Euro 2012 2nd Semi Final - Die Mannschaft to give Azzurri the Blues

The second semi final takes place at the National Stadium, Warsaw between our pre-tournament outright pick Germany and England's conquerors Italy. In their respective quarter finals the Germans easily overcame Greece 4-2 whilst Italy dominated an unambitious & technically deficient England side but could only muster victory via a penalty shootout.



(Mario Gomez could return to the starting lineup to feed off the excellent service of Mesut Ozil)

Coach Joachim Low guided his side to a record breaking 15th successive competitive win despite resting the attacking trio of Thomas Muller, Mario Gomez & Lukas Podolski in their quarter final match & gave exciting youngsters Andre Schurrle & Marco Reus and the evergreen Miroslav Klose game time after their limited involvement in the group phrase. Not only did it provide the usual starters a prolonged period of rest but the two youngsters were excellent & Klose popped up with a goal so provides Low with confident attacking options from the bench if needed. There are plenty of calls for all three quarter final attackers to keep their spots & we were hugely impressed with Reus especially - if he's equally effective on the left of attack he could easily nick Lukas Podolski's place in the starting eleven. If Reus does start we think he's a cracking bet to open the scoring at 9/1 & is worth a punt, if he doesn't start & there's a goal before he gets on the pitch you'll get your stake back anyway.

Italy dominated quarter finalists England in every department Sunday night but it doesn't hide the fact they didn't manage to find a breakthrough, they may have hit the woodwork twice & registered nearly twenty attempts on target but none were more than regulation saves for England keeper Joe Hart (who also pulled off one of his now trademark knockdowns straight to an attacker). It means that Italy have only scored one goal in ten games from open play & strikers Mario Balotelli, Antonio Cassano & Antonio Di Natale should find the chances much harder to come by against Germany.



(Stop Andrea Pirlo....... stop Italy?)

Italy do have one of the standout players of the tournament so far in playmaker Andrea Pirlo (tipped here at 80/1 for the player of the tournament title) - it seems unbelievable that Milan released him on a free transfer last summer; a decision which backfired when he guided rivals Juventus to the title last season & he's continued his fine form here. Pirlo has an intriguing battle ahead with the excellent combination of Sami Khedira & Bastian Schweinsteiger looking to stop him pulling the strings for the Italians - if they can, which will be far from easy, then you fear for the Italians in a creative sense & it could spell the end of their championship run.

A changed German side have had virtually a whole week off since their quarter final whilst Italy have had to contend with extra time & penalties two days later. Freshness is with the Germans & Italy also have to cope with a number of muscle injuries to defenders Ignazio Abate & Giorgio Chiellini and Roma's midfielder Daniele De Rossi - it remains to be seen which players recover in time for the game. Italy will also have wing back Christian Maggio suspended for the game which further limits their options, Germany's talisman Bastian Schweinsteiger is a slight injury worry again but he should be ready. Germany seem to have that bit more quality in terms of goal threats throughout the side so take advantage of the general 10/11 on offer for them to beat the Azzurri in 90 minutes & make the final.

Selections:

Germany to beat Italy at 10/11 (various)
Marco Reus to score first at9/1 (Bet365, BetVictor & Stan James)