Germany began Euro 2008 as favourites. The fact that they were more-or-less on their own doorstep for their group matches in Austria may have has some bearing on the bookmakers’ decisions. So too may have been that, due to the change in the structure of the tournament, Germany were in the weaker half of the draw. It seemed only Portugal and Croatia would provide any difficulty, if any.

But it must have been the fact that Germany are Germany that made up the bookmakers’ minds because after watching the tournament, Germany looked nothing more than a mediocre side punching above their weight. In the final on Sunday they were bombarded with Spanish attacks and were lucky to escape only conceding one. At the other end they rarely even threatened the goal of Iker Casillas.

There is some quality in the German side and not all of it shone through. Klose and Lahm, two of Germany’s better players had poor overall tournaments and the players expected to shine after good seasons, Gomez and Jansen, never really got going. Gomez got off to a bad start but his miss of the tournament against Austria, effectively ended his part in the competition, his only other appearance after that was for five or ten minutes in the final.

I am amazed that Germany reached this far with the way they defended. Per Mertesacker gave the ball away time and time again from the start of the tournament to the end. Even against such lowly opposition as Austria he was caught in possession, which almost led to Austria taking the lead. His central defensive partner Christoph Metzelder was better but still prone to an error. In all honesty, I though Metzelder had a decent four games. He was good in possession braver in challenges but when it came to the big stage, the final, he was all over the place.

But these two could not have been filled with confidence knowing who was behind them in goals. Lehmann has obviously proved he has been a top quality goalkeeper in the past but even during his time at Arsenal he was never the safest pair of hands. No wonder a section of the Stuttgart support were recently against signing him and not just for the fact that he peaked while at Dortmund.

In reaching the final, however, Der Mannschaft obviously done something right. In Joachim Löw they have a shrewd tactician and in players like Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger they have talent that will safely take them to tournaments in the future. Ballack and Frings have formed a great partnership in the middle of the park but will they both still be there come South Africa in two years time? And who will replace them? Simon Rolfes looked impressive in Germany’s best performance over the last six weeks but was found out as Turkey’s midfield ran riot in the first half of the semi final. Thomas Hitzlsperger, who didn’t start a match until the knockout stages, was anonymous for most of his playing time.

Unless Germany have a disastrous qualification, which begins against Liechtenstein in September, Löw will lead Germany to the World Cup in 2010. However, he will need to use the qualification to bring through some younger, more dynamic talent rather than relying on the ‘German mentality’ that has taken them through to the latter stages in the past.

Leaving the defence aside for a second, it seems logical to start with the best number 1 of the competition. Originally I was going to give my top first XI but then I realised that at least three, possibly four, goalkeepers deserved a mention. So instead I am going to provide, what I believe to be, the best squad of the tournament and pick my first XI from that.

If Poland didn’t have Artur Boruc in goal they would have been severely embarrassed and probably would have finished the worst team of the tournament instead of Greece. His heroics, including three one-on-one saves, in the first twenty minutes against Austria means he deserves at least a place on the bench. If Poland had been a better side and progressed further I have no doubt that he would have been the goalkeeper of the tournament. My other substitute goalkeeper has to be the Turk Volkan Demirel. The only reason he is missing out on the top spot is for his inexcusable push on Jan Koller, which earned him a red card and meant he missed out on the quarter and semi final matches. Despite losing a total of four goals against Portugal and the Czech Republic he made a string of outstanding saves in both matches. Gianluca Buffon was the other name who deserves a shout, not least for his penalty save against Romania to keep his side in the tournament, but I feel that he wasn’t really tested as much as the others due to the defence in front of him.

My goalkeeper is going to be Edwin van der Saar, who recently announced his retirement from international football. He was excellent against both France and Italy but it was his quarter final performance against Russia that clinched it. He made save after save to keep the Dutch in the tie and was very unlucky to be on the losing side.

Now back to the central defence. Like I mentioned above, not taking into account their opening match, Italy defended better than anyone else in the tournament. In fact this is all Italy done well, they were incredibly disappointing. So I am going to include Christian Panucci, who started the competition at right back but was moved into the centre and was outstanding against France in the final group match and also against Spain in the quarter final. Further, he got the equaliser against Romania that kept Italy alive in the group stage.

The only team that came close to defending as well as Italy were Spain. I had never seen Carlos Marchena much before but I thought he was tremendous in each of Spain’s matches (apart from the Greece match where the first team was rested). So my central defence consists of Panucci and Marchena. My two back up defenders are going to be Spain’s Carles Puyol, who formed an excellent partnership with Marchena, and Christoph Metzelder. Metzelder’s central defensive partner Per Mertesacker was shocking every time I watched him and if it wasn’t for Metzelder, they wouldn’t be in the final. He was better on the ball, more brave in tackling and to top it off he began the tournament not 100% fit due to struggling with injury most of last season.

Full backs now and I think it would be difficult to pick out any full back that isn’t Russian. I like full back that get forward at every opportunity and both Aleksandr Anyukov and Yuri Zhirkov managed to trouble almost every defence they came up against. They weren’t too bad at defending either. The only team that seemed to stop them playing were the Spanish, but then again they seemed to stop the entire Russian team from playing.

My back-up full backs have to include Bosingwa. He and Deco were the best thing about the Portuguese side. It was a toss up between him and Sergio Ramos but I think Bosingwa just edged it, even though he played fewer matches. My other left back to be included in my squad of Euro 2008 is Croatia’s Danijel Pranjic. Similar to Zhirkov in that he gets forward and troubles the opposition defence and unlucky not to be in the side that took to the field against Germany in the semi final.

On the right of midfield it has to be Bastian Schweinsteiger of Germany. Strangely he didn’t start in the opening two matches and turned the game in Germany’s favour when he came on against Croatia, until he was sent off. This meant he was suspended for their final group match but when he returned he put in a man of the match performance against Portugal and was Germany’s best player against Turkey. He adds a bit of class to a mediocre German side and without his contribution they would have struggled to make the semi final, never mind the final. On the other flank I have gone with Wesley Sneijder. He was instrumental in their dismantling of the Italian and French defences and for these two performances alone, including two of the goals of the tournament; he deserves a place in the first XI.

In reserve for these positions I am going to go for Andres Iniesta of Spain, who looks dangerous no matter which part of midfield he plays in, and Lukas Podolski. Podolski’s natural position is striker but his pace and ability shone even on the left wing. He has scored three goals so far, two of them great strikes, and provided the assist for Schweinsteiger’s goals in the last two matches. Just to note, Simao of Portugal and David Silva of Spain could have easily been included instead of these two.

Now to the most difficult part of this task, to decide who goes in the centre of midfield. My holding midfielder has to be Marcos Senna. In every match he has played this role to perfection, I don’t remember one stray pass from him either. There was a lot of hype about Andrei Arshavin in the build up to the semi final but he was anonymous for the entire 90 minutes, this was partly due to how well Senna played. The other central midfield position is a real headache for me. Luka Modric and Deco of Croatia and Portugal respectively deserve a mention but unfortunately there is not enough room for them, despite how well they both performed. Instead it comes down to either Michael Ballack or Cesc Fabregas. I really can’t decide which one to go for so I am going to let the amount of appearances choose for me. Since Fabregas has been used mostly as a substitute I will go for Ballack in the first XI instead. Fabregas has influenced every match he has came on in so it seems fitting he should be on the bench in this side. The holding midfielder I will put into the squad is Nigel de Jong. He is a similar type of player to Marcos Senna and was one of the best things about the Dutch side during the competition.

Perhaps controversially, I have decided not to include Andrei Arshavin. My reasons are that he only played in three matches. Yes two of them were outstanding performances but in the match against Spain I can only remember touching the ball three or four times. He was virtually invisible in the second half. It wasn’t just that but also his attitude, he waited for the ball rather than coming deep to get it and seemed annoyed when the ball didn’t come to him.

Finally the strikers and David Villa has to be included in the first XI. He scored a hat-trick in his team’s opening match and is still the top scorer in the competition. It is a shame that he limped off on the semi final. Up front with him I am going to go with Russia’s Roman Pavlyuchenko. If it wasn’t for an injury for Pavel Pogrebnyak, prior to the tournament, then we wouldn’t have seen as much of Pavlychenko as we did. But he took his chance and produced three vital goals.

On the bench it is a two from the following three: Ruud van Nistelrooy, Fernando Torres and Nihat Kahveci. Since Nihat was pretty poor against Portugal and Croatia I am going to go with the other two. Van Nistelrooy played the lone striker role for the Dutch and was excellent at it. I’ll admit I didn’t think he could play up front on his own. Fernando Torres worked tirelessly for Spain in each match he played in and I can’t understand why he keeps getting substituted. I realise that his replacement scored the vital second goal against Russia the other night bit I would keep someone of Torres’ ability on the field for as long as possible.

So this is how my team looks:

Edwin Van der Saar (NED)
Alexsandr Anyukov (RUS), Carlos Marchena (SPA), Christian Panucci (ITA), Yuri Zhirkov (RUS)
Bastian Schweinsteiger (GER), Michael Ballack (GER), Marcos Senna (SPA), Wesley Sneijder (NED)
David Villa (SPA), Roman Pavlyuchenko (RUS)

Rest of the Squad:

Artur Boruc (POL)
Vlokan Demirel (TUR)
Bosingwa (POR)
Carles Puyol (SPA),
Christoph Metzleder (GER),
Danijel Pranjic (HRV)
Andres Iniesta (SPA)
Cesc Fabregas (SPA)
Nigel de Jong (NED)
Lukas Podolski (GER)
Fernando Torres (SPA)
Ruud van Nistelrooy (NED)

If you read my blog from Tuesday (Germany v Turkey preview) I said that I thought Turkey would sit back and defend in numbers, like they did in the quarter final against Croatia, and try to steal a goal at the other end. How wrong I was! Turkey came out of the traps flying last night and, overall, probably deserved to win the game. Especially when you take into account that half of their reserve side were playing due to injury and suspension that ravaged the squad.

If it wasn’t for the fact that all three BBC pundits last night forecast more or less the same then I would probably be considering quitting writing about football. Instead I am going to view it as a perfect example of one of the reasons why I love this game so much: the surprises and upsets it throws at us every now and then. Many believed that Spain versus Italy promised to be a ‘cracker’ but it failed to materialise. However, three days after sitting through 90 minutes of Italian defending Turkey have certainly made up for it – Germany played their part as well but we already knew what they can do.

But I have not lost all confidence in my predictions just yet. At the start of the tournament I put £10 on Spain to come out champions and £5 on Russia to do the same. They will battle it in the second semi final tonight, which guarantees me one of the teams I backed in the final. I am really torn between which side I should support tonight. Russia will earn me more cash but I believe that the Spanish are better equipped to dispose of Germany. We’ll see. I’ve been wrong before!

With only four minutes remaining in the match, Turkey looked to have come back from the dead yet again with an equaliser from Semih Senturk. Unfortunately for them though they didn’t manage to see the game into extra time. A Philip Lahm goal in the final minute of the match restored Germany’s lead and made sure they would line-up in the final of the tournament in Vienna on Sunday.

Many expected the Turks to deploy similar tactics that saw them frustrate Croatia, however, they came at Germany from the off and when they took the lead in the twenty-second minute it was well deserved. Full-back Sabri’s cross found its way to Kazim-Richards, who’s looping shot came back off the bar. Ugur Boral reacted quicker than Friedrich to force the ball underneath Lehmann. The goal followed a period of sustained pressure and two or three decent chances for Turkey to take the lead. A mistake from Lahm inside ten minutes put Ayhan Akman through on Lehmann, who managed to save the midfielder’s effort with his right leg. Shortly after Kazim-Richards’ twelve yard strike rattled the cross bar.

Despite their dominance Turkey found themselves level again, just four minutes after taking the lead. With what was Germany’s first real opportunity of the match, Lukas Podolski found himself with the ball on the left wing. Sabri opted to show the Bayern Munich forward onto his stronger foot and a lack of any challenge allowed him to find Bastian Schweinsteiger, who had made a great run from the right wing, at the edge of the six yard box and he managed to direct the ball into the net with the outside of his boot.

The remained rather open for the rest of the first period but it was the Turks who looked more dangerous in possession and created the better chances. Lehmann almost had a ‘Rustu’ moment when he was caught out of position for a Hamit Altintop free kick. Although Hamit was attempting to cross the ball his free kick seemed to be heading over Lehmann’s head, and into the net, but the German goalkeeper managed to palm the ball over the bar. Podolski then came close when he was sent through into space down the left-hand side. If he had been quicker he would have been through on the goalkeeper but he seemed to get the ball stuck under his feet slightly and by the time he reached the edge of the box he had been closed down by Mehmet Topal. In the end he shot over the bar but he may have been better picking out Klose, who had made a run into the box.

An action packed first half, in which Germany managed to come out of level even though they had failed to really get going, came to a close. Simon Rolfes, who was replaced at half time by Torsten Frings, was especially poor. He was caught in possession several times and failed to complete several simple passes.

Joachim Löw’s side came out rejuvenated in the second half and took the game to Turkey. They were denied a penalty in the fiftieth minute when Lahm was clearly hacked down by Sabri. The television replays showed that, while it was a definite foul, the contact took place outside the box. Despite more possession in the opening stages of the second half, Germany failed to create any clear cut chances. The closest they came was a strike from Hitzlsperger but he could only guide his long range effort wide of the post.

The match then sparked into life with twelve minutes remaining on the clock. The Turkey goalkeeper, Rustu Recber, decided to come for a Lahm cross deep from the left and for the second time in two matches Miroslav Klose was gifted a the chance to knock the ball into an empty net. The goal was a carbon copy of Kolse’s only other goal of the competition, which came against Portugal in the quarter final when Ricardo came for a free kick and failed to collect the ball.

With four minutes remaining, Semih Senturk appeared to have sent the match into extra time when he nipped in at the front post to guide the ball past Lehmann after great work from Sabri on the right wing. Yet again Turkey had managed to claw back from the brink of elimination, something they are now renowned for but it was to be short lived as the Germans restored their lead in the final minute of the match.

Philip Lahm, who’s failure to deal with Sabri had lead to Turkey’s equaliser, redeemed himself by starting and ending the move which eventually won the match for Germany. The Bayern Munich defender picked up the ball on the left and came inside. He passed the ball to Hitzlsperger then continued his run into the box, receiving the ball back. The left back took a touch before guiding the ball past the on-rushing Rustu, producing a finish that any striker would have been proud of.

It will be the third time in the last five competitions that Germany have reached this stage of the competition. This match summed up Germany’s tournament so far. They failed to really get going in the first half but managed to produce a piece of magic to go in level at the break. Throughout the match their defensive frailties were exposed but, like they normally seem to do, they found a way through, just.

One option would be to drop Rolfes for Frings, put Hitlzsperger on the left and go more attacking with Podolski up front, as the Turks are likely to sit with ten men in defence for the majority of the match. Alternatively, he could stick with the team that knocked out the Portuguese, as long as Schweinsteiger and Podolski get forward at every opportunity to support lone front man Miroslav Klose.

Despite Turkey’s defensive tactics, Germany captain Michael Ballack knows that it is their never-say-die mentality that has got them this far, something his own nation are renowned for. “Turkey have a very strong mentality,” the Chelsea midfielder told BBC sport. “They will be a difficult adversary who have nothing to lose because reaching the semis is already an achievement.” He added: “They have shown a strong belief and they’ve scored goals in the closing stages of their matches – it’s something that only Germany does normally.”

Germany take on Turkey at St. Jakob Park tomorrow night. Kick off is at 7.45pm (GMT) and the match will be officiated by Switzerland’s Massimo Busacca.

German-born Turk, Hamit Altintop, admits that his side are underdogs but believes they can draw upon their collective strength that has got them to this stage, despite the fact that the squad has been decimated through injury and suspension. “Germany are favourites but there is no reason why we can’t beat them,” Hamit told BBC sport. He added: “I’m not worried at all, our strength is our collective spirit, I’m sure we can progress to the final.”

Maybe Turkey do have an incredible team spirit but surely even they will find it difficult to break down the Germany team, especially with their limited attacking options. Attackers Tuncay Sanli, Arda Turan and Nihat Kahveci will all miss tomorrow night’s semi final. Arda and Nihat have scored two goals each so far in the competition, with the only other goalscorer being Semih Senturk, also with two goals. He will almost certainly lead the line tomorrow and will get support from, amongst others, English- born Colin Kazim-Richards. Also talking to BBC sport, Kazim-Richards believes that England supporters will be egging on the Turks to knock out one of their biggest rivals. “It’s not only because I’m Turkish, I’m English as well so to play the Germans is incredible,” said the Fenerbache star. He went on to add: “If we beat them it’s a party for England too. I hope we can beat them, anything is possible as we have shown.”

With only thirteen available squad members, manager Fatih Terim admitted he may have to use third choice goalkeeper Tolgan Zengin as an outfield substitute. Mehmet Aurelio returns after his suspension but Tuncay Sanli, Arda Turan and Emre Asik are all suspended after picking up two yellow cards during the competition. Volkan Demirel’s appeal against his two match ban has been upheld, so Rustu Recber will keep his place in goal.

Turkey were extremely defensive and frustrated Croatia when they met on Friday night, making the match pretty boring to watch for the neutrals (until the game burst into life with one minute of injury time remaining). We should expect similar tactics from them when they line up against Germany in Basel. Colin Kazim-Richards believes that England supporters will party if Germany are knocked out by his adopted nation tomorrow night but surely any sane England supporter would rather see Germany in the final, rather than Turkey, who will likely play for penalties knowing it will be their best chance to win the match.

This year we had the rare scenario where one team in each group were able to rest their entire first team, knowing that the result would have no bearing whatsoever on the final group standings. So far, we have seen three of these four teams, Portugal, Croatia and the Netherlands, lose their following match and crash out of the tournament. Conversely, their respective opponents, Germany, Turkey and Russia, all used their first team within three or four days of their final group match, and yet came out victorious. Does this imply that it is better to stick with a team that is playing well, rather than to give your second-string a run out, even in a meaningless game?

In the run up to Scotland’s final European qualifying match against Italy, during last season’s Scottish Premier League campaign both Rangers and Celtic requested that their fixture prior to this game be cancelled to give Scotland the best chance of qualifying, they didn’t. A few weeks later Rangers agreed with Gretna, now no longer in existence, to postpone their SPL encounter to allow Rangers more preparation time, in the run up their vital Champions League group stage match against Lyon. They lost 3-0.

On this evidence, it would appear that resting players doesn’t have the desired effect. In the tie between Croatia and Turkey on Friday, by the time extra time came Croatia looked far more tired than their opponents despite having three extra days rest. Now this could possibly be down to the fact that Croatia attacked for the majority of the ninety minutes, whereas the Turks sat back barley venturing forward, but I would put it down to the fact that Slaven Bilic opted to rest his entire first team in the previous match against Poland. When a team is in form they cannot wait to get back out onto the pitch and play their next match but Bilic, Scolari and van Basten have all seen their supposedly fresh teams go down to opposition whose matches are coming thick and fast.

The Dutch were poor last night. After setting the tournament on fire in their first two matches they failed to show any killer instinct last night and were soundly beaten by a Russian side who have come to form at the right time. Russia were hammered in their opening game against Spain, and they didn’t look overly impressive against a poor Greek side. However, aided by the return of Andrei Arshavin from suspension, they performed impressively against Sweden to reach the quarter final before outshining the best team of the tournament so far, the Dutch. Their coach Gus Hiddink said in his post match interview that he was surprised by the response of his team after only having two days to prepare for it. Maybe this is ideal for footballers. Is it possible that when players are on-form the best thing that can happen to them is that another match is just around the corner, rather than them having to, not only wait, but also watch as the rest of the squad is given a run out?

The last of the four sides to rest their first team, Spain, are in action against the Italians tonight. Since I put money on Spain and Russia at the start of the tournament I’ll be shouting for Spain, but if the last three matches are anything to go by then Italy will surely fancy their chances.

Turkey will be without several key players however. Goalkeeper Volkan Demirel will serve the second of his two match ban and Tuncay Sanli, Emre Asik and Arda Turan, who all picked up bookings during the quarter final tie with Croatia, will also miss the semi-final through suspension. Turkey are also still without Galatasaray Emre Gungor, who will miss the rest of the tournament due to a calf injury.

Fatih Terim’s side have surprised most by reaching the semi final but with the injuries and suspensions mounting this may be just one match too far for them. Top scorer Nihat limped off towards the end of extra time the other night but should recover. If he doesn’t, Turkey’s striking options will be severely limited.

Germany have no new injury or suspension worries. Torsten Frings is still struggling with a bruised rib, which means Simon Rolfes could retain his place in midfield. Joachim Löw changed the system in the quarter final and will most likely stick with the 4-5-1/4-3-3 that saw off Portugal.

The match will take place at St. Jakob Park in Basel and kick off is 7.45pm (GMT).

On Wednesday, Germany coach Joachim Löw remarked that his side would have to raise their game to another level if they were to see off the challenge of Portugal. Last night the Germans did raise their game, although they were helped along their way by Portugal’s inability to deal with simple set pieces. Portugal allowed Klose a free header from a Bastian Schweinsteiger free kick and Ricardo failed to claim the ball, also from a Schweinsteiger free kick, which gave Ballack the easy job of directing the ball into the open goal.

Löw was missing Torsten Frings due to injury but also dropped Mario Gomez and Clemens Fritz from the side that defeated Austria by a goal to nil in the final group match. They were replaced by Thomas Hitzlsperger, Simon Rolfes and Schweinsteiger, who returned after a one match suspension, as Löw changed his formation, opting to go with Klose as the lone striker with Schweinsteiger and Podolski expected to push up and support him in possession.

The match began with both teams having spells of possession, although Portugal’s managed to keep and knock the ball about slightly better, however, around the twentieth minute it was the Germans who turned on the style for the opening goal. Great link up play near the half way line involving Hitzlsperger and Michael Ballack saw Lukas Podolski break down the left. He played a great ball towards the front post which was met by Schweinsteiger, who had managed to time his run to get there before Paulo Ferreira.

Portugal were barley given time to digest the first goal by the time the second arrived. Four minutes after Germany had opened the scoring, Real Madrid defender Christoph Metzelder was fouled after an adventurous run from just inside his own half. The scorer of the first goal, Bastian Schweinsteiger, swung a dangerous ball into the box and all Klose had to do was rise and nod the ball goalwards to make it two nil. A lack of any challenge allowed Germany to increase their lead and left Portuguese coach Luis Felipe Scolari seething in the dugout.

Germany then attempted to sit back and preserve their lead, which gave Portugal the chance to search for a vital goal before the break. Ronaldo, Simao and Deco began causing the German defence problems but it took them until the fortieth minute to pull a goal back. The goal was made by a great piece of skill just outside of his own box by Deco. His pass found Simao who ran at the German defence and found Ronald, who had made a run in behind Mertesacker. His shot was saved well by Jens Lehmann but it fell into the path of Nuno Gomes who managed to squeeze the ball through Metzelder, Mertesacker and Lehmann to give the second half a more competitive edge.

Portugal continued to dominate after the break as they searched for an equaliser. They created many chances and came close after a corner from Simao. He found an unchallenged Pepe in the six yard box but the big defender was unable to guide the ball into the net and headed over. Much was made about the height advantage Germany had over their opponents but they allowed Pepe, one of the taller Portuguese players, a free header from close range that he really should have taken.

At the other end, another Schweinsteiger free kick was cross into the box. This time the Portuguese keeper Ricardo inexplicably came for the ball and missed. Michael Ballack was gifted the chance to simply knock the ball into the gaping net. Portugal had fought hard to get back into the match, and at the time of the goal were looking the more likely to score. But with less than thirty minutes remaining you just felt that Portugal wouldn’t have it in them to recover.

Again Portugal pressed forward. Players like Bosingwa, Deco, Ronaldo and Simao all looked threatening but their team was reduced to shooting from range. Postiga was thrown for the final push but his goal came too late to really put the Germans under pressure. Fellow substitute Nani done well to keep the ball away from three Germany players and create a yard of space for himself. His cross was met by the head of Helder Postiga which left Lehmann with no chance. However, with less than three minutes remaining, plus injury time, there was just not enough time for Portugal to grab an equaliser.

The decision by Löw to drop players like Gomez and change the German formation certainly paid off. Portugal’s midfield were given less time on the ball due to the presence of Hitzlsperger and Rolfes. Miroslav Klose may have seemed a little isolated at time, and perhaps doesn’t execute the lone striker role as well as others, but Lukas Podolski and Bastian Schweinsteiger played well throughout.

After a lacklustre start to the tournament, Germany now find themselves one match away from the final in Vienna. On Wednesday they will play the winner of tonight’s quarter final tie between Croatia and Turkey.

01. Ricardo

04. Bosingwa
15. Pepe
16. Ricardo Carvalho
02. Ferreira

08. Petit
20. Deco
10. João Moutinho

07. Ronaldo
21. Nuno Gomes
11. Simão

Germany:

01. Lehmann

03. Friedrich
17. Mertesacker
21. Metzelder
16. Lahm

04. Fritz
08. Frings / 18. Borowski
13. Balack
07. Sweinsteiger

11. Klose
20. Podolski / 09. Gómez

Referee: Peter Fröjdfeldt (SWE)
Venue: St. Jakob Park, Basel
Kick-off: 7.45pm (GMT)