Paolo Tagliavento matches

When I was a child in the early eighties, the "disaster of Cordoba" (the 2-3-defeat at the WC 1978) was still fresh on everybody's mind. Since then, generations of football players had always this reference in mind in matches between Germany and Austria - the Austrians with the hope that history might repeat itself and the Germans that this hopefully would never happen again. Today, the historic hattrick by Krankl seems a distant memory, the sudden madness of Austrian television reporter Edi Finger ("Ich werde narrisch" e.g. "I'm going slightly mad") is a historical anecdote, and the Austrians have had their hopes crushed so many times that they are mentally quite a few miles from Cordoba.

3-0 after 25 minutes settled the bill...
Paolo Tagliavento had an easy night with the Germans 3-0 up 25 minutes into the game and Austria never really looking like a menace. He decided to let the match unfold and intervened only when necessary. He gave one or two soft freekicks on which I had different views, but that was the only flaws I spotted. The two teams did not really make it difficult for them. He tried to avoid booking it seemed, which was another minor criticism you might have. He looked quite relaxed and had relatively little to worry about.

Atmosphere of a friendly
The whole match was disputed in an atmosphere which resembled more a friendly than a qualifying match for EC 2012. Tagliavento had nothing to prove and remained unchallenged during the night. The German side looked brilliant up front, but weak in defense. It was the second time I saw Tagliavento and he was as good as I saw him last year in an average match. He looks a bit like Rizzoli in his style and less like Rosetti as it appears to me, but I quite like it. I'm not sure if he's ready for the "cour des grandes" (big matches) just yet.