Footy

The stage is set for the big game tonight.  Germany vs. Italy.  Amazingly Germany have never beaten Italy in a tournament game.  Will it change tonight?

On a far, far smaller scale - Enoch has been doing some footballing himself.  The following pictures come from a series that he set up and photographed for his cousin Ashish who just celebrated his 6th birthday this week.

Interestingly enough, the colours he chose could be used for tonight's match.  We will thus run this match with the Blues for Italy (Azurri) and the Blacks for Germany (die Mannschaft).

So lets meet the teams!  The blues come in first - Italy all ready for a great game tonight!

You can use your imagination to assign players to the mini-figures that Enoch chose for this team.

And now the blacks come on - Die Mannschaft all ready battle it out for football glory!

 It looks like the photographer was all caught up with the emotion of the moment and so the determined faces of the German players are in soft focus.

Enoch made sure that each goalie is a different colour from the rest of his team-mates - so here we would have Manfred Neuer surrounded by the other German players.

No game can be played without the match officials.

Enoch brought on a lines-man complete with flag and a referee who is already brandishing a red card.

Hopefully tonight's game will not be a throw-back to the vicious hacking that the Germans used to be known for in my youth.

In fact - they are the youngest team of Euro 2012 and have been playing some gloriously flowing footy!

A sell-out crowd has gathered for the historic match in Warsaw!

The fans have come from near and far - with lots of locals swelling the ranks.  The prize will be a spot in the finals to face the defending European Champions and World Cup holders Spain.  Will Italy break through?  Will Germany live up to the huge expectations that has been piled on them?  The atmosphere is crackling with excitement!  Onwards!

Here come the captains for the flipping of the coin and to hand over the ceremonial pendants to each other.

Gianluigi Buffon, the hero of the match against England, strides up confidently.

And his German counterpart, the diminutive but thunder-footed Philip Lahm comes forward.

Hands are shaken all-round.  The clock is ticking down.

The whistle blows and the game starts!

My word, what a tangle of bodies!

The magnitude of the game is cramping the natural flow of the players - its everyman after the ball!

The crowd roars with approval as the ball passes rapidly between players - each team trying their hardest to get the small round globe into their possession, down the field and into the opponent's net!

Ole! Ole! Ole!    Ole!  Ole!

And then it happens.

The teams converge on the ball - who will get it?  Will Mario Balotelli be able to wriggle it out?  Will Bastian Schweinsteiger boss it forward towards the Italian goal?

In the middle of a sea of black clad defenders the talented Italian mid-field maestro Andrea Pirlo conjures up a magic moment.  Pirlo manages to get his boot on the ball and somehow hammer it through a wall of Germans, fiercely slicing in the air, dipping down towards the German goal

Manfred Neuer, the German goalie stretches out to his full 6 feet plus frame- but the ball fizzes inside the far post!  That was only ever going to meet the back of the net!

Then a heart-stopping moment as the whistle blows - will the linesman call an offside on the blue tide?

The whole stadium goes quiet as the match officials confer.

No, the goal stands!

Italy lead Germany 1:0.

The Italian players make a leaning tower of Pisa on top of Andrea Pirlo!

Its Italy 1 and Germany 0!  Will this put Italy into the Euro Final against the Red Armada of Spain on Sunday night?   Or will Germany gather its many talented players and hit back with a brace or a trio of goals?   I personally think Germany can edge Italy out 3:1  but this is where we will leave Enoch's lego men and their footy game.

In less than 2 hours from now the real game will get underway in Warsaw.  Enoch chose his blue men because that was the most common colour he had in his lego mini-figures.  I think he had Chelsea in mind when he arranged them and took the photos we have enjoyed.

All the Eichers will be getting up at 1.40 AM this morning to catch the second half of the Germany - Italy semi-finals.  Everyone other than me is already asleep.  The alarm is set.  Lets see what happens in the footy game!