Stuart Pearce is the 4/1 favourite with Sky Bet to succeed Fabio Capello as England manager and tonight he can prove his credentials by guiding the Young Lions to their first trophy since 1984. To do so Psycho will have to conquer Germany, who broke his heart twice as a player. Here are five stats about the game courtesy of our friends at chickendinner:
1. There have been three occasions under the current format where two teams from the same group have met in the final and on two of those, the side who came second - in this case Germany - triumphed.
2. Germany have never previously won the competition but have - either as East or West - lost in the final four times, including a 1974 defeat to Hungary when it was still an Under-23 competition.
The reaction of the American media to their national side ending Spain’s 35-game unbeaten streak may have been unbearable but it would have been just as bad - if not worse - over here if England had done it. The USA have made this pretty meaningless tournament worth watching and they will fancy their chances of winning it after seeing Brazil stumble past South Africa last night in the other semi-final. The bookies don’t though and some of the trends identified by our friends at chickendinner make it easy to see why:
1. Brazil have won 14 of their 15 matches against USA (one after extra-time). The USA’s one win over the holders came in the 1998 Gold Cup Final, with former Everton winger Predrag “Preki” Radosavljevic scoring the winner.
2. USA haven’t scored against Brazil in three previous Confederations Cup meetings, with Dunga’s side beating them 1-0 in 1999 and 2003 and winning 3-0 against them last Thursday.
When you brush aside his arrogance, whinging and tendency to physically abuse fellow players and photographers, Jens Lehmann is a professional who accepts defeat in the manner expected of an experienced international player. Oh wait, that’s not true at all:
“The referee (Roberto Rosetti) was a catastrophe and sometimes I think it is fixed when I see such a referee, who is biased and not correct in his decisions.”
For example, A Spanish player (David Silva) head-butted our player (Lukas Podolski) and the referee saw it and the linesman saw it.”
In an interview screened in ITV’s highlights package last night, Lehmann essentially said that he didn’t care how he was punished for his outburst as he wouldn’t be playing in the Euros again. But he didn’t need to say a word: the look the grumpy German gave as the Spaniards went up to receive their winner’s medals (captured in glorious GIF format above) was absolutely priceless.
Torres and co drink the German’s milkshake in Vienna
The world’s media are making a big fuss about Spain finally breaking their 44 year spell without any silverware, and this could be a great sign for England: by the 2010 World Cup, we will have been waiting exactly the same amount of time for a tournament win…
England’s two best teams travel 1600 miles in search of neutral venue
Some facts about the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow: It holds nearly 85,000 people, it used to be called the ‘Central Lenin Stadium’ and it has hosted concerts by hair metal gods such as Skid Row, Mötley Crüe and Scorpions. On May 21, however, those lucky enough (read: ‘rich enough’) to acquire a visa will head to the world’s most expensive city, in order to see Manchester Utd and Chelsea compete for the most prestigious piece of silverware on the continent. The bookies put United ever-so-slightly ahead, but based on last week’s match, the Red Devils would probably rather face any other team in the world right now.
So who do you think will win it? Votes and comments below, please.
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