Matchday 15

 Important: To anyone who's going to bet on these games, don't look at my predictions or just bet on the team I predicted to lose. Ok now let me comment about the 1st two quarterfinals beginning with Germany vs Portugal.

 I was wrong, you should really never write off the Germans. They deservedly beat Portugal 3-2. Horrible defending by the Portuguese especially on set pieces and crosses. Germans are one of the best if not the best in aerial plays. The 3rd goal scored by Ballack was a foul for a push on Ferreira, but still Ricardo was just lost coming out for that ball. It's known that the Germans and Italians usually get better as the tournament goes on, and so far this is true. So it wasn't to be a perfect season for Cristiano Ronaldo after the domestic league and champions league wins, but I wouldn't blame him for Portugal's exit as most of the team didn't rise up to the quarterfinal game. Now we'll just have to wait and see where Ronaldo ends up playing next year? Will he stay at Man United or leave to Real Madrid? As for Scolari, his reign as Portugal's manager is over. It will be interesting to see how he can cope at a Premier League club level due to the fact that he will be coaching over 50 matches a season which is way more than the International level.

 Onto last night's unbelievable match. The comeback kings struck again! Turkey are in the semi's! For 117 minutes it seemed that the team who scores 1st will win 1-0, and it looked more likely to be the Croatians. Croatia created loads of chances in front of the goal. A shot that hit the crossbar, some poor finishing, and a couple of great saves by Rustu kept the score at 0-0. In extra time both teams looked destined to go to penalty kicks, until a mistake by Rustu lead to a header by Klasnic that found the back of the net. So Croatia had to hold for 3 minutes and they'll be in the semifinals. Everyone thought it's over because Turkey never really threatened the Croatian goal for the entire match. Even the most optimistic Turkish fan didn't expect what happened next. Semih Senturk equalized with literally the final touch of the game. Then I bet most of you knew this is Turkey's day as momentum switched to their side. Modric, the star of the game, was 1st to miss his penalty wide. Rakitic's effot went also wide while Turkey converted 3 out of 3. Rustu turned into a hero when he saved Petric's penalty kick to knock out the Croatians who were in disbelief.

 Germany vs Turkey in the 1st semifinal on Wednesday. Terim will have to adjust his lineup again as he has several players suspended for accumulating 2 yellow cards. On the other hand Germany will go into this game as favorites. Will we see another comeback? We'll have to wait and see.

 We still have two more quarterfinals to be played starting with Holland vs Russia tonight:

 Holland 3 - 1 Russia - Can Russia slow down the super Dutch? I don't think so. Holland will continue their excellent form breaking down the Russian defence into pieces just as Spain did earlier. Van Nistelrooy to score two goals, one for Van Persie, and Pavlyuchenko scoring for the Russians.

 Will I be wrong again? Only time will tell.

 One quick note: Congratulations to my Turkish barber (hairstylist) Mohammed on Turkey's win. He was extremely happy and he couldn't sleep all night :-D