Rob Soria is the Edmonton Oilers' correspondent for OurHometown.ca. Rob was born and raised in Edmonton and is the author of the Edmonton Oilers blog - OilDrop.ca. He has been a dedicated follower of the game and its history for years but his focus remains on his hometown Edmonton Oilers. If you have questions or wish to contact Rob, you can email him at rsoria@ourhometown.ca
Euro 2012: Germany into the final four after crushing Greece
Rob Soria
OurHometown.ca
No one was expecting Greece to give Germany much of a run in their quarter final match and the 4-2 final was frankly flattering. Despite leaving three regulars on their bench for the match, they had goals from four different players and were never in any real danger. The win leaves Germany with a semi-final date against the winner of Sunday's Italy vs England match, which will take place on June 28th in Warsaw, with a spot in the European Championship Final on the line.
Edmonton - June 22, 2012 - No one was expecting Greece to give Germany much of a run in their quarter final match and the 4-2 final was frankly flattering. Despite leaving three regulars on their bench for the match, they had goals from four different players and were never in any real danger. The win leaves Germany with a semi-final date against the winner of Sunday's Italy vs England match, which will take place on June 28th in Warsaw, with a spot in the European Championship Final on the line.
In a first half where Germany had the ball for nearly eighty percent of the time, the play was in the Greece end of the field for what seemed to be the entire opening forty-five minutes. They had their chances but the nine man defensive wall in blue did there job in keeping them to the outside...that is until the thirty-ninth minute.
Philipp Lahm beat goalkeeper Michalis Sifakis with a lovely strike from just outside the box but some awful marking left the German captain with far too much space to work his magic. For a team that was in an all out defensive shell, there is no excuse for allowing Lalm the time to step up and unleash the shot he did.
Not much changed through the early going of the second half but a lazy turnover in the middle of the pitch from the Germans, created a chance out of nothing for the Greece. On one of their view ventures into Germany's side of half, Georgios Samaras knocked home a Dimitris Salpingidis cross past a stunned Manuel Neuer. Just like that, we were level with thirty-five minutes to go and perhaps Germany were regretting their decision to sit regulars Mario Gomez, Thomas Mueller and Lukas Podolski.
While the goal gave Greeks everywhere hope of pulling off the major upset, it also woke the Germans up. Six minutes after the Samaras goal, Sami Khedira absolutely tattooed a cross from Jerome Boateng and into the back of the net. That put them back in the lead and opened the flood gates.
An unmarked Miroslav Klose would make it 3-1 with an open header off a free kick that was poorly played by the entire Greece back line and their goalkeeper. Shortly thereafter, Marco Reus would make it three goals in thirteen minutes, smashing home another free ball into a wide open goal, after Klose was stopped by Sifakis but the keeper was left in no man's land and out of position.
A late penalty from Salpingidis made it 4-2 but this was simply men against boys. Look for a well rested and healthy Germany squad to be at their very best in the semi-finals. Be it against Italy or England, Germany will be the clear favourite to reach the finals on July1st at the Olympic Stadium in Kyiv but they will needed to produce their best game of the tournament.
