NoFear

July 1, 2012

Re: Spain v Italy > The Final > 1 July Brooke always has valid points though. I think he is just over excited since italy won last time as well when nearly everyone fancied germany and he was one of the very few to give italy a chance. But he does seem to have more knowledge than others about italian football. BTW - GL everyone. Match is about to start. Have fun.

July 1, 2012

Re: Spain v Italy > The Final > 1 July

France bossed that game???? I disagree they barely even turned up they never bossed any part of that game for me, sorry to disagree so strongly but that's the game I watched. France rarely left their own half and when they did it was random solo runs that came to nowt. They pretty much sat back and defended for 90mins which is why Spain appeared to win "at a canter". More to the point had France produced anything of note they probably would have drawn or lost at that same canter. The fact you admit they play with their feet up says to me - that they don't have the energy to play with their feet in any other position. Italy will cane them today I think. And it's been a long time coming too, truth be told. Spain may be the favourites but so were Germany, and nobody would argue they had far better fitness and energy levels than Spain will have today. I'm sticking with Italy to win this one, Spain haven't excited me at all this tournament - if anything they have been as boring in victory as Chelsea were in the CL. No penetration whatsoever even in qualifying they won loads of their games 1-0. That is what trying to not-lose produces... Barely any goals of quality but clean sheets and defensive stats to squawk about. favourites? Not for me.

He meant spain bossed the game against france.

June 28, 2012

Re: Germany v Italy > June 28 Dont get why everyone is having a go at brooke. I actually backed Germany tonight but it wasnt the same Germany of the group stages. Italy did well to take the momentum away from them and score that early goal. All previous German games had them scoring first. This chasing was new to them and they were all over the place from then on. @Brooke - Good call mate. Will follow your future analysis with keen interest. Stakes dont matter. ROI does. So you are doing alright. Keep up the good work and keep contributing,

June 28, 2012

Re: Germany v Italy > June 28

Who do you think will score for them? That's a fair analysis, though I see Italy winning if they can score the first goal of the game. They will not want another bout of extra time, so if it does go there I would say it swings in favour of the Germans. Penalties is anybodies game but I would favour Italy, I just don't see them being able to get there looking at the Germany line-up. I covered it on my site in the research blog, Germany have so many bodies they can bring on and are generally fresher and younger - it's hard to see italy making it through another 120 mins. So I think they know they have to wrap this up in the 90mins and will try to do so. Klose I expect to start for Germany, along with Muller and Reus - as this means they can bring on Gomez and Podolski (Power and Pace) late in the game when Italy are flagging and prone to mistakes. If this is the case it will go Germany's way, and Italy coach Prandelli will know this so he will be striving for the 1-0 to protect before half time I think. Throw it all forward and keep pressing for the first goal, then than forces Loew to make his subs early evening the scores. Italy are good at this type of game, they are tactically very good and the players are right up for this. Cassano is rumoured to be having tantrums in training already lol so I hope he plays because he can have a huge say in this... Italy 1-0 or 0-0 draw for me, so good luck to all whatever your bets are :)

Well, thats the thing. The german team has goalscorers across the board. From Lahm, Khadeira through ozul, podolski, muller, right up to podolski/klose/gomez. Cant say the same about italians, but I have to admit I know little about this italian team. But so far, I havent been impressed. They may have the talent but they lack the hunger. Someone from italy commented that italy performs better when expectation are low like they were in this tournament. But so far, they just have been drawing and only winning against teams like ireland. Hence, I see them drawing cos I wont underestimate them but I dont see them winning. Like I said. If you actually asked the players, everyone obv wants to win but italians will settle for a draw. Germans on the other hand seem hungrier under Lahm's captaincy. Also, if klose starts, we can see a few more german goals and i can see germany winning by more than 2 goals as ozul and rest perform better with klose. If gomez starts, I see 1:0, or 1:1. Tactics - Germans are good too. They are professional. I dont see them underestimating any of the teams they played against except Denmark but even that game they won and were already sitting in a nice position at the top of the group. But I do see a huge German weakness in schweinsteiger. He was struggling badly in the game against greece and I see him struggling here even more against Pirlo or anyone else for that matter. This could leak goals and give italy a draw or maybe even a win. And thats where I think italy could take the game away. But i still see the germans scoring at least one if kolse starts and to win italians will need to score two. But the big question is will they, can they, or will they try to settle for a draw. Maybe they wont try to contain Germany "chelsea-style" since they play more like spain now but maybe that will be their downfall and leave gaps at the back allowing Germany to score. The italians have said they will attack from the start but thats what they said against england.

June 28, 2012

Re: Germany v Italy > June 28 Some interesting reasoning regarding italy brooke. I actually laid spain yesterday cos I saw portugal as having a chance. But being risk-averse, i decided it was safer to just lay spain. Todays game however is different. I think the fav is rightly priced here. I will tell you something. The last week I watched Germany/Greece game and was somehwat impressed by Germany. I mean Greece were trying to play like chelsea and though greece arent chelsea they are a good defending unit. Karagounis was a big miss but would still never expect greece to concede 4 goals when they only ever lose by 1:0 or draw 1:1. But in this game greece gave germany 75% possession just cos they wanted to draw or limit the german machine from scoring 2 goals. They had 11 men in front of their goal, yet they failed miserably. Germans could have even scored 6-7 goals but Ozul missing from a meter away, a few offside goals, etc limited their goal number to 4. But I was still not sure that Germany were that strong. Maybe greece really was weak without karagounis. But then I saw the Eng/Italy game. I saw italy win it on penalties. And the moment that game ended, I went to oddschecker and saw the price on Germany. It was 2.00 then. But I was ready to take even 1.9 or 1.8 on Germany. Why? Italy disappointed me. They couldnt beat england who are just a very bad team atm IMHO (i counted them among Ireland, Sweden, Denmark). And italy couldnt beat them even in extra time. Balotelli is a wasteful at times as well just like we saw in england/ita and spain/ita games. Italy's defence is decent and I see them limiting germans from scoring 3 or 4 goals. Overall, I think draw is gonna play a huge part and so is a german win. I see italy scoring but i dont see italy winning. If asked them, I thiink italy will be happy to take the draw even though they want to avoid extra-time cos of old legs. They took the draw vs spain when they could have continued attacking and making it 2:0. will add a few things later.

June 27, 2012

Re: Portugal v Spain > June 27 Just the one change for Spain, with Seville striker Alvaro Negredo coming into the side for Cesc Fabregas as Vicente del Bosque ditches his much criticised "false-nine" formation in favour of a recognised striker. Negredo has played one minute of Euro 2012 until now. Bummer.

June 27, 2012