Quote:
Originally Posted by whomario
thanks for breaking that down, allways appreciate the work you do there 
Hope the Netherlands beat Portugal, although i must admit that iīd rather have Denmark advance. Thereīs allways the possibility of a high-potential team like Holland putting it all together after a miraculous last second advancing and if you donīt mind i donīt want to meet such a team in the final 
German team canīt slack, so thatīs good for the dutch. I expect 2 or 3 changes at most (Boateng is banned with 2 yellows, then i guess 1 midfielder and Klose getting the start to get some rythm as there will be a game where you need him to come in and score, not be an aditional defender) |
Yesterday we needed Portugal to win and now on Sunday we need Germany to win. From a dutch perspective, that feels like worshiping the devil: we have to root for the teams that we dislike the most of all. Actually, I think most dutch don't dislike the current German team, they play fun to watch soccer and have a classy bunch of players. They turned into the 'new Oranje'. Portugal however...)
Although, the general expectation here is that Germany will try to draw with the Danes, ensuring group victory and knocking out Oranje, yet at the same time Portugal will pull their usual tricks and beat us, few people think we can beat them, lett alone by the required 2 goals.
It would be quite unique to experience a group phase knock-out, we've been spoiled with surviving 'groups of death' (2000, 2004, 2006, 2008), in my soccer aware life time we failed to reach the knock-out phase only once: the 2002 WC, that we entirely missed. In contrast, aside from the Ukraine, all the other participants at Euro2012 had to go through it at least twice.