Three time winners Germany have not quite lived up to expectations in the near past.
For the World Cup 2002 finalists, the qualifying round
match against Scotland was quite a struggle and even suffered a scare from Faroe Islands.
Nevertheless, with players like Michael Ballack in midfield and attackers Kevin Kuranyi
and Fredi Bobic, the team is still formidable. And fact remains that five times in the
10 competitions, it reached the finals.
Germany performed impressively at the 2006 FIFA World Cup to finish third.
But then they were at their home turf. They are eager to prove they can repeat the feat at UEFA EURO 2008,
without the benefit of home advantage.
The then coach Jürgen Klinsmann gave way to his former assistant
Joachim Löw at the start of qualifying. But the squad has changed little. Christoph Metzelder,
Per Mertesacker and Philipp Lahm remain first choices in defence, with Lahm likely to replace
Arne Friedrich at right-back, allowing Marcell Jansen to show his class on the left.
The experienced campaigners Torsten Frings and Bernd Schneider are
unlikely to budge from the team sheet before the finals. Michael Ballack is expected to be
deployed in a holding role, rather than taking up attacking position as he did at the 2002
World Cup. This may restrict Ballack's chances to get forward, but will give Germany more stability.
Up front, Miroslav Klose is a certainty. His impressive international
record is sure to earn him a place in Löw's favoured 4-4-2 formation, and the battle
is between Kevin Kuranyi, 2007 German Player of the Year Mario Gómez, and Lukas
Podolski for the second striker's role. Podolski also gave Löw, and Bastian Schweinsteiger,
plenty to think about by performing well when deployed on the left side of midfield.
Löw is committed to 4-4-2 formation. But he is liable to
make adjustments in midfield in the event of injuries. If either of his preferred
holding midfielders, Ballack and Frings, are unavailable he can play a diamond formation,
with Thomas Hitzlsperger in the anchor role. But he will certainly prefer to have the
extra security of two defensive midfielders.
Germany Euro Squad
This is the official Euro 2008 Squad of Germany:
(the deadline for nominating the Euro squad was May 28)
Goalkeepers
Jens Lehmann
Robert Enke
Rene Adler
Defenders
Arne Friedrich
Clemens Fritz
Marcell Jansen
Philipp Lahm
Per Mertesacker
Christoph Metzelder
Heiko Westermann
Midfielders
Michael Ballack
Tim Borowski
Torsten Frings
Thomas Hitzlsperger
Simon Rolfes
Bastian Schweinsteiger
David Odonkor
Piotr Trochowski
Strikers
Miroslav Klose
Kevin Kuranyi
Oliver Neuville
Lukas Podolski
Mario Gomez
User opinions and Euro 2008 betting prediction on Germany:
I think that Germany will win it they are a solid team that all work for each other they are compact at defence, powerful in midfield and up front they have a few options were they can get a lot of goals. And in the big competitions you can never discount the Germans!!
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Hello I would like to enter the competition of picking the winner of Euro 2008.
I will stick with the current favorites Germany. They have been favorites for quite sometime and now is not the time to get off them.
I think if they do make the final they will play a roughie like the Netherlands, Czech or Croatia.
With the likes of Spain or Italy getting bundled out in the Semi’s
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Hi , Well for me the outright winner is Germany , i'm a german fan supporter defender and lover , i already met all the players and got pictures with everyone ... i'm a german fan since 5 years old and now i'm 25 ... i think Germany will alws get a chance to win a tournement cause simple the germans plays the best discipline football with very strong fitness , and if u take a look at the german history its one of the best ,, maybe the final portugal and Germany ,, believe me the germans got a football secret no one have it ,, like when brazil or any big team when they play Vs us u never see the dribling skills and the beautiful football , we turn them off like Ronaldo in the workd cup when portugal lost 3 to 1 ,
anyway My pick is Germany Germany Germany ,, i can talk from now till the end of time on german soccer
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I would like to tip: Germany because they qualified for the finals in record time (237 days) and coach Joachim's solid 4-4-2 formation has few weak links, and with ballack, Klose, and Podolski + others all still in place after the their 3rd place finish in the World Cup 2006 in Germany they should make a big impression this EURO '08 in their neighbours backyard.
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Im backing Germany to win as they look to have an easy run to the semis assuming they win their group. I then suspect a win over portugal in the semi's. And if greece could win the last final then i imagine Germany can too in similarly dull manner regardless of the opposition. At the very least worth backing to reach the final.
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