All change but still the same result for impressive Germans
Published:Germany are now 13/8 to be European champions after producing a scintillating attacking performance to dispose of Euro 2012 underdogs Greece in a goal laden contest in Gdansk.
Joachim Low sprung a surprise in his team selection replacing his entire front three for a crucial game despite the likes of Mario Gomez heading up the goal-scoring charts for the competition.
Pre-match the talk of this seemingly strange selection – in which Gomez, Thomas Muller and Lukas Podolski were replaced by Marco Reus, Miroslav Klose and Andre Schurrle – was centred around the Germans showing their Greek opponents a lack of respect.
However, once the game got underway it was evident that the German manager had got his tactics spot on.
The introduction of three more energetic players meant that Die Mannschaft were able to drag the usually rigid Greek defence all over the pitch, opening up spaces for Mesut Ozil and Bastian Schweinsteiger to exploit with their exquisite passing and intelligent play.
Two of the three new starters found the back of the net, with Klose notching a trademark header and Reus smashing a perfect volley into the top corner of the net.
The only of the trio not to score was Schurrle, but the Leverkusen man was a threat throughout and his direct and jinky wing play gave his side a dimension they do not possess with Podolski and Muller either side of a centre forward.
The impressive performance displayed the wealth of options at Low’s disposal, strengthened even further when he was able to bring the quality of Mario Gotze into the action, another youngster of undoubted talent.
The depth of the German squad rivals, if not surpasses, that of the Spanish and the fact they looked just at home with plan B and they did plan A is represented by their price of 1/2 to make the final.
