German National Football thread

[axe]

Germany set up Greece date
Maximum points sees Germans through as Denmark crash out

By Jamie Casey Last updated: 17th June 2012


Michael Krohn-Dehli levelled for Denmark, who were well in the game until late on


Lars Bender: Celebrates his winner which saw Germany take maximum points


Lukas Podolski scored on his 100th appearance for Germany

Man of the match: Sami Khedira. A tough choice this with Lahm and Schweinsteiger on top form. Khedira's constant desire to create avenues of space for his team-mates was outstanding though, the Real Madrid man attempting to cut through Denmark's back-line relentlessly and linking up play expertly.

Referee anlaysis: Carlos Velasco Carballo. Had a fairly quiet night until he shot down a penalty claim after Bendtner appeared to have been hauled down by Badstuder before firing wide. At that stage of the game, a Denmark penalty which may have led to a goal and a win could have knocked Germany out so it was a crucial decision that the referee looked to have got wrong.

Germany confirmed their passage to the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 after taking maximum points in Group B following a hard-fought 2-1 win over Denmark.

The Germans will now face Group A runners-up Greece and were up and running on 19 minutes when Lukas Podolski thumped home an emphatic opener.

Michael Krohn-Dehli levelled for Denmark within six minutes though, following some suspect defending from a Germany side that is very much one of the favourites to win the tournament.


With the sides still deadlocked as the final 10 minutes approached, a winner for Denmark would have dropped Germany to third in the group.

However, Lars Bender eased German nerves, steering past Stephan Anderson for his first international goal.

Germany coach Joachim Low made his first change of the tournament, replacing the suspended Jerome Boateng with Bender, but he resisted the temptation to make further alterations to his winning side.

Niki Zimling was passed fit to play by Denmark coach Morten Olsen, while the injured Dennis Rommedahl's place was taken by Jakob Poulsen.

Low's side began with authority and the diligent Thomas Muller went close twice early on, but Stephan Andersen showed lightning reactions to deny his second attempt in the sixth minute.

Germany remained camped in the Denmark half, playing a patient yet expressive game which led to Podolski marking his 100th Germany appearance with a goal in the 19th minute.

Muller provided a low cross from the right-hand side of the penalty area which Mario Gomez flicked intelligently back to Podolski, who left nothing to chance with a powerful shot from seven yards out.

Germany's lead lasted only five minutes, though, before Krohn-Dehli's second goal of the tournament brought the Danes level.

He diverted Nicklas Bendtner's header past Manuel Neuer from six yards out from a well-worked corner after a positive reaction from the Danes to falling behind.

Towards the end of the first half, Podolski blazed a free-kick over the bar from the edge of the penalty area and Sami Khedira prodded a shot wide from 10 yards out as Denmark were again forced to defend.

Jakob Poulsen went within inches of putting Denmark in front five minutes into the second half when his shot grazed the outside of the left-hand post with Neuer beaten.

Low sent Schurrle on for Podolski midway through the second half and his first touch of the game brought an excellent one-handed save out of Andersen.

Neuer showed less sophistication in dealing with Zimling's distance effort in the 71st minute, conceding a corner as Denmark enjoyed another bright spell.

Five minutes later, Bendtner got in around the back and tried at full stretch to lift the ball over Neuer, but without success as he had his shirt pulled by Holger Badstuber.

One goal for Denmark was still required to send them through and send Germany home since Portugal had taken the lead against Holland, but just as Low's side were showing the first signs of tension, they regained the lead from an unlikely outlet.

Mesut Ozil's through ball was intended for Miroslav Klose, but it was too far in front of the Lazio striker but inviting for full-back Bender, who coolly took his first international goal in the 80th minute to take Germany through and knock Denmark out of Euro 2012.

[firstchoicett]

They played a great game today.....I hope them or France wins.

[rfari]

euros has officially started. next game against greece but they are a jumbie side. cyar watch them slight. well done boys

[axe]

most biased commentary today:
when Germany playing possession and being patient then scored, they "flat, lazy, not inventive" but when Spain does it "the best football ever!"

Germany won all 3 games and won against the Danes 2:1 they " scraped though all 3 games, and narrowly qualified" Portugal won 2:1 against Holland and they "dominated"

i'm so sickened by these idiots

[rfari]

let dem talk. tbh, i prefer this start from germany than the typical fire cracker start. we always shutdown in semis or finals when we have a flying start so i'm happy tht they're pacing themselves

[rfari]

Euro 2012: Greece to take on Germany in ultimate grudge match
Debt-stricken country now has an unexpected opportunity for revenge against its biggest and most critical creditor

Greek fans and players celebrate after their 1-0 win over Russia, which means they will now play Germany in the quarter-finals. Photograph: Sharifulin Valery/Corbis
It looks set to be the ultimate grudge match. Germany may be threatening Greece with exit from the euro, but the debt-stricken country now has an unexpected opportunity for revenge against its biggest and most critical creditor – by knocking its football team out of Euro 2012.

After Greece's surprise win against Russia on Saturday night and Germany's 2-1 victory over Denmark in the European championships, the two countries will now face each other in a quarter-final on Friday. Given the tensions, the prospect has filled Greeks with hope that, on the football pitch at least, they will be able to come out on top.

"Bring us Merkel," demanded Goal News after the defeat of Russia. "You will never get Greece out of the euro." The German chancellor was also the subject of various bellicose chants in Omonia Square on Saturday night, when football fans bedecked in blue and white and waving flags descended into the centre of Athens and indulged in a brief outpouring of national pride.

Captain Giorgos Karagounis, star of Greece's legendary 2004 championship victors and scorer of Saturday's winning goal, said the country's debt woes had encouraged the players to perform on the pitch. "When we left Greece, we all said, 'Really give it everything,'" he told reporters. "We would have anyway, but the [hardship] made us fight more." Twitter was awash with jokes ahead of the piquant Friday showdown. "If Greece get Germany in the quarter-finals, will Angela Merkel try to tell the Greeks how many goals they have to concede?" wondered @Nndroid.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012 ... many-match

[rfari]

Football: Germany v Greece — A Clash With Extra Resonance
Of all the quarter-final clashes at Euro 2012, Germany versus Greece will be the most closely watched, with the tie being seen through the prism of the sovereign debt crisis threatening the eurozone.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has provoked anger in Greece for leading the calls on Athens to impose tough austerity measures in return for financial assistance to bring down debt.

The irony of a potential last-eight meeting with Germany after Greece’s surprise win over Russia in Warsaw on Saturday was not been lost on the Greeks, with many sensing an opportunity for revenge.

“Bring us Merkel,” said Greek newspaper Goal News on Sunday. “You will never get Greece out of the Euro. Europe once again delirious about bankrupted Greece.”

Greece players, too, are aware that a good run in the competition in Poland and Ukraine will help alleviate some of their compatriots’ current woes.

In economic terms, Germany and Greece are poles apart. One is Europe’s leading economy with considerable global clout while the other is in its fifth year of recession and crippled by political and financial uncertainty.

In football, there are some parallels.

The celebrated Mannschaft have the European championships’ best record, having lifted the trophy and been runners-up three times each.

Greece, however, have only qualified for the finals four times, although they have won it once -- in 2004 -- eclipsing the record of countries like England, who have never won the competition.

Germany have won the World Cup no fewer than three times and been runners-up on four occasions, with four third-place finishes. Their 12 top-four finishes outshines even that of five-times winners Brazil.

Greece for its part only qualified for their first finals in 1994 and made their second appearance two years ago but on both occasions crashed out at the group stage.

German league clubs have won the old European Cup and now Champions League six times and been runners-up on nine occasions.

Bayern Munich have won the competition four times — a feat only bettered by Real Madrid (nine), AC Milan (seven) and Liverpool (five) — while Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund have each won it once.

To date, Panathinaikos are the only Greek team to have reached a final — in 1971. They lost 2-1 to Ajax.

Germany’s Bundesliga, meanwhile, is on an increasingly sound financial footing.

Revenue grew by five percent in the 2010-11 season to 1.7 billion euros (1.4 billion pounds, $2.1 billion) — second only to the English Premier League, which saw 12 percent growth to 2.5 billion in the same period, Deloitte Sports Business said.

The German league even outstripped the Premier League in terms of operating profits (171 million euros versus 75 million euros in 2010-11), the auditors said in their “Annual Review of Football Finance 2012”, published in May.

In addition, average attendances of 42,100 at German grounds in the season before last were the best in Europe, the report said.

Greek domestic football — effectively an annual three-way battle between Olympiakos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens — has in contrast been hit in recent years by high-profile match-fixing claims, dwindling crowds as well as fan violence.

Sports business experts have pinpointed a number of reasons for Greek clubs’ failure to reach the revenue heights of their European counterparts — and they sound familiar.

Panagiotis Dimitropoulos, from the department of sport management at the University of Peloponnese, analysed Greek football club finances from 1993 to 2006.

He wrote in the Sport Management International Journal in 2010 that clubs, many locally-owned, were “highly leveraged, have intense liquidity and profitability problems and face increase danger of financial distress.”

The academic blamed “aggregate financial mismanagement and political inefficiencies” and noted clubs were blighted by “many cases of financial mismanagement” leading to “financial instability and... insolvency.”

Dimitropolous suggested a number of solutions to put Greek football on a better financial and competitive footing, including assistance for smaller and less profitable teams as well as salary caps, squad limits and revenue sharing.

Or you could say: bail-outs and austerity measures to stimulate growth.

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/sports/f ... nce/525000

[axe]

KLOSE THE LEGEND SCORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


GERMANY 4: GREECE 2

[rfari]

Thoroughly enjoyed this article
www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/team ... eport.html

Minutes after the brutal dismantling of Greece,
Germany's Joachim Löw turned his gaze upon
England.
Roy Hodgson’s side are hardly certain to face the
rampant Germans in the semi-finals of Euro
2012, but Löw’s words carried both admiration
and lingering menace.
It wasn’t enough that in the group stages
Germany demonstrated trademark efficiency and
reliability. There is now a demand for traces of
Latin flamboyance in their football culture, and
after a brief stumble in the second half it was on
full, ominous display in Gdansk.
Greece had just been acquainted with the side
that beguiled during the last World Cup. Löw
then considered the possibilities. “If we play
England, they are much better under Roy
Hodgson than they were in 2010,” he said. “They
are better organised and counter attack much
better.
“In a short time, and Hodgson is known for this,
he has built a compact team. They are not so
open or divided. They really play as a team and
have good counter attacks. They are tactically
much better.”
Somewhere in Krakow, clipboard in hand, DVD set
to record, Hodgson will have been studying this
performance yearning for some encouragement
in the event his side overcomes Italy. He may find
it in Löw’s words, but there was not much else to
reassure him aside from the momentary and
ultimately minor German stumble early in the
second half.
That was when Giorgios Samaras improbably
equalised Philipp Lahm’s first-half strike.
It merely proved the catalyst for a rout. Greece
manager Fernando Santos had finally released the
shackles in a successful pursuit of an equaliser,
but the reign of chaos theory lasted a mere six
minutes when Sami Khedira restored Germany’s
lead and two more swiftly followed prior to a late
Greek penalty.
England, if they make it, will need far more than
organisation and know what will happen if they
open the game as they did in Bloemfontein.
The evening was a lesson in the ruthless reality of
German’s attacking power after Khedira’s volley,
Miloslav Klose and Marco Reus — both surprisingly
preferred in the starting line-up to Mario Gomez
and Thomas Müller – gave the score a reflection of
the vast gulf.
Löw had used just 15 of his 23-man squad in the
group phase and there were mumblings about
fatigue, so the freshening of his line-up was not
without logic. There were certainly no signs of
weakness.
The idea that stricken Greece — a country many
in Germany feel ought to have arrived with a
ceremonial begging bowl rather than flag — could
halt their euro paymasters’ march to Kiev was
inconceivable.
In their favour, Greece pioneered the war of
attrition. They didn’t just train at the Gdansk
Arena ahead of this game. They surveyed the
landscape to establish where best to erect
barricades.
Such was their taste for tenacity, Löw acclaimed
his rivals for their ‘survivalist art’. Bear Grylis has
been spotted in Gdansk scouting the Greek
centre-backs.
The Greek retreat meant Mats Hummels — the
German centre-half — must have considered
writing a lonely hearts column. Before a double
substitution at half-time, Greece played like a side
for which an offside flag represented a sense of
adventure. They still could not deny frequent
German opportunities. “We had no space to
breathe,” said Santos.
Germany began with ominous haste. Klose’s
fourth-minute strike was correctly ruled out for
offside, but the Greek defence was initially toiling.
Michalis Sifakis, their deputy goalkeeper, looked
nervous, a nosebleed following a collision with
Klose not assisting his confidence. Even his saves
didn’t convince.
Mesut Özil shot tamely at the keeper on 23
minutes after a swift spell of one-touch football.
German anxiety gave way to elation six minutes
before the break when captain Lahm, a venerable
veteran of this line-up at the ripe age of 28, took
the initiative.
He ventured forward and struck with his right
foot from 20 yards. The strike had more
conviction than Sifakis’s tame effort to push it
clear. There was compulsion to believe the job
was done, but Santos’ tactical switch temporarily
worked as Theofanis Gekas and Giorgios Fotakis
were summoned. Dimitris Salpingidis scurried
down the right and crossed for Samaras to steal
an equaliser.
Parity was brief. Khedira volleyed past Sifakis.
Klose’s converted a header after Özil’s free-kick
and Reus added a fourth, before Greece were
generously presented an 89th-minute penalty,
converted by Salpingidis.
If Hodgson gets past Italy and Germany — and
then somehow beats Spain — he may deserve the
swiftest knighthood since Francis Drake’s quiet
bowling afternoon was interrupted by that
approaching Armada.

[*$kїđž!™]

6 pages of wasted space on tuner....

Mods get ready to delete and ban op....!!

[De Dragon]

Fari affi stay 'way from Lanates R' Us

[Lucian-2nr]

somebody please check on rfari .... quickly!

[Swisha]

[*$kїđž!™]

somebody please check on rfari .... quickly!

i think he is a goner...

[kurpal_v2]

let dem talk. tbh, i prefer this start from germany than the typical fire cracker start. we always shutdown in semis or finals when we have a flying start so i'm happy tht they're pacing themselves

Fari know the team so good he predict them to the end

[firstchoicett]

Hard luck but I supporting d Spanish now

[sharkman121]

Rel talk bout fari buh nobody eh check on axe

[Scoobert Bauce]

Germany defence was real sheit... dais all

[ProgressiveTT]

SMH!!!
Trinituner Football Analysts.

Leave it out till Sunday. Then we'll celebrate.

[axe]

was in Galeota all day miss the game...then the texts started coming in....I STILL CANT BELIEVE IT!!!
so the real Super Mario did stand up!

Gosh I cant believe it!

this thread has to go..... maybe 'Germany is gonna win FIFA 2014' ?

im really crushed now..........

[K74T]

Rel talk bout fari buh nobody eh check on axe

no need to worry

[K74T]

shucks, man reach same time lol

[BrotherHood]

was in Galeota all day miss the game...then the texts started coming in....I STILL CANT BELIEVE IT!!!
so the real Super Mario did stand up!

Gosh I cant believe it!

this thread has to go..... maybe 'Germany is gonna win FIFA 2014' ?

im really crushed now..........

[kurpal_v2]

I promise not to even mutter a word to fari bout this......

[rfari]

keep the thread. our time is near at hand

[axe]

GERMANY CRUSHES IRELAND 6:1

GOALS BY:
REUS - 2
KLOSE - 1
OZIL (PEN) - 1
KROOS - 2

[axe]

are you kiddin me?

Germany 4: Sweden 4
Sweden equalize in 90 + 4

BUT

Klose scores 2!
might be Germany's all time leading scorer!

[rfari]

International friendly preview: France - Germany

PROBABLE LINEUPS








FRANCE


Lloris
Debuchy, Koscielny, Sakho, Evra
Sissoko, Cabaye, Matuidi
Menez, Benzema, Ribery







GERMANY

Neuer
Howedes, Hummels, Mertesacker, Lahm
Khedira, Kroos
Muller, Ozil, Podolski
Gomez



France coach Didier Deschamps is without young Real Madrid center back Raphael Varane, who pulled out of Wednesday's international friendly following his impressive performance in last week's Clasico.

Varane was replaced in the squad by Newcastle United's Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, though Arsenal's Laurent Koscielny could be preferred to partner Mamadou Sakho at the back.

Fellow Magpies star Moussa Sissoko is in line for his seventh cap, with Rennes' Romain Alessandrini - earning his first call-up after a series of scintillating performances in Ligue 1, could make his international bow from the bench.

In stark contrast, Germany has been depleted with injuries as it makes the short trip to Paris, aiming to avenge last year's 1-2 defeat in Bremen.

Borussia Dortmund trio Marcel Schmelzer, Mario Gotze and Marco Reus all miss out, with a fourth - Ilkay Gundogan a doubt in midfield.

Lars Bender has been called up by Joachim Low to answer the midfield problem, which has also seen Bastian Schweinsteiger withdraw. Miroslav Klose has also pulled out on Monday after suffering a knee ligament injury in Lazio's defeat to Genoa in Serie A, and Mario Gomez now looks set to lead the line.






DID YOU KNOW?

•
France is 17th in the FIFA Ranking, below the likes of Mexico and Ivory Coast.

•Les Bleus' last two games in all competitions saw them beat Euro 2012 finalists Italy in Parma and draw 1-1 with Spain.
•
France's overall record in friendlies against Germany reads W10 D5 L6 - though Germany lead the goal count 32-31.

•The two countries met a year ago, when goals from Olivier Giroud and Florent Malouda sealed a 2-1 win for the French.
• Germany's last visit to Paris saw it draw 0-0 in November 2005.
•
Joachim Low's men occupy second position in the FIFA Ranking.

• Germany has not recorded a win against France for 25 and a half years, following its 2-1 win as West Germany in Berlin in 1987.

[rfari]

Boommm!!

Germany rallies to top France in friendly
February 6, 2013 | 17h33 | update at 17h37




Thomas Mueller and Sami Khedira scored clinical second-half goals as Germany withstood heavy spells of pressure to come from behind and beat France 2-1 in a friendly on Wednesday.France took the lead shortly before halftime when Mathieu Valbuena punished some slack Germany defending to head in from close range after Karim Benzema's freekick had struck the crossbar. Mueller scored shortly after the break with a shot into the top corner and Germany then withstood a 20-minute barrage as France pushed for a second goal.Instead, it went to the Germans as France's left flank was exposed for the second time, allowing Khedira to run through and slip the ball into the bottom corner.France had won four of their past five encounters, with the other one drawn.

http://m.en.terra.com/newsid?n=b11d8300 ... cceb0aRCRD

[axe]

Bayern Munich's Muller keeps on scoring!