"Super" Balotelli scored twice, bringing Italy into the cup competition

Mario Balotelli shone brightly when he scored a double in the first half to help Italy defeat Germany 2-1, thereby winning the right to play in the final of EURO 2012, where they will meet the Spanish team again.

This will be Italy's third EURO final, their first since 2000. In the group stage, Italy and Spain shared the points in a 1-1 draw. But this time, there will be no draw.

Meanwhile, this defeat once again deepened the pain of the Germans when after 8 matches in official tournaments, they still have not once enjoyed the joy of victory against the Italians.

Balotelli scored twice. (Source: Getty Images)

Going into this match, coach Joachim Loew made personnel adjustments compared to the match against Greece. Mario Gomez returned to the starting lineup to play as the highest striker in place of Klose. The two wings will no longer be Schurrle and Reus but instead Podolski and Kroos.

Meanwhile, Italy has had the return of their most highly rated central defender, Chiellini - who was unable to play in the match against England due to injury, to replace Abate. Along with that, De Rossi is still in the starting lineup. Italy's attack is still the duo of Mario Balotelli and Cassano.

The match became exciting right after the referee Stephane Lannoy blew the whistle when both sides' players actively increased the speed. In the 4th minute, Italy had a pretty good coordination, but unfortunately the final ball situation did not go as expected.

In the 6th minute, Germany had a great opportunity to open the score after a corner kick, but luckily for Italy, Pirlo blocked it.

Immediately after this situation, the match continued to be very exciting, Italy showed that they were not proactive in playing defense as many people predicted before this match took place.

In the 12th minute, Boateng had an extremely dangerous pass inside that made goalkeeper Buffon struggle to block. Immediately after that, Kroos continued to shoot from outside the 16m50 box but was still unsuccessful.

In the first minutes, Germany was the one who controlled the game and created many dangerous situations while Italy was somewhat stuck in launching attacks and Balotelli was almost isolated.

In the 17th minute, Italy also had the first shot towards Neuer from midfielder Montolivo. After this situation, Italy increased the pressure and Cassano also had the opportunity to test the talent of the opponent goalkeeper.

After two situations of firing at the goal by Montolivo and Cassano, the Italian team also converted the opportunity into a goal. In the 20th minute, from the left wing, Cassano flipped the ball enough for Balotelli to jump high and head the ball to open the score.

Balotelli's goal broke the deadlock and made the match much more exciting. The German team was forced to play high up the pitch in search of a goal. This would also be an opportunity for Italy to launch quick counter-attacks.

In the 27th minute, Mesut Oezil had a chance to finish after a combination with Gomez, but his shot was not enough to trouble goalkeeper Buffon.

In the following minutes, Germany still controlled the game better, but the chances they created were not difficult enough. Meanwhile, the Italian players also played more confidently and proactively compared to the first minutes of the match.

In the 34th minute, Boateng had another dangerous pass inside to his teammate, but Barzagli was able to block the ball before Podolski had a chance to shoot.

While the German team's attacks could not bring about a goal, in a very quick counter-attack by the Italian team, Balotelli had a very favorable situation when facing goalkeeper Neuer. Of course, this number 9 striker did not miss the opportunity to score a double in this match with a powerful shot. This was also his 3rd goal in this tournament.

Trailing by 2 goals in just 16 minutes, the German players tried very hard to attack in the remaining minutes of the first half but could not help them score a goal to shorten the score, and had to go to halftime with the result 0-2 in favor of Italy.

Right at the beginning of the second half, coach Joachim Loew made two personnel adjustments when he sent Klose and Marco Reus onto the field to replace Gomez and Podolski to create breakthroughs in the remaining 45 minutes of play.

Just a few minutes after being put on the field, Reus had a chance to shoot but could not beat Italy goalkeeper Buffon. A few minutes later, it was Lahm's turn but still could not succeed.

In the following minutes, Germany still controlled the game. In the 54th minute, Oezil initiated a dangerous attack, but against Italy's solid defense, it was difficult to score a goal to shorten the score for "The Tank."

Under pressure from the German team, coach Prandelli decided to take Cassano off the field and replace him with Diamanti to help Italy regain control of the game as well as prevent attacks from the white-shirted players.

In the 61st minute, Marco Reus had a very dangerous free kick from 25 meters away, but Buffon brilliantly denied the German team a goal when he flew to push the ball off the crossbar and out of bounds.

Immediately after this situation, Thiago Motta was also brought on to replace Montolivo. Obviously, coach Prandelli needed certainty to stop Germany's attacks rather than tirelessly searching for more goals.

In the 68th minute, Italy had another quick counter-attack and this time the one given the chance was Marchisio, but luckily for the German team, this midfielder's shot went wide of the post.

In the 71st minute, the German team made its final substitution, Mueller was brought in to replace Boateng. This change by coach Loew was quite risky as Italy played very well on counter-attacks.

While this substitution had not yet taken effect, the German goal had to face an extremely dangerous situation when Marchisio shot across the face of goalkeeper Neuer.

In the 82nd minute, Di Natale had a great chance to increase the score to 3-0, but unfortunately, in a face-to-face situation with goalkeeper Neuer, he inexplicably shot the ball wide of the goal.

In the final minutes of the match, the German team continued to try to attack. In fact, they also had opportunities but Hummels and then Oezil could not succeed.

It seemed like Germany would have to leave the match without a consolation goal, but in the extra minutes they were awarded a penalty after an Italian player handled the ball. On the 11m mark, Oezil brought the consolation goal for the German team with a decisive finish, reducing the score to .

However, that was not enough to help the Germans make a spectacular comeback. Thus, once again, Germany could not win against Italy and sadly watched their opponents go straight to the EURO 2012 final.

Germany - Italy 1-2

Virtue:Manuel Neuer - Jerome Boateng (Thomas Mueller 71), Mats Hummels, Holger Badstuber, Philipp Lahm (captain) - Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Lukas Podolski (Marco Reuss 46) - Mario Gomez (Miroslav Klose 46)

Italy:Gianluigi Buffon (captain) - Federico Balzaretti, Andrea Barzagli, Leonardo Bonucci, Giorgio Chiellini - Claudio Marchisio, Andrea Pirlo, Riccardo Montolivo (Thiago Motta 64) - Daniele De Rossi - Mario Balotelli (Antonio Di Natale 70), Antonio Cassano (Alessandro Diamanti 58)

Yellow card: Mario Balotelli (37), Leonardo Bonucci (61), Daniele De Rossi (84), Thiago Motta (89)

Goal: Ozil 90+2-pen - Italy Balotelli 20, 36

According to VNA - DT