Presently, you could argue that the German National Team has the most overworked players (apart from the Dutch, Spanish and England) at the Euro 2012 tournament. The likes of Thomas Mueller, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Mario Gomez were barely given a week to recover themselves before turning up at their training camp in Tourrettes, France, while Arjen Robben played a friendly for The Netherlands a mere three days after Bayern’s Champions League final loss! That’s pretty tragic, despite the fact that nobody really cares about Robben! International football can be merciless – why on earth is Platini hovering around the buffet table and not acting as quickly as he should?
Anyway, Joachim Low announced his final 23-man squad heading to Ukraine last night, a line-up which failed to include goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen, the ‘villain’ who conceded five goals in Germany’s terrifying 3-5 defeat to the Swiss on Saturday. Cacau, Julian Draxler and Sven Bender were also dropped from the squad. It’s sad not to have made the final cut, but that’s life!
Goalkeepers: Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich), Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen), Ron-Robert Zieler (Hanover)
Defenders: Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich), Jerome Boateng (Bayern Munich), Benedikt Hoewedes (Schalke 04), Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund), Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich), Marcel Schmelzer (Borussia Dortmund), Per Mertesacker (Arsenal/ENG)
Midfielders: Lars Bender (Bayer Leverkusen), Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich), Thomas Mueller (Bayern Munich), Mesut Oezil (Real Madrid/ESP), Andre Schuerrle (Bayer Leverkusen), Sami Khedira (Real Madrid/ESP), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Mario Goetze (Borussia Dortmund), Ilkay Guendogan (Borussia Dortmund)
Forwards: Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich), Miroslav Klose (Lazio/ITA), Lukas Podolski (Arsenal/ENG), Marco Reus (Borussia Moenchengladbach)
As they have traditionally done over the span of the last four years, La Seleccion held a big welcome party in Cibeles square upon arrival from Kiev yesterday after visiting the royal palace (Zarzuela). The ‘fiesta’ was held at the ...
Tonight marks “Un día histórico“ for Spain, who became the first team in history to successfully defend their Euro 2012 title. Their 4-0 victory defied expectations and predictions as the Italians found themselves struggling to come up with an answer ...
Final
Spain vs Italy
Kiev – 1945
It is with immense sadness that we write our last Euro 2012 preview for you guys, but as written all over Cesc Fabregas’s face at yesterday training session, it’s about bloody time for that FINAL! Spain packed their bags ...