With Spain already comfortably through to the next stage of the tournament, and Greece heading home after this match, there is the distinct possibility that the squads could get a run out tonight, and the stars get to rest on the bench. One of the incoming players should be Cesc Fabregas, who in his brief periods of play so far has had a goal, an assist and has run his little heart out for his country. A quick glance at his Castrol Index heat map below for the 32 minutes he played against Sweden shows that he covered virtually every area of the pitch, particularly midfield.

One man hoping to put himself in the shop window (if selected tonight for the Greek side) is Vassilis Torosidis, the flying Olympiakos player. Already clocked as the fifth fastest man at the tournament (well, joint fourth actually with Turkey’s Nihat Kahveci at 31.11 km/h), he’ll be looking to prove himself a worthy transfer target for the European managers watching. What? The tournament’s about the football, not the deals? Someone should have a word with Big Phil….

Click here in the MatchCentre to follow my live commentary for this game. 

Stats powered by Castrolindex.com

Spain starts Euro in some minutes and one question come to my mind: How far can they go?

If you think of Fabregas and Torres. If you think of Casillas and some other players, you could put them between the favourites to Euro title. But this is Spain. They usually play very well but always loose.

So, here is the question again. How far can Spain go?

Before Kick Off: Portugal needs another victory to go into quaterfinals. This time, Ronaldo will be much better.
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90' (+3): Raul Meireles putz an end in the game, scoring Portugal's second goal. Now Portugal needs one more victory against Check Republic next wednesday
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Tough week for the Brazilian sport. Two of the greatest athletes that ever were born in my country had sad weeks. Gustavo Kuerten and Ronaldo faced both pain and tears.

The first one was Gustavo Kuerten. The three time Roland Garros champion and former top 1 in the world started his farewell tour. He announced earlier this is his final season although he is only 31 years old. Guga suffered two major surgeries during his career after his back problems.

The first tournament in his last tour was the Brazilian Open, in Bahia. He won that title twice during his best years. After that, he will play some of the masters and grand slams he won it and he has special affect for, like Miami, Hamburg, Montecarlo and  Roland Garros.

On Tuesday, he lost in the first round for Carlos Belorcq, an Argentinean top 100 in ATP. The first set he tried hard, losing by 7-5. During the break, he needed medical help and came back with no mobility at all, ending the game at 6-1.

He gave a very emotional speech after the game. Said going away from his passion is harder than winning Roland Garros three times. He cried a lot and apologized for not been able to play in high level again.

Then Wednesday comes. Ronaldo is on the bench at AC Milan’s game for Serie A. He cames in the second half, stays less than two minutes on the field and suffers a major serious damage in his right knee. The same contusion he had in 2000 (in the left knee at that time).

Ronaldo left the field crying a lot. The pain was the same, he said. At 31 years old also, he is risked to have to stop his career. But there is an old say in Brazil that is never doubt about Ronaldo. He will be probably out the rest of this year. And he still thinks of coming back, as his dad and personal doctor said after the surgery in Paris.

Whatever it happens. If they quit or not the game. Guga and Ronaldo, both born in 1976, are major idols and a pride for Brazilians. Their effort and they fight against pain and physical problems will be remembered forever.

2008 Africa Nations Cup keeps the natural course of international football in the last three most important Cups played since 2006.

First was Germany 2006. The quarterfinals had 6 former WC winners. In the semi, only Portugal were 'virgin' and in the great final Italia became the second team ever to win the Cup four times.

Last year, Copa America 2007 in Venezuela, was not quite different. In the final four, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Mexico. Brazil won the final game against Argentina to win America back-to-back.

Then, it comes to 2008 Africa Cup of Nation. The first national teams competition of 2008 defined the final four. All teams together have 14 titles of the tournament. The all time biggest winner is Egypt, with 5 wins, that will face Ivory Coast, with only one title (1992) but a strong team the last years.

In the other leg, Cameroon and host Ghana have both 4 titles each, making this game even more exciting.As we are going to have a strong and traditional team winner of this next Africa Nations Cup, it is up to Euro 2008 to keep or destroy this trend. Four years ago, Europeans saw Greece and Portugal play for the first time in a Euro great final: a surprisingly final with an even more surprisingly winner.

In Switzerland and Austria, without England to start with, we will see if the former champions and great forces will do like they have been doing in Africa, America and the World or if Greece will be repeated.

It is not only about another cliche that the fans can make the difference.

Flamengo, the most popular Brazilian team according to the last survery (14% of the country), was ranked 19 in the current Brazilian Championship (Brasileirao) after the end of the first half of the tournament.

It is true that the team had 4 games yet to play due to the Pan 2007, cause Maracana remained focused in the competition during those days. After that, Flamengo had 17 games home. They won 13, tied 3 and lost just one. The results put the team into the third place of the tournament just one round to go. Better than that, Flamengo is already one of the 4 teams to make Libertadores 2008.

The crowd was amazing during that come-from-behind. Game after game, the team set news records of attendence. Numbers that could be compared to the Premiership or the Bundesliga. In the last 6 games home, at Maracanain Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo had more than 60.000 people watching. Last Sunday's game, against Atletico Paranaense, 2 x 0, was attended by 87.000 expectators.

Here some videos about this madness created between Flamengo and its crowd during the tournament that led a not-so-good-team into the final three. The crowd is of the most creatives, starting songs that usually are used by other teams in the country. Feel it.

Fifa decided today to give Brazil the opportunity to host the World Cup 64 years later we had our biggest tragedy ever, when Brazil lost the final in Maracana against Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil.

The challenge is hard. Of course Brazil need to work hard to host an event like that. Our stadiums are old and needs to be rebuilt. The infra structure for transportation, tourism, security will have to be much better than today.

Corruption, political interests and managment problems, of course, are also around. And everybody needs to be alert for those issues. Not a exclusive problem of Brazilians (remember Italy 1990), but, anyway, a serious problem in this and others Latin American countries.

But Brazil have things to celebrate. The first one is the passion for the sport. Nobody played football like we did in the last 100 years. The love for the sport may build a popular World Cup party in the streets. Something unforgetable like Germany 2006 for example.

We also have a very kind and friendly people, ready to host the tourists and delegations.

Brazil is a huge country, with both winter and summer during June/JUly. A mix of  climates, gegraphy (rainforest, megalopolis, beaches, montains, etc) and cultures ready to party and celebrate.

Economically, the country is one of the largest in the world and by far the richest in South America. The Fifa World Cup is a good moment to invest in infra structure, like energy, highways, new airports, and touristic project. It can hlp the country to grow, specially in security and tourism.

A lot is going to be said, discovered, and discussed from today until 2014. But I think we can wait for a good moment of football.