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Both coaches have big decisions to make as they prepare for a re-run of the Euro 2008 final. For Germany, who will replace the suspended Thomas Mueller? For Spain, will they keep faith with Fernando Torres?

They are big calls to decide, especially for the Spanish who must be concerned about the striker’s lack of form and are pondering a change in formation also. This is a real heavyweight clash and those selection decisions could be the key.

Touchline duel

Few coaches are as experienced and respected – and fatherly - as Vicente Del Bosque who has taken this golden generation of Spanish football to a higher level. His commitment to attacking pay is laudable although he also knows his team have not quite fired in this competition.

Joachim Löw has proved himself to be one of the most organised, articulate and impressive coaches in this World Cup and has blended together an exciting team having confirmed the belief that he was the brains behind the renaissance of German football. (continue reading…)

Diego Maradona’s dream of guiding Argentina to their first World Cup since he won it almost single-handedly in 1986 was ended in emphatic fashion as a rampant Germany  cruised into the semi-finals at the expense of the South Americans.

Stunning displays by Bastian Schweinsteiger, Thomas Müller and Miroslav Klose drove the Germans to victory against woeful Argentina at Green Point Stadium.
Müller, who opened the scoring on three minutes, will now miss Wednesday’s semi-final against Spain or Paraguay in Durban after being booked in the first-half.

The loss of the Bayern Munich forward will be a major blow for Germany, but the three-time world champions will not lack confidence whoever their face in four days’ time.

With both teams suffering with a weakness at the heart of their defence, the general consensus was that Argentina’s superior attackers would prove decisive in Cape Town.

But Germany are nothing if not organised and tactically astute and Joachim Löw’s players nullified the threat of the Argentine’s in a low-key first-half.

German dominance was perhaps down to their third minute opener, when Müller claimed his fourth goal of the tournament with a clinical header from ten yards. (continue reading…)

The 4-1 win over England made German national team even more confident that they can go all the way in this tournament. In the last match, they outplayed the English squad and all lines in the team functioned very well.

Now Germany will face a very tough challenge playing with Argentina which will be a great match to watch and probably another classic. This would be sixteenth time for Germans to play in the quarterfinals at the World Cup history.

The biggest strength of this German team is that they play as one unit, all players and lines in the team help each other and they have a good discipline in their way of playing. Coach Loew said that they will have to repeat the performance against England in order to beat Argentina and go further.

Germany will play once again in usual formation with one striker - Miroslav Klose and two offensive midfielders behind him – Mesut Ozil and Lucas Podolski. Thomas Muller, Sami Khedira and Bastian Schweinsteiger will take their places in the midfield and the captain Phillip Lahm, Arne Friedrich, Per Mertesacker and Jerome Boateng will be the defenders in front of Manuel Neuer. Arne Friedrich will be the player assigned to guard Messi and be his shadow in this match.

This will be a repeat from the quarter final match at the World Cup 2006 when Germany and Argentina played for 2-2 draw and then the Germans went on to win the game on penalties. (continue reading…)

The Frenchman believes England should have used their experience to stop Germany’s counter-attacking threat.

England pulled the score back to 2-1 and had a goal disallowed but were hit on the break when chasing an equaliser.

“England had taken over the game and I think they were killed by their impatience,” Wenger told Arsenal’s website.

“They came back in the second half to 2-1 and they controlled the game.

“What made me sad was that, with the experience they had, they were caught. It was free-kick for England, goal for Germany.

“You do what they did with five minutes to go OK but not with 25 minutes left.”
England’s disappointing performances in the tournament in South Africa has led to criticism of manager Fabio Capello, the players, the structure of the Premier League as well as increasing calls for a winter break. (continue reading…)

By Paul Kelso

From his seat in the VIP section of the Free State Stadium, Sepp Blatter had only to turn his head to see a monitor showing the instant replay that confirmed Frank Lampard’s 38th-minute shot had crossed the German goal-line after crashing off Manuel Neuer’s crossbar.

It was a luxury denied the match officials. Thanks to the Fifa president’s continued intransigence on the issue of technology, they were left to rely on the erroneous evidence of their eyes.

The result was that a perfectly good goal was ruled out despite swift and unambiguous evidence of its legitimacy. No-one in the England camp, save perhaps for Fabio Capello, was claiming that the decision was the reason for defeat. But had the equaliser stood it is fair to surmise that the nature of the game would have changed, if not the outcome.
“It is incredible that there is no technology,” Capello said. “We played with five referees and they cannot decide whether that it is a goal or not. That one goal would have made the game completely different. I saw from the bench that the ball had gone over the line. I do not understand this.” (continue reading…)

RIO FERDINAND has told his England pals to picture victory over Germany tomorrow.
England’s crocked skipper says he always gets inspired just by looking at a photograph of Deutschland 1 England 5.

That was the unforgettable scoreline when our boys crushed the Germans in Munich back in 2001.

Ferdinand said: “I know we can do it on Sunday. When I think of Germany, the 5-1 win in the Olympic Stadium always springs to my mind.

“I love that photo of the scoreboard. I have a copy at home.

“It was a brilliant moment. Such things stay with you for ever.”

Current acting skipper Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, Emile Heskey and Jamie Carragher are all survivors from that night.

Ferdinand is also backing Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney to burst back into form in Bloemfontein.

He added: “The Germany game is where Wazza can do the business.

“I’m desperate for him to come out of this tournament as the game’s greatest player. If it happens, there’s a chance we’ll win the World Cup.”

Meanwhile former Germany chief Franz Beckenbauer has apologised for branding England ’stupid’ for not winning Group C and suggesting they were ‘burnt out’ by a tough Premier League season.

He said: “Before the World Cup I thought England would maybe win it.

“They have a great team and a great coach and then, after the first two games, I was so disappointed.

“Maybe my words were the reaction of my disappointment but I apologise.”

DAVID JAMES wants to be the shootout hero against Germany - by SCORING a penalty.
The England keeper says he is willing to take a spot-kick if needed tomorrow as well as trying to keep the Germans out.

James said: “Of course I’ll take one because if the situation occurred, there would be certain players who would rather not take penalties.

“I’m not naming names but the reality is that some players are less inclined. Maybe I’ll take the last one.”

It would not be the first time a keeper has stepped up to hit a penalty in a shootout involving England.

Portugal stopper Ricardo famously scored his side’s winner to put England out in the Euro 2004 quarter-finals.

But James is adamant it will be England going through from tomorrow’s last-16 clash.

He insisted: “We have a strong side and we are not fearful of them at all.

“We are confident we will make the British people happy by beating Germany.”

The Germans take a different approach to penalties – unlike the English, we don’t make such a big deal of it. You’re asked to shoot and you shoot and you don’t think about it too much.
We want to finish the match in normal time, of course, but the English are afraid when it comes to penalties, even though you could still beat us after 90 minutes and extra time.

For us, it’s not about penalties, it’s about playing football over 90 minutes against the English. Yes, we missed a penalty for the first time in 28 years in the group stages, but Germany are not afraid of penalties, and you can’t practise them.
I think there’s more pressure on the England  players because the core of the team won’t play in four years’ time. By 2014, they are going to be too old. They are called the golden generation and yet they haven’t won a big championship. They know that it’s now or never for them at the World Cup.

You know as a country, even though you have great individual players, you haven’t done a whole lot at international tournaments, and that’s always surprising to us in Germany. Germany have only one or two star players, and England have three in Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and John Terry, but Germany seem to be more of a unit, more of a team. And it is a team competition. (continue reading…)

Two hours before kick off. Until then nothing is certain. Fabio Capello is understood to be reluctant to change the team that beat Slovenia but for all the Italian’s famed imperviousness to pressure, he does like a last-minute decision.
For the provisional squad he changed his mind on Owen Hargreaves, for the final 23 he left it late on Theo Walcott and on the morning of the Algeria game, he decided to switch from Rob Green to David James in goal.

Going into the final preparations for Sunday’s game with Germany, Jamie Carragher is hoping the England manager has another one of those second thoughts.
Capello clearly favours Carragher over Matthew Upson. That much was clear when he was selected to be Ledley King’s deputy after he was injured against the Americans.

But Upson did capably well against Slovenia and, perhaps crucially, is quicker over the turf than Carragher. The way Carragher was effortlessly rolled by Jozy Altidore in Rustenburg was not lost on Capello. (continue reading…)