Arsenal attacking midfielder Ozil featured for Germany in the Euro 2016 quarter-final tie against Italy at Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux in Bordeaux. “I did prepare, but none of their penalty takers aimed where they usually do”.
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“From a fighter’s point of view, it was fantastic what the side did”, said Loew as Germany reached the semis at a Euro finals for the third time in a row.
“It was something special to have so many penalty-takers, such drama!” If it weren’t for some equally comical penalties such as the one we saw from Simone Zaza, Germany might have been on a plane bound for Berlin by Sunday lunch time.
We did not beat Italy in 120 minutes. “I want to say sorry to my team-mates, to the coach, to the fans and to anyone else who wished me the best”, Pelle told reporters.
As Germany, as ever, won the battle of nerves from the spot. “Right after the Italy-Spain game, it was my first thought to play like this”.
“As a player, you never want a penalty shoot-out because it is a lottery to some extent”, Muller said.
“Of course it was lucky in the end but through the game we were superior, we had two or three more chances than them”. But we had the upper hand. But you can not deny them this.
“I think the biggest victory for me is having worked with this group of lads”. Conceding from a penalty was a bit unlucky. I fought in vain to move the Coppa Italia final as I wanted to work with the players because our only chance of achieving something great, our only hope, was to work as a small war machine. He’s still a good goalkeeper and the team’s captain, but there’s no doubt that he’s lost a bit with age and he will be 40 years old in come Russian Federation.
German coach Joachim Loew paid Italy a fine compliment by changing his formation for this match, choosing to fight fire with fire by playing three defenders at the back like his Italy counterpart Antonio Conte.
“They have great individual quality”, he said. “We tried to close down the center for Italy”.
He added: “We gave our soul to follow this dream”. I know that I am proud on how the team played and I am gutted for them.
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The Bayern Munich man added that he had lots of work to do, as the opposition had made a decision to go with an impromptu system instead of picking the corners that they shot at last.
