[Frontpage] Germany v Spain Tactical Preview

One of your best tips yet Dunph!

I have 1K on Spain to win tonight

sorry lads that was a typo, I have 100 on them

:smiley:

If you really want to be true to KIB type though, youā€™d only say this when Spain are 4-0 up.

Spain will not be beaten tonight if they can stop Germany from scoring.

Farmer - I was admitting i was wrong, not back tracking. Big difference.

Germany are like mushrooms

:smiley:

I think the shape of the two teams will more or less cancel each other out, a dour enough match in store with Spain having 60-65% possesion. David Villa to score a 110th minute winner in a 1-0 Spanish victory.

I understand Torres is dropped.

18:26 Commentary
Germany v Spain line-ups: Germany: 1-Manuel Neuer; 16-Philipp Lahm, 3-Arne Friedrich, 17-Per Mertesacker, 20-Jerome Boateng, 15-Piotr Trochowski, 6-Sami Khedira, 7-Bastian Schweinsteiger, 10-Lukas Podolski, 8-Mesut Ozil, 11-Miroslav Klose.
Spain: 1-Iker Casillas; 15-Sergio Ramos, 3-Gerard Pique, 5-Carles Puyol, 11-Joan Capdevila; 14-Xabi Alonso, 8-Xavi, 6-Andres Iniesta, 16-Sergio Busquets; 18-Pedro, 7-David Villa.
Referee: Viktor Kassai (Hungary).

Pedro in, Torres out.

Big call. Pedro will provide them with more width though. No doubt Torres will appear at some stage.

Excellent call by Del Bosque IMO. Come on Barca.

Interesting callā€¦Reckon Spain will shade it in normal timeā€¦Going for a 2-1 Spanish winā€¦Iniesta and Villa with the Spanish goals and Puyol or Pique to give away a peno

10/11 Spain to win the first corner of the matchā€¦free moneyā€¦

Presume this means Villa will be playing more central. Pedro had a good season but Iā€™m not sure Iā€™d be moving Villa away from an area where heā€™s been so effective if I was Del Bosque.

Germany as expected really with Trochowski getting the nod.

Presume he moved him centrally to worry Mertesacker and Friedrick with his movement and also that Pedro will track Lahm as wellā€¦

some amount of changes from the German side that contested the Euro 2008 final

GK 1 Jens Lehmann
RB 3 Arne Friedrich
CB 17 Per Mertesacker
CB 21 Christoph Metzelder
LB 16 Philipp Lahm 46ā€™
CM 8 Torsten Frings
CM 15 Thomas Hitzlsperger 58ā€™
RW 7 Bastian Schweinsteiger
AM 13 Michael Ballack Ā©
LW 20 Lukas Podolski
CF 11 Miroslav Klose 79ā€™

Substitutions:
DF 2 Marcell Jansen 46ā€™
FW 22 Kevin KurĆ”nyi 88ā€™ 58ā€™
FW 9 Mario GĆ³mez 79ā€™

Spanish team that night

GK 1 Iker Casillas Ā© 43ā€™
RB 15 Sergio Ramos
CB 4 Carlos Marchena
CB 5 Carles Puyol
LB 11 Joan Capdevila
DM 19 Marcos Senna
RM 6 AndrƩs Iniesta
CM 8 Xavi
CM 10 Cesc FĆ bregas 63ā€™
LM 21 David Silva 66ā€™
CF 9 Fernando Torres 78ā€™
Substitutions:
MF 14 Xabi Alonso 63ā€™
MF 12 Santi Cazorla 66ā€™
FW 17 Dani GĆ¼iza 78

Iā€™d imagine it may have more to do with preferring Pedro to Llorente (once he decided to drop Torres) but Iā€™d guess that was a factor. I think Villa was in a good position to exploit a gap that has been there in the German defence. He can still do that but from a slightly different area.

Really looking forward to this now - hope itā€™s a cracker.

:pint:
Germany to go through to Final AET