Tonights second Semi-Final sees Germany take on Italy in Warsaw.
Germany have made a few changes & have gone back to the side that came through the group stages with one exception. Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller is replaced by club team mate Toni Kroos. I expect Kroos to spend a lot of the game covering Italian star, Andrea Pirlo. Pirlo was dominant against England and I expect Joachim Low sees him as the biggest threat to Germany's chances.
At this point Germany have 14 wins from 14 games in qualifying & the Finals. It is hard to find fault with them & they appear to have different options for every eventuality. Joachim Low has made few changes throughout the Finals but when he has they have worked perfectly. With Boateng suspended for the Denmark game he brought in Lars Bender & he responded by scoring the winning goal. Against Greece he made 3 changes & 2 of them scored goals. If Low says Kroos is starting in the Semi-Final then we have every reason to believe it will be the right choice.
Italy welcome back Giorgio Chiellini into their lineup & he will most likely start at left-back. Italy keep faith in Mario Balotelli and Antonio Cassano up front.
Italy have been decent so far but unfortunately for them, decent is unlikely to be good enough to beat Germany. Italy have to be better than they have been up to now and they most definitely cannot afford to be as wasteful in front of goal as they were against England.
I think this will be another tight game and wouldn't be at all surprised to see another penalty shootout decide the victor. However, I think the Germans possess more quality & think they can edge a close encounter.
Germany 1-0 Italy
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