European Cup: Spain vs Germany
Jun 29th, 2008 • Results
- Lineup:
Germany:
Jens Lehman
Christoph Metzelder
Arne Friedrich
Philip Lahm
Per Mertesacker
Thomas Hitzlsperger
Torsten Frings
Michael Ballack
Bastian Schweinsteiger
Miroslav Klose
Lucas Podolski
Spain:
Iker Cassilas
Carlos Marchena
Carles Puyol
Joan Capdevilla
Sergio Ramos
Xavi
Andres Inesta
Marcos Senna
Cesc Fabregas
David Silva
Fernando Torres
Michael Ballack will be playing; he suffered a calf injury during training 2 days ago. As this game begins we see a change in the lineup: Frings starting over Rolfes (who played horrible in the previous game and later fouled a Turkish player and injured himself). Also, Fabregas is starting because David Villa is out. Okay, this is probably the most ridiculous pre-game show: they have a huge tarp on the field with people dressed up in Alice in Wonderland style European costumes, people in large fake grocery bags, and some kind of balloon thing representing the brackets in the tournament.
Hahaha, Enrique Inglesias is singing. Why can’t the lightning strike the TV tower now??
For the first 15 minutes Germany had possession and the most chances. Then however, Spain took all the possession for about 8 minutes which climaxed when Torres jumped high in the air and headed the ball at the bottom left of Lehman’s goal and bounced off of the post and rolled out of the box.
Germany’s tall, lanky defenders look clumsy and slow compared to Torres. Multiple times Spain has given Torres through balls with German defenders running to follow up. In the end it paid up because as one was given to Torres he beat Metzelder and Lahm to chip the ball over Lehman who ran in sliding.
Germany is under a lot of pressure from Spain and their defending is really poor in the 65th minute but they hold on. KThe last 20 minutes of the game Germany really lost any flow they had; their defense is a joke. Minutes before the end of the game Schweinsteiger got the ball in front of the goal through some scrappy play and surely would have put it in but the referee made a bad call and gave Spain a free kick. Spain has won the Euro Cup 1-0 and they deserve it!!!!