Italy pulled up an emphatic 2-1 victory over Germany to move into their first European Championships final since 2000. Azurri’s players started off on an attacking note and dominated Germany right from the word go. Germany, who won all their four matches coming into the semifinals, exhibited sloppy football and were no match for Italy.

Both the teams had some great players at their disposal some of who lived up to their reputation whereas some could not.

Here are some of the hits and flops of the match:

Italy

Mario Balotelli: Balotelli lived up to his nickname “Super Mario” in the match. He had been under pressure for not being able to find the net that often in the tournament like how he did in English Premier League season for Manchester City. But then yesterday he shut all his critics by scoring a brace which took Italy to the finals of the tournament. It was sad that he had to walk off the pitch due to a cramp in the second half.

Leanardo Bonucci: The central defender was very good with his role and did everything to avert danger. Made some great tackles, but then was reckless at times. Overall had a great match and played an important role in Italy’s victory.

Antonio Cassano: The forward put up a clinical display at the front and especially tormented the German defence when he drifted to the left. He assisted Balotelli with a wonderful cross for the opening goal of the match.

Germany:

Hits:

Marcus Reus: Came off as a second half replacement for Lukas Podolski, Reus injected the much needed aggression to the German side. Did make some good moves, came close to scoring twice and put the Italian defence under some pressure. He was the only saving grace for Germany in the match.

Flops:

Mats Hummels: The Dortmund defender was the biggest flop of the match for Germany. He was outsmarted by Cassano on number of occasions and could not stop him from assisting Balotelli for the opening goal. And his misery did not end here, throughout the match he was tormented by Balotelli and was no match for him.

Bastian Schweinsteiger: Put up a clumsy performance in the middle. Was all over the place and could never find his lethal passing correct and conceded penalty way too easily.

Mario Gomez: Was stuck to his position, never took the extra effort of trying to move and fight for the ball. Was woeful and could not even test Buffon once in the match. He was later replaced in the second half by Miroslav Klose.

By Samikshan Dutta Choudhary

Indian Sports News