Italy and Spain fight for title

Germany´s title ambitions came to a quick end in persona of Mario Balotelli. The Italian striker scored twice in the first half of the semifinal Germany against Italy to secure his team the final. Spain beat Portugal in penalty shoot-out to proceed to the final also.

Italy´s Balotelli ended German hopes.

The European Championship 2012 in Poland and Ukraine is over for Germany. The title aspirant lost the semifinal against Italy with 2-1. Italian striker Mario Balotelli scored twice during the first half to end all hopes of German football fans.

The first 15 minutes were clearly Germany´s as they had several good opportunities to score the lead, but after Mats Hummels, who played a brilliant Euro, lost one of the very few battles this tournament Cassanos ball found Balotelli´s head and it was 1-0. Just a quarter of an hour later Balotelli was their again to score the second goal after a clear mistake of Philip Lahm and him running free on to Manuel Neuer hammering the ball into the right ankle.

Germany tried to fight back but did not manage to get into the opponents box really dangerously. Mesut Oezil´s scored penalty in minute 91 came too late to change something and Germany was out. Italy will face Spain in the final as they proceeded against Portugal in penalty shoot-out.

The team around Christiano Ronaldo was more or less the better one or at least at the same level as Spain over 120 minutes. Both teams failed to score and the shoot-out was the logical consequence. The first two shooters missed having Moutinho equalizing Xabi Alonso´s miss. Bruno Alves hammered the fourth shot on to the bar and Cesc Fabregas sealed the deal before Portugal´s Superstar Ronaldo even had the chance to try one as he was supposed to shot the fifth and final penalty. Spain and Italy will face on Sunday night at 8 pm 45 in Kiev.