GRIPPING ITALY VS GERMANY SEMIFINAL TO BE TELECAST BY SOLAR SPORTS
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Thu, 28 Jun 2012
Football fans will get another treat in the early hours of Friday morning ? 2:30a.m. to be precise ? when Solar Sports carries a ?live? telecast of the gripping semi final encounter of Euro 2012 between Italy and Germany.
Defending champions Spain worked their way into the finals by gutting it out in a semi final shootout against Portugal and will be waiting in the wings to see which side they will face in an effort to win back-to-back championships.
The Germans with their precision football are clear favorites in the match which will be played in Warsaw, Poland.
However, BBC Sports points out that Italy are undefeated in their five games in Poland and Ukraine which included a victory in a penalty shootout against England in the quarter finals in a match the Italians clearly deserved to win.
Despite the reputation of the Germans, BBC Sports reports that Italian coach Prandelli has ruled out using defensive tactics in tomorrow morning?s encounter.
Prandelli said "We will not change what has brought us here. It would be a shame to waste the work of two years. We would be lacking maturity to play a different way."
While the Italians have scored only four goals in the championship, their creative midfield interplay, marshalled by veteran Juventus lynchpin Andrea Pirlo, has been widely praised.
And former Juventus midfielder Prandelli has made it clear he wants his side to play an expansive, high-tempo form of the game. He told BBC Sports "We have quality in midfield, a lot of flair, a lot of physical strength and technical ability in there"
He said "Riccardo Montolivo, Claudio Marchisio and Daniele De Rossi - they try and give us numbers in the midfield."
The Italian coach also revealed he expects to be pressured by Germany in the middle of the pitch in the Polish capital and insisted "We cannot sit deep [against Germany]."
Prandelli believes that Germany ?will press us high up the pitch. We are ready for this.We know where they are good, we think we know how they will line up and that they might make changes."
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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