Ehh? Who mentioned Khedira? This 'keeper is terrible, in fact it's been a bad tournament for 'keepers generally so far.
It appears on that page twice, and one was a quote of the first one. It's a completely seperate thread and even then, no one suggested he was bad. He's a whining little twat though I will say that.
The ressies looked good though tonight Premier. Hate to say it but think Germany have this tournament in the bag, must be massive favourites in the semis after resting their players.
They looked good yeah, but who wouldn't against that Greece side? Like I said on the other thread, Ozil looks very creative and all their passing goes through Schweinsteiger, that was the same again today. Lahm's goal was quality but I'm not convinced they are any better overall than the other good sides at the tournament. I think Spain are being written off way too early, just because Germany seem to be the current 'in' thing. If we were to beat Italy I think we'd have a chance against Germany, I'm not saying they're a bad side or anything. I just think people are getting way carried away with them making out like they're the new Spain.
The irony is that they probably are the successors to Spain, also their weakness is Spains too: the defence isn't fantastic, but when the midfield and attack have so much to offer then it doesn't matter so much.
If France could get a win and knock Spain out, it would give the other teams still in it a massive boost and blow the tournament wide open. It should be a lot more of a contest than the first two quarter finals were anyway!
Crap game and to cap it off you have Jamie Carragher to make your ears bleed at half-time SPRINT BACHHHHHHHHHHHHH aaarrrrrrgh
Well that's three quarter finals where one team wanted it and the other might as well have not turned up. Let's hope tomorrow's game is a bit more competitive and England win a thriller.
Just shows that there's very different ways to bore the punters to death. Spain are in a class of their own.
I'm not sure I agree that Spain's style is so boring. They weren't great tonight, in fact I actually thought that by their standards they were very sloppy. Simple passes went astray far too often. However when they play their best (most of the time) I think it's as entertaining as watching a fast team. I understand the argument that it's a bit slow at times but the technique is there to be admired and their movement off the ball is amazing. Agree with the above though that the quarter-finals have been pretty disappointing so far. The group stages were better for neutral entertainment but tomorrow night I don't care how one-sided it is. If we go and batter them 5-0 that'd be fine with me!
3-1 to us, wish I had your optimism? Draw then penalties, thats how we always do it in the 1/4s of big tournaments, 3-1 maybe if we can get Balotelli sent off early doors!
A lot is made of Spain's passing and their ability to keep possession, but just as important is the way they close down the opposition when they don't have the ball. In every game I've seen them play they press the opposing player as soon as he receives the ball and don't let up until they force a bad pass. I sometimes wonder how good they would be if other teams pressed them in the same way, but the zonal defences most teams have adopted allow teams like Spain all of the time and space they need to maintain possession.
