4 France better offensively? Oh yes because they scored 5 goals against a tired Iceland who played all the matches so far with the same players. But what about the all other matches of the tournament? Difficult to beat Romania, difficult to beat Albania, 0-0 against Switzerland, A lot of difficult to beat Republic of Ireland. But people think that the team who scored more goals most recently are the better team lol like Belgium 4-0 Hungary and then got raped by Wales
@hellreaper Oh yeah, you're right. It's not like Germany don't have a striker, and that Muller and Gotze are out of form. It's not like France have some of the best attackers in the competition, like Giroud, Payet, and Griezmann. And please don't use that word to describe a football match.
Im not sure France can score 3 goals past this Germany side and alot of stats of France players are from the Iceland game!
I do hope France wont do a Brazil because this German side have no superstars in their team but they function as a unit and move the ball better than any side out there. I believe both teams will score and the battle will be won in midfield! Schweinsteiger/Kroos vs Matuidi/Pogba! Ozil vs Griezmann! Good luck!
3-4-3 is the best plan for germany
with emre can , sane ,mustafi ,howdes and draxler
without muller
in the second half , mustafi is out and muller is in
to play with 4-2-3-1 as a plan
muller become striker ^_^
@zeinalzein lol, "German" squad - Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi, Emre Can. But yeah, from the other side "French" team is the most French thing in the world:)
If French Defence will not Germans through after 90 Minutes, French will beat the record from the WWII !!! 1-1 or 2-1 to either team is the likely outcome. If overtime then Penalty win for Ze Germans
Completely disagree with the prediction, where should the three France goals come from? Germany haven't conceded from open play yet and Schweinsteiger playing for Khedira won't exactly weaken their midfield whilst Höwedes put in a brilliant performance vs Italy, it's just the build up play Hummels has over him. I'm pretty sure this will be a close encounter with bags of individual attacking talent on the French side trying to make up for a rather shaky defense and a defensively solid German Mannschaft with great possession play, but without a clinical finisher up front (Sané is an option if the slow Rami starts for France again I heard).
I fancy France. Germany are without their only reliable defender, their first and possibly second choice DMs and their only striker. Hummels is semi-replaceable, Hoewedes is capable and more positionally aware than Boateng so less likely to cause game drawing/losing errors at least. Can will probably come in for Khedira/Schweinsteiger since playing Weigl in a match this big is a risk at 20 years old and with only 1 cap to his name- Can at least has some competitive international experience. Gomez, however, is irreplaceable within this squad. Germany with a false 9, especially if it's Goetze, look ponderous, predictable and largely innocuous. I don't see where, barring individual defensive errors, Germany will be able to open France up on a regular occasion. Oezil provides chances a plenty but Goetze is never in the correct positions, positions which Gomez naturally inhabits. There isn't a single player in the German squad who can make the same instinctive runs so 1 or 2-0 France.
@SteveHyland Schweinsteiger is gonna play along with Kroos. And up front it will be hopefully Müller supported be Draxler - Özil - Sané. Looks fine to me, two 1vs1 players plus Özil as the expert for key passes are providing enough chances for Müller who saved his goals for the important games... ;-)
@SteveHyland Loew has announced that Schweinsteiger has fully recovered and will start the game, which solves one of the problem mentioned. Mind you, Weigl would fit very well in that team with a focus on ball possession, and I would have liked to see this. The younger players - Kimmich and Draxler in particular - are those who impressed me the most with their skills and composure so far in the tournament, perhaps of all the teams I've seen. I agree that a striker is badly missing, but inserting Podolski alongside Mueller would solve the issue in part, IMHAO. Say what you will about his club tenure, he's always performed on the international stage and he likes to shoot. Your prognostic sounds grim; for my part, I hope that Germany will cause an upset!
@Drifter I was one of the users who voted for that. And I also know it won't happen because that is a very rare result and the other team needs to give up playing and have lack of defensive tatics, which is hard to happen against European nations. But it was just to show my anger against France xD
@hellreaper You must be really angry now :( Oh well, Germany didn't have a typical striker. Two of their best defenders were out too and Neuer made an error.
Josh Wright is getting silly day by day he predicted just now wales would beat portugal by goals-whereas it was the oppostie case. Now he is predicting to france win by 3 goals. Considering they have not convincing against any team that is not named Iceland? France surely a very good team but saying they beat Germany so easily quite insult to intelligence. Come Joshua I know you came right with Belgium predicition but don't try to make stupid prediction an easy victory for france. Surely they can beat germany but not by easily. Quite frankly were the better team that had chance of eliminating germany. Plus france does not winger like ribbery now. They are relying on number 10 player once again for as winger last time it was Valbuena now its Payet good player but could not provide same penetration as Ben Arfa or Ribbery would. Plus griezmann is great player. But he does offer similar quality of those aforementioned duo. Only Coman has that ability to beat player 1on1.
@neumi17 with all due respect Griezmann is German. He is no doubt from a place called Alscale Lorriane that was never a part of france. Reus I think is good at 1vs1 player I don't think he is showing that tuchel. His 1vs1 quite evident during klopp era and especially at Borussia Mochengladbach.
Coman problem is he is too one dimensional hence he can only limited impact. I'm not saying in any france is bad team and germany is good team just saying Josh Wright must out of his mind to predict Germany would lose so much easily that is my basic problem with this prediction.
@neumi17 Someone disliked your comment because you stated a fact. Poor French guys! All they can do is talking sh|t about Portugal and creat fake news about Renato Sanches's age...
@hellreaper Portugal fans also disliked my video where Modrić was stomped by Sanches. Some people can't appreciate anything, not even a good comment. That's why I don't worry about that sort of thing :)
I didn`t like Löws defensiv tactics against Italy even though it somehow worked out but more on luck actually if we are honest. He rather shut down his offense than to concede a goal. Now it has come through to the media that he wants to do a simalar thing against France ! He wants to play again with a 3 men defence system and only 3 offensiv minded players ( Draxler, Özil, Müller ). I don´t think it is good to play like this as the world champion ! France is very good offensivly, I know. Yet you also should contribute creative and dangerous play to threaten your opponent and keepm him busy than to act like Portugal. Germany should focus on a good attack as well as on good defensiv play against france ! Out of the 5 games Germany only convinced twice offensivly ! Actually only ones since they couldn`t convert their chances against Northern Ireland. A wothy winner of the Europa Cup must have a good offensiv game too, otherwise the title loses lots of its meaning ...
There is an interesting fact to look at. Each time Germany was world champion they reached the finals in the following European Cup. Also each time they eliminated the current host of Euro Cup but always lost in the final than !
In 1976 they beat Yuguslavia in their country in the semi finals but than lost to Czechoslovakia in the finals. In 1992 they beat Sweden in the semis only to lose against Denmark in the final game. Of course it is only trivia but fun fact to think about ... ;-) Hope this time Germany can overcome the curse as they did with Italy .
I think it will be a very good game as both teams have alot of talent and will probably want to kill off the tie within 90 minutes. Germany will control the game and invite France to come out! Kroos and Ozil atm are very dangerous and can split any defense in a blink and the full backs in Kimich and Hector were very good against Italy! Expecting this game to be won in midfield and Germany to edge it!
@Blankokredite You get down voted because you think that France will win but a score of 3 -1 is maybe too high ? Oh lord, what a bunch of imbecile are running around here ...
"Germany were dissapointing against Italy" Since when does everyone expect teams to beat Italy 4-0? Even Spain couldn't do anything.
France weren't impressive and suddenly when they beat (a weak) Iceland 5-2 and they are favorite?
great prediction 1:3 for france o_O
especially if you see the last match at the world cup and the conceded goals of germany in the whole tournament (one - against italy - own fault from Boateng)
Khedira did a solid performance but he didnt had a major impact - so Can or Weigl can replace him quite well
Gomez would be good for flanks but Germany are already used to play shortpasses with a false 9 (or they could play with Mueller)
@benchmark04 Bear in mind though that France were without Kante and Rami, plus the second goal was conceded while Koscielny wasn't on the pitch anymore. Add to that Germany played 30 minutes more which at this level is a lot. Khedira and Schweinsteiger, the two midfield stalwarts are out to and therefore Griezmann & Payet might find it more fun against inexperienced Weigl/Can. All this makes the scenario served in the prediction quite reallistic.
@hindy
well, Germany had 30min more to go but they have 1 more day to recover.
And if Rami comes back, who didnt played very well, the team might be more instable,
especially if he has to play against an small and quick Götze
@hindy France has more star power on the pitch, sure, but I don't think they'd have so much fun against Can or Weigl, if they were to start. Can is a regular in the Premier League and not so easy to pass by, whereas Weigl is another of those ultra-technical youngsters in the German squad (nearly 92% pass accuracy in 2000+ minutes with Dortmund; I don't think any French player ever came close to that). Both teams have their own styles and identity, which makes the match-up exciting. I'm more worried about finishing on the German side, with Gomez out. I still expect France to win against a decimated team, but if they score 3 it would be a disaster for Germany, and for the fans.
This is going to be the best game of the Euro. Too bad there are so many injuries in the German squad. In the absence of Gomez and no Reus in the lineup, I would play Podolski in the striker position, with Draxler-Ozil-Muller behind him. Seems like a good combination of experience and skills.
I'm guessing France will go back to a 4-3-3 with Kante, Pogba and Matuidi in midfield, Sissoko dropping to the bench, and a front three of Payet, Giroud and Griezmann. With three in midfield it's no problem if Griezmann wants to cut inside to play off Giroud.
@What4 That's very possible considering how reluctant Deschamps is to drop Matuidi and it would be too risky to start without Kante against teams like Germany. Pogba and Matuidi can support defense well but probably aren't sharp enough to start in front of defese against Germany's attacking players as a pair. But having played last one and half match with 4-2-3-1 I think they should continue to do that: Kante with Pogba/Matuidi as double pivot and Coman or Sissoko on right side since Griezmann is definitely most dangerous in middle.
@glenbayern I'd guess they think Griezmann may hit Germany on the break when the Germans are chasing, which they have not had to do yet, and expose Höwedes. Big players are missing, and Can doesn't have Khedira's defensive quality. While France haven't been properly tested yet and look defensively patchy, Germany haven't played too well in their toughest games - Poland and Italy.
Antoine Griezmann is the best striker.
@Salek Of France
@Salek Yes and no. He is very good of course but also scored a lot of goals with lots of space around him.
@neumi17 Giroud helps him a lot to get space. He takes the defenders with him and frees Griezmann to do his thing.Great partnership
Germany needs to find decent strikers in 2 years, then everything will be fine for them. They already have tons of new talent youngsters in other positions but have no decent young strikers at all.
@congthanhgiong Sane, Werner, Brandt are some options that still are yet to find their best position, can see one of them being worldclass in a few years time.
@Kendev- Brandt and Sane are probably best as wide men of a front 3 or of a 3 behind the striker. Both are well behind Draxler and Bellarabi in development (both of whom should be regulars for Germany imo) but are ones to look at for Euro 2020. Werner is not really the type of striker Germany need with Oezil, Kroos, Guendogan, Draxler and Bellarabi as the supporting 5. He is more of a scoring #10. They actually need somebody like Davie Selke, as I mentioned below. He is big, strong, can hold the ball up and has scored goals at every age group for Germany. Once he fills out (still a slender 21-year old), he will be the perfect foil for all Germany's creative midfielders. RB Leipzig are in the Bundesliga next season so we should see how both Werner and Selke do. My guess is one season and Selke signs for a bigger team.
@congthanhgiong actually löw want to play without a striker
This game in a nutshell: Germany played a beautiful dynamic football with great combinations but they couldn't score and made 2 huge mistakes that costed them the match.
Good luck to france in the finals ...
Germany was the best team so far but had to overcome a lot of obstacles during the tournament. France was a good team too but under normal circumstances Germany would have beat them. Gomez, Hummels and Khedira out for the game, than the injury of Boateng during the second half. At half time it should have been 2-0 but destiny strikes again and Schweinsteiger causes the second penalty against Germany through hand ball. Than the slap stick goal that leads to the 2-0! Höwedes plays a ball sideways ! in the penalty area to Kimmich, which Hummels would have never done. Özil, Kroos, Boateng, Hummels, Gomez, Kimmich ( except for his bad first touch that lead to the goal ) and also Draxler played a very good tournament. But some key players such as Götze, Müller, Schürrle, Schweinsteiger were totally out of shape. Despite of that Germany still managed to concede only one goal out of open play situations in 6 games and were also offensively the better team in almost every game .
@neumi17- Schweini was your best player last night. The penalty could've gone either way. Boateng had a poor tournament and continues to be the emperor's new clothes of CBs. Germany never missed Khedira or Boateng when he went off- Mustafi is actually a better defender. Hummels and Gomez definitely huge misses as I indicated before the game. Poland were better than Germany offensively in the group stages though. More cut to their play which Milik prevented being a Polish win. Germany definitely had the better general play once Gomez was brought into the team though and you probably would've won the Euros had he stayed fit. Loew isn't good enough to be German national team manager. From the initial squad to the first 2 games playing Goetze as a false 9 to not valuing wide players who can beat a man and create chances from out wide etc. He should be replaced & Germany need to look to develop their young #9s. Having no striker in this team is like putting sponge on the end of a spear.
@SteveHyland In Germany it is not seen that he had a poor tournament. In fact he get praised everywhere for his good defending and especially for his capabilities to build up the game. He had maybe two or three bad situations in the entire tournament but saved countless dangerous attacks with his solid defending.
@neumi17- I'm not surprised, which is why I refer to him as the emperor's new clothes of CBs. One day the footballing community will realise he is the weak link in both Bayern and Germany's defence then retrospectively notice how many game losing/drawing errors he has made from absolutely nowhere- even last night, the best chance for either team (Giroud's) was from a Boateng error. The chance only came about through his failure to win the ball in the air. Good defenders (Godin, Bonucci, Barzagli, Kompany) don't misjudge those. Add that to the penalty against Italy, another unforced error out of nowhere, his performance against Poland where he was at fault for BOTH Milik's chances being presented to him and you have 3 games which he could've been directly responsible for Germany losing. No better than we get from Cahill and in England we see him as a poor defender. It's just that Boateng has pace so can often make up for some of his positional errors a la Ramos/Thiago Silva.
@neumi17 schürrle isnt a key Player! otherwise 100,00% agree.
@wawa You are right, I meant key " substitute " player....
Cont... The penalty was soft but I have sympathy with the referees because it did stop Evra getting a clean head on the ball so what do they do? There has to be a middle ground between penalty and no penalty for the challenges/incidents which clearly prevent a chance but aren't intentional. My vote would be for an indirect free-kick at the spot of the foul. A compromise which I'm sure managers of both teams would deem as fair. I don't think it changed the game as far as the run of play was concerned. Come the 2nd half, Germany were still the dominant team and struggled to create genuine chances, but it did make up the minds of Deschamps' men that they were going to play minutes 46-90 as they did minutes 11-45. I was pleased to see Schweinsteiger playing like his old self. Injuries have taken their toll but you never lose your ability. He wont be at the 2018 world cup but Bastian has been a large part of Germany's success and will be Germany manager one day, I'm sure.
@SteveHyland I'd definitely like limitations to penalties, for the sake of everyone. The punishment has to be proportionate to the crime. On the foul in question, the probability of scoring was very low. For the sake of argument, I'd estimate it at less than 0.05. But the referee punishes the foul with a penalty that leads to a goal with a probability of about 0.85. That doesn't make sense.
I said below I thought France would win 1 or 2-0 and ultimately was right. I also thought, but didn't say Germany would dominate (kind of obvious they would though, surely?). At the risk of overblowing my own trumpet, I also said Gomez was irreplaceable within this squad and I think I was proved right. Had he been playing for Germany, I'm almost certain they would've gone a goal ahead during their biggest spell of dominance in the first half. Just sticking a true #9 in the middle for the creative midfielders to play off makes them twice the team. Although they weren't slow or ponderous tonight, they were predictable and largely innocuous. Their best chances came from good old fashioned crosses into the box mixed with speculative efforts. Very un-German like post-Euro 2000 debacle. Koscielny, I thought, had an outstanding game. Pogba was poor, especially so given news of a £100m deal with Man Utd has been announced. £100m?! .......
@SteveHyland But you did see that they were the better team tonight and had 11-3 shots at the 65 th minute, yes ? I also assume you saw that France was hiding almost the entire time and was scared shitless despite having technical really good players ! If you complain about to little scoring chances for Germany you probably realize that France had NONE in between the 6 th minute and the end of the game. Both goals came after severe mistakes of Germany ! France would have never scored otherwise. So as much as I agree with you that we miss somebody who can score goals I totally disagree with your general analysis.Germany was better in all aspects of the game except finishing. With Griezmann and no penalty we would have won 3-0. Giroud was poor as usual against german teams, slow, immobile and technical limited .
@neumi17- Not sure hat there is to disagree with. I never even intimated France were the better team but then Germany didn't deserve to win either. Some of the players, the mouthy ones like Neuer, have claimed the loss was "unfair" but how many GENUINE goal-scoring chances did Germany create? None. Giroud's chance which Hoewedes got back to block was the best chance from either team the whole night. It's not enough to say "we dominated so we deserve to win". If you don't create any goal-scoring chances, you don't deserve to win, even if you have 99% of the ball. That is just the cold hard truth. Football doesn't reward possession or good general play in the first 2 thirds of the pitch. In the end, 2 errors won the game for France but had no errors been made, it would've been 0-0 after extra time. It wasn't a case of Germany missing good chances, it was a case of Germany not creating any and I'm not sure what you saw to indicate anything to the contrary.
@SteveHyland Yes, I agree that possession doesn't equal creative play but especially in the first half I counted a few good scoring chances for Germany, how come you didn't see them? In general Germany has worsen his ability to create a lot of opportunities through fast, flat combinations and wall passes on the ground and switched to more static crosses and shots from distance but still there were enough chances to score a goal. Müller and Can had both good opportunities in the first half, Kimmich hit the post...
@neumi17- It ultimately depends on how you define "Genuine" goal-scoring opportunities. Can's scuffed effort on his opposite foot, a speculative efforts from Kimmich & Schweinsteiger- which go in 5% of the time and a half chance for Mueller don't equal genuine chances in my book- even if they go in. They are the cherry on top goals which Arsenal create 5 of per game against most teams. If you create loads of chances and only score through those type of efforts, you can think "Well, we deserved it because we created loads" and I'd agree. However, when those are your BEST chances, it's clear you haven't created much. In the 2nd half, there were a few half-chances created from crosses into the box a la early-1960s football. It would've been different had Gomez been there but he wasn't and I don't think many non-Germans would believe Germany were really hard done by, even if France's performance on it's own didn't warrant a win.
wish 2 be a great final !!
What is wrong with the stupid penalties? First Boateng against Italy when they were winning and dominating the game at that point, no need at all. Today Germany was dominating the game and was a matter of time til they score the 1st goal but once again an unnecessary hand on the ball, surprisingly by the experienced Schweinsteiger. Why the coach doesn't tie their arms?
Germany lacked finish! Muller worst German player in these Euros!
Germany gave away 2 poor goals,but France deserves it.I hope they trash portugal
@glenbayern Don't understand the down votes...
Whether you supported France or Germany, we can all unite in wishing France thrash Portugal :)
@What4 Why that anger against Portugal ?
@What4- Yep, and I think they will win. Maybe not thrash but outplay and win by a couple.
@What4 You're right. Portugal shouldnt have even left their group. Iceland is much better than them.
@denisgrad yeah Iceland totally dominated the game against Portugal and should have won that 4-1 or 5-1. Good point, very good, I see you can analayze games
@denisgrad of course not.... Iceland had luck... Look at their games again! France defeated them as it must be
@calelo36 And Portugal didn`t have luck ? Against Hungary ?, against Croatia ?
@neumi17 luck against Hungary? Are you kidding mate? 2 damn deflections and 2conceded goals. You call that luck?
@denisgrad shut up
@What4 considering the voting we are all united as never before:) I wish, with all my heart, France to have the feeling Portugal had in 2004 after the final
I give whoscored a rating of 10/10
Not the most convincing victory: Germany was outrageously dominating and it's a penalty that changed the pace of the game. Bad for spectacle. That being said, the incapacity of the Germans to finish the plays illustrate the importance of strikers in football. Not having a replacement for Gomez (worse, not starting him at the beginning of the tournament) turned out to be a real problem. You may have the best midfield in the world - outstanding game by Ozil, Kroos, Kimmich - someone has to have the finisher instincts. My arrogant opinion, expressed below before the game, was to insert Podolski alongside Mueller, instead of Can, given that Schweini was able to start. Hindsight is 20/20, but one or two good strikes could have made the difference. Good try to sub in Sane, but it was too late. Anyway, the tournament's over now.
@antonsmith Great analysis but Low could have Prinz Poldi as striker... I know he currently plying his trade as left winger in german nt but using him as striker was not bad idea.
@antonsmith [continued]...at least France deserved their second goal, for sure, but it's much easier to play with a one goal cushion. But Les Bleus must be given credit for having developed much more depth in the forward position (Giroud, Gignan, Griezmann, Martial). When you can afford to ignore Benzema and still have that kind of depth, it's a clear advantage. They still don't have the majestic ball control of the German team, but they have strong players in all positions. It's like the outcome of that game was written in advance... perhaps on the referee's card.
@antonsmith Why did france deserve their second goal ? Because of what ? There were totally passive most of the game .
@neumi17 You're right, I could retract that sentence, or at least clarify it. I meant that, at least, French players had to do some kind of work to capitalize on the opportunity for the second goal, and it happened during regular play time. But it's ultimately just a very bad mistake by Germany, and one that would not have happened with the regular defensive lineup. In contrast, scoring on a penalty is not much of an achievement, and I hate to see a match being decided that way. The referee became the man of the match (he truly is), and it shouldn't be. Even if I've finally managed to see one replay where the unintentional hand ball can be spotted, France had been utterly massacred during the entire first half: they looked like a second division team on the field, and I feel that their 1-0 lead at the half was completely undeserved. Had Schweini's hand not touched the ball, I do not believe that this sequence would have led to a goal.
Howedes should have error that lead to goal too, Neuer had an assist but it was Howedes who passed to Pogba
@koziol.mutant No...
@koziol.mutant Schweinsteiger dangerously passed to Hoewedes into the box. Hoewedes dangerously passed to Kimmich in the box. Kimmich had an unsuccessful touch, losing the ball to Pogba. Mustafi didnt stop Pogba from crossing. Neuer didnt fist the ball away. Schweinsteiger didnt mark Griezman successfully. These are the mistakes that led to the goal.
@el_tren Yes!
@koziol.mutant Exactly. Höwedes should have passed to Neuer or clear the ball. Neuer had a hand in that goal but he had to intervene or cross would have come to Giroud.
don't lose guys it is for the best we lost. so we won't carry the tag of favourites team in next year world cup. this just removes pressures on our shoulders. Yeah neuer made horrible attempt to catch/punch hybrid whatever he was doing it just messed it up. I'm feel bitter about losing to the french team. But I'm know there huge silver lining at the end of the cloud. Congragulations France. I feel bitter but congrats you have good players in your team like Pogba a future ballon dor winner, greizmann and matudi who are definitely match winners as proven today. SIgh.
@Ffaris Wisely said, my friend. See you at the next World Cup!
@Ffaris Yeah, can't win every time. Matuidi has played solid tournament but I wouldn't heap praise one him. Germany made France sit very deep in first half but still Pogba and Matuidi left space in front of defense and looked very uncomfortable. Second half was better but honestly Sagna and Evra deserve more praise for reading of the game.
@Castle yeah evra and sagna played well defensively that is what they were required. I just still believe of the refree who had great game all around allowed both evra and sagna to push and shove draxler all this time. That was just ridiculous.
France ll win euro 2016, 3-1 score.
@Lapulga First they need to play against Portugal.
@hellreaper Its a prediction from me.
Muller flop of tournament. Why he started all matches and all minutes?
@koziol.mutant If he doesn't score he looks like a spectator who is allowed to play a bit but looks stupid each time he touches the ball. Worst ball control of all players at the Euro...
Now please win the final France, don't come this far to bottle it in the final like Atlético did in the CL.
Great game so far. But much bad luck to Germany. So many close chances. But i think this is going to finish 2-0 France will park the bus now (85')
France have improved their defending in second half. But things are getting hard for Germany as both ball playing center backs are out.
@Castle That's right. If two of your defenders, which are one of the best players on that position are out - it's a very tough task. Two errors had took Germany out of the final :/
griezmann, schneiderlin, bodmner are all ze germans ;) oh sebestian frey is not german his ancestors are from Luxembourg.
@Ffaris not to mention Klose and Podolski
@wladi83 funny guy klose and podolski are both ethnic germans from area called Silesia-a territory fo germany- that was to Poland as gift by UN. Read history properly kid.
@Ffaris congrats on you knowledge on history. one day you will get a lot of money for those nazi historic books from your grandpa...
@Ffaris- Podolski isn't ETHNIC German, he is an ethnic Pole. Ethnicity has nothing to do with where you are born, raised etc. If I was born in Japan, I wouldn't be ethnic Japanese but ethnic Anglo-Irish who was born in Japan. In any case, Silesia is still predominately in Poland and the cities where Podolski and Klose were born, Gliwice and Opole respectively, are (as we speak in 2016) well into Poland, nowhere near German Silesia. If you were to go to those cities and say you were in Germany to a local, you would be castrated. Klose, in terms of heritage could be either German or Slavic but Podolski is 100% a Slavic surname. Schneiderlin and Griezmann were at least born in modern-day France so can claim to be geographically French. Podolski has no such claim. It's all politics though and the EU will try their best to make mainland Europe one block of autocratically-governed land with the capital in Belgium. Imagine that football team?! :-o
@SteveHyland- I meant "ethnic Slav". The grey area which constitutes the Poland/Ukraine border.
@wladi83 funny guy klose and podolski are both ethnic german from area called silescia that was to pland as gift by UN Read history properly kid.
Giraud is a poor mans Gomez
@neumi17 Giroud*.
@Drifter Yes, Giroud. Poor mans Gomez...
put your hands up in the air ...
It was a penalty first in favor of Germany when they seized Draxler in that cross when Schweinsteiger dived...But yeah that's why I wish Germany to face us in the final instad of France...because of the penalty and red card bulls|-|its
@hellreaper Dislike my balls....France always steal everyone... Ukraine...Portugal everytime and now even dare to rob Germany.
It was a penalty, but so was the French player holding the guy in the box. Either you make both calls, or you make neither.
Lol france no chance much help from the referee
Stupid boateng strikes again. He was solely responsible for gifting ze french chance that brilliantly prevented by Benedikt Howedes. God why do I only see his faults alone. He looking shaky against Ukraine only his great clearance saved the day. Then it was poland gifting two great chances to milik who could not convert it and then he made unbeliveable tackle against lewnadowski. Now this slow poke giroud made a total fool out this fool. God Schweini why do you have to do this. Giving away penalty. There was no reason to do that. Even after we dominating the game. Plus why was Schweini so busy pulling along Pogba with him. If he didn't do that he could have connected Toni Kross corner quite easily. Damn it nothing is going well for us. The game is not lost yet come guys lets do this.
Draxler the worst german player on the pitch! totally invisable and hiding. If he gets the ball he screws up. You can always tell with Draxler, if the first two scenes are good he is gonna make a great game. If they are bad you can forge about him the next 84 minutes...
It's tough to bet against France at home, but look who they are playing. France must press their advantage in attacking speed if they are to have a chance. I think Germany will try to monopolize possession, while France will try to press high. Germany 2, France 1....but no result would shock me here.
Latest changes to the starting line up. Emre Can where you've put Kroos. Kroos where you've put Ozil. Ozil on the right wing where you've put Gotze. Gotze not in the starting line up. France squad is fine. Hope this helps.
Will both team score or will it be like 1-0 to either side or 0-0 ???
2:2
1-0
I will have to give the edge to Germany! The france team played so far only against second rated teams and showed diffculties to overcome these! Germany 2 -1 France
Rami will replace Umtiti, so the sides have similar defensive strength. But France is better offensively, so I give them the edge.
@What4 France better offensively? Oh yes because they scored 5 goals against a tired Iceland who played all the matches so far with the same players. But what about the all other matches of the tournament? Difficult to beat Romania, difficult to beat Albania, 0-0 against Switzerland, A lot of difficult to beat Republic of Ireland. But people think that the team who scored more goals most recently are the better team lol like Belgium 4-0 Hungary and then got raped by Wales
@hellreaper Oh yeah, you're right. It's not like Germany don't have a striker, and that Muller and Gotze are out of form. It's not like France have some of the best attackers in the competition, like Giroud, Payet, and Griezmann. And please don't use that word to describe a football match.
Im not sure France can score 3 goals past this Germany side and alot of stats of France players are from the Iceland game! I do hope France wont do a Brazil because this German side have no superstars in their team but they function as a unit and move the ball better than any side out there. I believe both teams will score and the battle will be won in midfield! Schweinsteiger/Kroos vs Matuidi/Pogba! Ozil vs Griezmann! Good luck!
if two sides dun play too defensively. 2-2
Simeone has made a man out of boy from La Real.
3-4-3 is the best plan for germany with emre can , sane ,mustafi ,howdes and draxler without muller in the second half , mustafi is out and muller is in to play with 4-2-3-1 as a plan muller become striker ^_^
@zeinalzein lol, "German" squad - Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi, Emre Can. But yeah, from the other side "French" team is the most French thing in the world:)
@zeinalzein Can... ??
france win
If French Defence will not Germans through after 90 Minutes, French will beat the record from the WWII !!! 1-1 or 2-1 to either team is the likely outcome. If overtime then Penalty win for Ze Germans
Completely disagree with the prediction, where should the three France goals come from? Germany haven't conceded from open play yet and Schweinsteiger playing for Khedira won't exactly weaken their midfield whilst Höwedes put in a brilliant performance vs Italy, it's just the build up play Hummels has over him. I'm pretty sure this will be a close encounter with bags of individual attacking talent on the French side trying to make up for a rather shaky defense and a defensively solid German Mannschaft with great possession play, but without a clinical finisher up front (Sané is an option if the slow Rami starts for France again I heard).
Germany has proven themselves to be resilient time and time again. Going with a 2-1 win to Germany.
Hmmm 1. Without Hummels,Khedira & Gomez 2. In a bad form: Mülle & Götze 3. Germanyn looong game vs Italy, France easy game vs Island easy 1:0 or 2:0
With no Hummels and Khedira they will be weak as a sponge...France must win this 1-0
I fancy France. Germany are without their only reliable defender, their first and possibly second choice DMs and their only striker. Hummels is semi-replaceable, Hoewedes is capable and more positionally aware than Boateng so less likely to cause game drawing/losing errors at least. Can will probably come in for Khedira/Schweinsteiger since playing Weigl in a match this big is a risk at 20 years old and with only 1 cap to his name- Can at least has some competitive international experience. Gomez, however, is irreplaceable within this squad. Germany with a false 9, especially if it's Goetze, look ponderous, predictable and largely innocuous. I don't see where, barring individual defensive errors, Germany will be able to open France up on a regular occasion. Oezil provides chances a plenty but Goetze is never in the correct positions, positions which Gomez naturally inhabits. There isn't a single player in the German squad who can make the same instinctive runs so 1 or 2-0 France.
@SteveHyland Schweinsteiger is gonna play along with Kroos. And up front it will be hopefully Müller supported be Draxler - Özil - Sané. Looks fine to me, two 1vs1 players plus Özil as the expert for key passes are providing enough chances for Müller who saved his goals for the important games... ;-)
@SteveHyland Loew has announced that Schweinsteiger has fully recovered and will start the game, which solves one of the problem mentioned. Mind you, Weigl would fit very well in that team with a focus on ball possession, and I would have liked to see this. The younger players - Kimmich and Draxler in particular - are those who impressed me the most with their skills and composure so far in the tournament, perhaps of all the teams I've seen. I agree that a striker is badly missing, but inserting Podolski alongside Mueller would solve the issue in part, IMHAO. Say what you will about his club tenure, he's always performed on the international stage and he likes to shoot. Your prognostic sounds grim; for my part, I hope that Germany will cause an upset!
@antonsmith I just hope that Schürrle and Götze won't play in midfield as the biggest german newspaper suggested.
France 3-2 either inside 90 minutes or after 2-2 in ET
One more ( last ) fact ... Germany has played 6 times against the host country in semi finals and has won 6 times. :-)
@neumi17 And Germany never won vs italy in a turnier....
@wawa which they still haven't done...
Who voted for 7-1 for Germany? :D Funny, reeeeeaaaalllyyy funny :D You know that sort of thing doesn't happen twice ;)
@Drifter As a Brazilian, I laughed at first, then I cried lol
@Drifter I was one of the users who voted for that. And I also know it won't happen because that is a very rare result and the other team needs to give up playing and have lack of defensive tatics, which is hard to happen against European nations. But it was just to show my anger against France xD
@hellreaper You must be really angry now :( Oh well, Germany didn't have a typical striker. Two of their best defenders were out too and Neuer made an error.
@hellreaper 7-1 would be hilarious. And awesome.
@antonsmith As it came out - it didn't happen.
2-1 France!!!
@evilawasim Yes, losing only by 2-1 is a great victory for France.
@hellreaper let's c who 'll win!!!talk after the match!!!
@evilawasim ok!!!
Josh Wright is getting silly day by day he predicted just now wales would beat portugal by goals-whereas it was the oppostie case. Now he is predicting to france win by 3 goals. Considering they have not convincing against any team that is not named Iceland? France surely a very good team but saying they beat Germany so easily quite insult to intelligence. Come Joshua I know you came right with Belgium predicition but don't try to make stupid prediction an easy victory for france. Surely they can beat germany but not by easily. Quite frankly were the better team that had chance of eliminating germany. Plus france does not winger like ribbery now. They are relying on number 10 player once again for as winger last time it was Valbuena now its Payet good player but could not provide same penetration as Ben Arfa or Ribbery would. Plus griezmann is great player. But he does offer similar quality of those aforementioned duo. Only Coman has that ability to beat player 1on1.
@Ffaris "Surely they can beat germany but not by easily" agree
@Ffaris Griezmann is the french version of Marco Reus, fast, fragile frame, good shots, great threat to the goal but not 1vs1 player...
@neumi17 with all due respect Griezmann is German. He is no doubt from a place called Alscale Lorriane that was never a part of france. Reus I think is good at 1vs1 player I don't think he is showing that tuchel. His 1vs1 quite evident during klopp era and especially at Borussia Mochengladbach.
Coman problem is he is too one dimensional hence he can only limited impact. I'm not saying in any france is bad team and germany is good team just saying Josh Wright must out of his mind to predict Germany would lose so much easily that is my basic problem with this prediction.
Last time France won against Germany in a competitive game at a tournament was 1958 ...
@neumi17 dont be a grandpa, teams are totally different now
@neumi17 and Germany never won vs italy.....
@neumi17 Someone disliked your comment because you stated a fact. Poor French guys! All they can do is talking sh|t about Portugal and creat fake news about Renato Sanches's age...
@hellreaper Portugal fans also disliked my video where Modrić was stomped by Sanches. Some people can't appreciate anything, not even a good comment. That's why I don't worry about that sort of thing :)
I didn`t like Löws defensiv tactics against Italy even though it somehow worked out but more on luck actually if we are honest. He rather shut down his offense than to concede a goal. Now it has come through to the media that he wants to do a simalar thing against France ! He wants to play again with a 3 men defence system and only 3 offensiv minded players ( Draxler, Özil, Müller ). I don´t think it is good to play like this as the world champion ! France is very good offensivly, I know. Yet you also should contribute creative and dangerous play to threaten your opponent and keepm him busy than to act like Portugal. Germany should focus on a good attack as well as on good defensiv play against france ! Out of the 5 games Germany only convinced twice offensivly ! Actually only ones since they couldn`t convert their chances against Northern Ireland. A wothy winner of the Europa Cup must have a good offensiv game too, otherwise the title loses lots of its meaning ...
@neumi17 France's weakness is defence and they might crumble if Germany puts pressure. They have to attack relentlessly IMO, even if they score first.
@neumi17 in fact will be 4 offensive players in Germany and actually match should be offensive from both sides :)
There is an interesting fact to look at. Each time Germany was world champion they reached the finals in the following European Cup. Also each time they eliminated the current host of Euro Cup but always lost in the final than ! In 1976 they beat Yuguslavia in their country in the semi finals but than lost to Czechoslovakia in the finals. In 1992 they beat Sweden in the semis only to lose against Denmark in the final game. Of course it is only trivia but fun fact to think about ... ;-) Hope this time Germany can overcome the curse as they did with Italy .
@neumi17 they did not beat Italy :) so curse stays on :) it was draw 120 minutes:)
@neumi17 Ultimate fun fact: Each time the number of participating squads was raised Germany won the European Cup.
I think it will be a very good game as both teams have alot of talent and will probably want to kill off the tie within 90 minutes. Germany will control the game and invite France to come out! Kroos and Ozil atm are very dangerous and can split any defense in a blink and the full backs in Kimich and Hector were very good against Italy! Expecting this game to be won in midfield and Germany to edge it!
1-3 its too much, but i think France to win, only one goal difference.
@Blankokredite You get down voted because you think that France will win but a score of 3 -1 is maybe too high ? Oh lord, what a bunch of imbecile are running around here ...
@neumi17 for some it may be difficult to understand simple concepts , and must rely on insults to offset their deficiencies
@RedBlackWhite I didn't insult you but the down voters, hope you got that..
2-1
"France are in the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time since 2000." World Cup 2006 guys
@Murgen Euro not World Cup read before you speak Sir
@SirCharlesRichfield They edited the preview afterwards "Sir"
"Germany were dissapointing against Italy" Since when does everyone expect teams to beat Italy 4-0? Even Spain couldn't do anything. France weren't impressive and suddenly when they beat (a weak) Iceland 5-2 and they are favorite?
great prediction 1:3 for france o_O especially if you see the last match at the world cup and the conceded goals of germany in the whole tournament (one - against italy - own fault from Boateng) Khedira did a solid performance but he didnt had a major impact - so Can or Weigl can replace him quite well Gomez would be good for flanks but Germany are already used to play shortpasses with a false 9 (or they could play with Mueller)
@benchmark04 Bear in mind though that France were without Kante and Rami, plus the second goal was conceded while Koscielny wasn't on the pitch anymore. Add to that Germany played 30 minutes more which at this level is a lot. Khedira and Schweinsteiger, the two midfield stalwarts are out to and therefore Griezmann & Payet might find it more fun against inexperienced Weigl/Can. All this makes the scenario served in the prediction quite reallistic.
@hindy well, Germany had 30min more to go but they have 1 more day to recover. And if Rami comes back, who didnt played very well, the team might be more instable, especially if he has to play against an small and quick Götze
@hindy France has more star power on the pitch, sure, but I don't think they'd have so much fun against Can or Weigl, if they were to start. Can is a regular in the Premier League and not so easy to pass by, whereas Weigl is another of those ultra-technical youngsters in the German squad (nearly 92% pass accuracy in 2000+ minutes with Dortmund; I don't think any French player ever came close to that). Both teams have their own styles and identity, which makes the match-up exciting. I'm more worried about finishing on the German side, with Gomez out. I still expect France to win against a decimated team, but if they score 3 it would be a disaster for Germany, and for the fans.
This is going to be the best game of the Euro. Too bad there are so many injuries in the German squad. In the absence of Gomez and no Reus in the lineup, I would play Podolski in the striker position, with Draxler-Ozil-Muller behind him. Seems like a good combination of experience and skills.
I'm guessing France will go back to a 4-3-3 with Kante, Pogba and Matuidi in midfield, Sissoko dropping to the bench, and a front three of Payet, Giroud and Griezmann. With three in midfield it's no problem if Griezmann wants to cut inside to play off Giroud.
@What4 That's very possible considering how reluctant Deschamps is to drop Matuidi and it would be too risky to start without Kante against teams like Germany. Pogba and Matuidi can support defense well but probably aren't sharp enough to start in front of defese against Germany's attacking players as a pair. But having played last one and half match with 4-2-3-1 I think they should continue to do that: Kante with Pogba/Matuidi as double pivot and Coman or Sissoko on right side since Griezmann is definitely most dangerous in middle.
@Castle Dunno, I think they will go for 3 in midfield for extra protection. I can't see Sissoko playing ahead of Kante, Pogba or Matuidi.
3-1 France?im 100% sure germany won't concede more than 1 goal.this is a real test for France but in the end,the Germans always prevail.2-1 Germany
@glenbayern I'd guess they think Griezmann may hit Germany on the break when the Germans are chasing, which they have not had to do yet, and expose Höwedes. Big players are missing, and Can doesn't have Khedira's defensive quality. While France haven't been properly tested yet and look defensively patchy, Germany haven't played too well in their toughest games - Poland and Italy.
2 - 1 Germany Win.
7-1 jk