Defending champions Spain would lock horns against Italy in the finals of the 2012 Euro Cup at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev in what is expected to be a cracker of a tie. The La Roja’s made it to their third consecutive finals of a major championship whereas for Italy the last time they won a major championship was in the year 2006 and it was World Cup. Since then they did not have a great outing in the international arena.
Spain, who came into the tournament as one of the title contenders, did not display their attacking style of football that they are known for and apart from the match against Republic of Ireland in the group stages and the quarterfinal against France showed that they hardly could put their opponents under substantial pressure. They have been immaculate with their passing and nothing could take that away from them but then when it came to attacking, they somehow failed to live on the expected line.
On the other hand, Azurri’s have been quite dominating and dashed the notion that they play best while defending. They moved off it and displayed great attacking skills, especially their star forwards Mario Balotelli and Antonio de Cassano.
It is very difficult to predict a winner as the past performances would hardly matter to them and they would go ahead to go all guns out to win the match and emerge as the supreme footballing power in Europe. Both the teams met once in the group stages and it ended up with a 1-1 draw.
Here are some of the keys battles that the match would offer on Sunday and these battles would decide the outcome of the match.
Duo of Balotelli and Antonio De Cassano vs Spanish defence: Mario Balotelli and Antonio De Cassano ran riot against Germany and pushed to the brink every time they got together. The kind of co-ordination they showed while scoring the opening goal shows how well these two know each other’s game. If Balotelli has the capability of outsmarting the defenders with his power and pace, then Cassano can do so with his creativity and decision making. But then Spanish defence also had a great game against Portugal and till now they conceded only one goal in the entire tournament and it does show that they would be up for the challenge. Left back Alvaro Arbeloa and Sergio Ramos would especially be busy trying to stop Cassano from making any moves.
Andrea Pirlo vs Xavi Hernandez: Both these central midfielders have mastered the art of passing and are the links between the defence and the forwards. They have a very unique style of play and hardly anything goes wrong with their passing. They are very good with the ball distribution as well. These veterans would be key in creating moves for their respective teams and the match would see them going head to head each often and whoever wins the battle have the capability to win the match for their team.
Giorgio Chiellini vs David Silva: David Silva has been a livewire on the right flank for his side and as has been seen, he did penetrate the opposition penalty area on many occasions through the right. Coming to the final, same would be expected of him but then this time the task would not be easy because manning the area would be Italy’s left back Giorgio Chiellini. He was extremely good in the last match and did well to avert all the dangers in that area. So the battle between Silva and Chillieni would be a crucial on would affect the outcome of the match.
Spain’s forward vs duo of Andrea Barzagli and Leonardo Bonucci: These two Italian central defenders had been great so far in the tournament especially in the match against Germany. They foiled every German run and stood like rock in their way. Now it is very difficult to predict what formation Spain would start with, but nevertheless they still would have to work hard to go through them.
By Samikshan Dutta Choudhary
Indian Sports News
