EURO 2012 – Daily Report – DAY 21 – 2nd semi-final match decided – Balotelli 2 – Germany 0 – by contributor OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog contributor Mr Filip van der Plas

June 29th, 2012

The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, is now 21 days old – we are at the first of two semi-finals and anything can happen! 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-

GERMANY - ITALY – 0-2

Germany has been eliminated in the semifinals of Euro 2012 by Italy – or by Mario Balotelli if you like.

Because, in the end it was the young Italian striker Mario Balotelli, with his great mercurial talent -that has generated even forced admiration from former doubters and critics- more than anything else which caused the German defeat.

Already at the half-time whistle, Joachim Löw’s eleven – the German national team stood with a 2-0 deficit against two great goals by Balotelli – Mario Balotelli –remember that name.

Having been left alone for just seconds by the sleeping German defense he did his damage quickly – so quickly that even the great German goal-keeper Manuel Neuer could not react in time. They should have been warned having seen him in previous matches – but to no apparent avail.

He scored two fabulous goals in a 2-1 semi-final victory over tournament favorites Germany and thereby secured their Euro 2012 final place and will play against Spain – World and European champions – on Sunday.

In injury-time a penalty for Germany was awarded by a generally bad French referee Stéphane Lannoy.

Mezut Ozil took the shot and scored but in the remaining seconds a 2nd goal failed to materialize and in the end the better side prevailed.

Importantly, or unimportanly depending on your politics or belief in superstitions – Germany were playing in Warszawa, the Polish capital, without their lucky charm the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had recently rather undiplomatically cheered wildly as they beat Greece 4-2 in their quarter-final game against Greece in Gdansk.

Daniel Taylor in Warsaw writing for the Guardian UK put it very well – “It was the night Mario Balotelli announced himself as a serious, grown-up footballer, capable of shaping the bigger occasions. There have been plenty of times he has threatened it before but he has never shown so much efficiency and clinical, sometimes devastating, centre-forward play, or the unmistakable sense that he is unwilling to jeopardise all that raw ability with something far less endearing.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/28/euro-2012-italy-germany-semi-final

Germans supporters in the Polish capital, outnumbered Italian fans in Warsaw by almost 3 to 1 and they left the stadium in state of shock. It seems that again it was Italy that shattered their dreams – just as they had done 6 years earlier when they the ‘Azzurri’ ended Germany’s World Cup hopes on German soil.

Joachim Löw’s eleven young players had looked strong in the tournament, but they definitely met their match in technically much better Italian side.

In the end the Italian team has grown in the tournament and Gianluigi Buffon the Italian goalie has certainly helped them stay at the top of their game. There were other good players this evening on the Italian side – however after Balotelli it is Buffon who stood out for me.

Will they be able to beat the classy Spaniards this Sunday? I have stopped predicating – they have all gone faltered badly – very badly indeed. However we can be assured of some great football – what a great tournament it has been!

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

and tonights match -” Deutschland scheidet gegen Angstgegner aus – Balotelli ist Italiens Matchwinner” http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/em/startseite/europameisterschaft/2012/5/1122685/spielbericht_deutschland_italien-924.html

From’ Kicker.de’ – “The dream: Joachim Loew has gambled himself away Somehow it was already done. The gala-final against defending champion Spain at EURO seemed so close and the chance to defeat the no longer so overwhelming ostentatious world and European champion, and after 16 long years to win a title as big as never before. But then came the Italians. Germany coach Joachim Loew and his followers turned a very strong and clever play on these opponents – and gambled in the process. ….” http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/em/startseite/571191/artikel_aus-der-traum_bundestrainer-joachim-loew-hat-sich-verzockt.html

Germany was - Neuer, Boateng ,Hummels , Badstuber , Lahm, Schweinsteiger , Khedira, Kroos , Özil , Lukas Podolski, and Mario Gomez

Italian starting team was - Buffon ,Balzaretti , Barzagli , Bonucci , Chiellini,Pirlo , de Rossi, Marchicio , Montolivo, and yes up front Mister Mario Balotelli

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.

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EURO 2012 – Daily Report – DAY 21 – 2nd semi-final match decided – Balotelli 2 – Germany 0 – 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.