The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, is now 19 days old – we are at the end of round one -and there has been a lot fo good and exciting football with 2 more teams through to the next phase . I will be writing a daily blog article with the salient features of all the games. Please send us your thoughts and comments on the form below. – Filip v d Plas-
ENGLAND – ITALY – game ends in penalty shoot-out which Italy wins
While the right team did in the end win last nights last quarter-final matches – Italy that is over England – it happened in the most banal ways possible – namely the dreaded ‘shoot-out’.
I call Italy the ‘right-team’ because they created the most chances and had the most chances – and up until the end the English seemed to have most of the luck.
Mario Balotelli was the best player on the field and it was a pleasure to watch him play and the tournament will be richer the longer he can show his finesse on the field.The seemingly unpredictable player is becoming much more predicable and we can view with awe the amazing potential bound-up in the body of this young player.
The English goalie Joe Hart, and in-front of him defenders John Terry and Joleon Lescott, were for England their stand-out players.
In the penalty shoot-out which followed 120 minutes of regular and extra over-time Balotelli & Co had had at least a dozen good scoring chances which could all have determined the game in regular time.
Italy has now gained the right to play tournament favorites Germany team in the semifinals this coming Thursday at 2045 hrs and then anything can happen. In the other semi-final for Friday, Portugal will play neighbour Spain – could be another one of those ‘grudge’ matches with Spain clear favorites .
However as we have often seen in this great football fiesta thus far - there are no really bad teams and anyone can beat anyone else…………..on their day.
Italian coach Cesare Prandelli had done his homework and the “Squadra Azzurra”shut down Wayne Rooney, England’s best player and a constant threat in mid-field well.
While the English defense did what was expected, up front the English rarely looked dangerous or fluid, in spite of Wayne Rooney’s countless efforts. Bringing on the capable Andy Carroll did help things early in the 2nd half because the Italian defense had no idea how to deal with him tall and lanky forward – and if a English goal were to happen one felt it would come off of his shoes or his head.
One can almost feel the English dissapointment and the Independent UK sports writer Sam Wallace writing from Kiev put it very well when he wrote -”The manager changes, the players come and go but the dull ache of predictability that accompanies yet another gut-wrenching defeat on penalties, stays the same. If there was any consolation last night then it was that at least England deserved to lose this game.” http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/euro-2012-england-head-home-as-penalty-jinx-strikes-yet-again-7879839.html
I can only add that Roy Hodgson’s team – and he himself – can leave this tournament with their heads held high – they showed that the up-and- coming younger English players can compete at any level in Europe. Their time will come.
Read Kicker.de about the the up-coming match – Italy/Germany -http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/em/startseite/570997/artikel_montolivo_wir-haben-keine-angst.html
England was – Joe Hart – G. Johnson , Terry , Lescott , A. Cole ,Gerrard , Nosey Parker,Milner , A. Young, Welbeck , and the Wayne Rooney show
Starting Italian team was – Buffon , Abate , Barzagli ,Bonucci ,Balzaretti ,Pirlo , de Rossi ,Marchisio , Montolivo , and up-front Mario Balotelli and Cassano
What did you think of the Refereeing at the EURO 2012? Please let us know and vote for or against what you thought about the REF – http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/06/19/euro-2012-best-and-worst-wurst-referees-at-euro-2012-poll-by-contributor-ota-berlin-constituency-blog-contributor-mr-filip-van-der-plas/
Best place I have found to watch EURO 2012 in Berlin is at the PRATER beer garten on http://www.pratergarten.de/d/ on Kastanienallee 7 – 9 in Prenzlauer Berg. Very close to the OTA-Berlin Serviced Apartments buildings at Metzer Strasse and Schoenhauser Allee.
This blog is brought to you by …..OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog’ is part of OTA-Berlin ‘……the intelligent Apartment-Alternative to Hotels in Berlin’. The views of the article are those of the writer Mr Filip v d Plas and not necessarily those of OTA-Berlin.
EURO 2012 – Daily Report – DAY 19 – ENGLAND succumbs to ‘shoot-out’ lottery and Italy move to semi-finals and face Germany on Thursday in last of quarter-final matchs- by contributor OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog contributor Mr Filip van der Plas from OTA Berlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany License. If you use this article or parts of it, please refer to http://www.ota-berlin.de.
Tags: Cesare Prandelli, ENGLAND succumb to the ‘shoot-out’ lottery, England vs Italy at EURO 2012, EURO 2012 - Daily Report - DAY 19, EURO 2012 European Football Championship in Poland & Ukraine, euro-2012-blog.com, John Terry and Joleon Lescott, kicker de, latest Euro 2012 poll, Mario Balotelli, OTA-Berlin Euro 2012 poll, OTA-Berlin Euro poll vote, pratergarten.de, Roy Hodgson, Sam Wallace writing from Kiev, SPAIN in boring game progress after beating FRANCE 2-0, vote on EURO 2012 poll, Wayne Rooney, who will win Euro 2012?
Good game and it pains me to have to say it but the Italians were better!