90' (+2): It's over SPAIN WON!!! THE NEW EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS!!! There won't be enough sangria in the streets of Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, etc... tonight!!!! CELEBRATION!!!!
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.:. Spain vs Russia .:.

 

Spain has a great chance to advance to the Euro 2008 finals. The team is very motivated and with talents like Fernando Torres, Sergio Ramos, Carles Puyol, Iker Casillas, Iniesta, Xavi and the inspired David Villa (and Cesc Fabregas on the bench (?)) one could only think that they are really the favourites to play Germany for the title on Sunday BUT some other facts should be taken in consideration before the fans of La Roja start celebrating.

Russia has a fast, disciplined and well trained team. Guus Hiddink is a very intelligent coach and he might use a strategy to surprise Spain just like he did with the Netherlands.

Another point that will make a difference today is the weather. It's been raining in Viena for quite some time and the wet pitch might give Russia a physical advantage.

So all I can really say is that there are no real favourites in this match. Russia has a not-so-well-known roster but that doesn't mean that they don't have the necessary quality to win and Spain, we all know very well. The team has quality, has talent and has already beat Russia once in this competition. But can they really perform under pressure?

We shall see ...

Penalties: Here comes Cesc Fabregas. If he scores Spain goes through to the semis... He runs and.... GGGGOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL!!!!! Spain is in the semifinals of the Euro 2008!!!!
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Hello Everyone,

  VS  

Spain and Italy will step into the pitch in less than an hour and now I really don't know what to expect about this match. I could only predict or comment something after the first ten minutes and even after that things could drastically change.

It's a mach of high expectations. Spain has the potential (like always). Youth, talent, speed, determination... Let's just hope they have the balance.

Italy has tradition, balance, and luck. Oh yeah, and they are the World Champions! (a small detail right?)

An Apology

I haven't been watching the matches live since Wednesday (with the exception of Germany vs. Portugal on Thursday). The reason some of you already know. I just got a new acquisition to my "team". My son Lucas was born on Wednesday, the day that Brazil and Argentina played each other in my hometown, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I'm already training him for World Cup 2022.

Anyway, I just wanted to pinpoint a few things about the three quarterfinals matches so far: (after watching all the highlights)

Germany 3 x 2 Portugal

I would be very stupid if I simply said that Cristiano Ronaldo let his team down. It's not true. Every chance, every goal scored by Portugal in this competition had this young guy's touch.

But was he the same as the Cristiano Ronaldo we know from Manchester United? Absolutely NOT! His club teammates play for him, they do all the hard work in order to let Cristiano Ronaldo shine. That doesn't happen in the National Team. There, the best player of the year has to work a little harder for the team. And sometimes he can't do it all. He's still Cristiano Ronaldo but not a Garrincha, Pelé or Maradona yet. Will he ever be? Who knows?

Germany played like the three-time World Champion and three-time European Champion that they are. Discipline, confidence and efficiency were the secrets of the German victory. (and a great performance by Schweiney)

Turkey 1 (1) x 1 (3) Croatia (penalties shootout)

What a match!!! It's hard to find words to describe how incredible this match was. I bet that a lot of cardiac attacks happened in both countries with all the tension and late goals and the penalty shootout.

And what can I say about Semih Senturk? Is this kid blessed or what? He comes in from the bench twice just to score the goals that the team needs to qualify. That's why he's called the Liferguard among his Fenerbahce teammates and fans. He does save the team.

As for the Croatians I believe they went as far as they could. They could've qualified if they had transformed the chances they had or the mistakes of the Turkish goalkeeper into goals. They didn't and paid a high price for not doing their job. This if football.

Netherlands 1 x 3 Russia

Russia played exactly like Zenit FC in the UEFA Cup semifinals against Bayern Munich. Keeping the ball possession and putting pressure on the opponent's defense. Great job by the Russians and well deserved.

The great Netherlands was once again the most pleasant team to watch in the group stage but then... underachiever's syndrome.

The problem is that this team was not expecting to be attacked. They were prepared for a timid and defensive Russia. And they were shocked, surprised and groggy by the Russian Roulette's impetuosity.

With 6 points and the top spot of Group B guaranteed Croatia will rest some of the main players for tonight's match against Poland. Too bad for Germany.

But blame on the crazy UEFA rule that uses as first tie breaking criterion the direct confrontation and not the goal differential. I was surprised after the Croatians beat Germany when I heard that with that win they had already won the group. I thought, "wait a minute? Can't Germany get to 6 points too?" 

Well, they can, but it won't make a difference if they beat Austria by 10 goals and Poland beat Croatia by 12 goals. Croatia will still be first of the group because they beat Germany when the two played each other. Crazy UEFA rules.

Croatia's coach Slaven Bilic then did what any intelligent manager would do: rest his top players. Six footballers will come out of the bench to have a chance to play. They are: Dario Simic, Hrvoje Vejic, Dario Knezevic, Jerko Leko, Ognjen Vukojevic and Ivan Klasnic.

Poland will have to play all they can to win and at the same time follow what happens in the Germany x Austria match. The Polish will need more than ever to cheer for a Austrian victory, but not by a large goal differential. 

That's the scenario for tonight's matches!

Probable Lineups: 

POLAND	CROATIA
1- Boruc	1- Pletikosa
13- Wasilewski	5- Corluka
14- Zewlakow	4- R. Kovac
6- Bak	3- Simunic
4- Golanski	22- Pranjic
5- Dudka	10- N. Kovac
18- Lewandowski	14- Modric
17- Lodozinski	11- Srna
8- Krzynowek	19- Kranjcar
7- Smolarek	21- Petric
20- Roger	18- Olic

  NETHERLANDS 

The Netherlands great performance against Italy motivated not only the fanatic orange-dressed supporters but also the players and the lovers of the beautiful game. And now after the 1-1 tie between Romania and Italy, the Dutch have a good two point advantage against their opponents in this so-called "Group of Death".

The formation and the line-up will probably be same from the last game. Sneijder, Van Nilsterooy, Gio, Engelaar, De Jong, Kuijt... Here comes the Oranje!!!!

  FRANCE 

France still needs to prove me right. I've been saying for quite some time that France had the best midfield and offense of all the 16 teams of this tournament. Makelele, Nasri, Viera, Malouda, Gouvou, Ribery, Henry, Benzema, Anelka, Gomis... It's a dangerous, fast and extremely talented team on paper. But we didn't see that reflected on the pitch... yet...

Will we see Les Bleus bloom tonight? Will the Orange Machine run over another opponent?

The kick off is just about 30 minutes away!

  ITALY 

After the fiasco against the Netherlands, Italian coach Roberto Donadoni decided to change the starting line up for the match against Romania.

Del Piero will assume the captain armband and Chiellini will be on the pitch too. Italy will go for a almost Kamikaze formation with possibly 3 forwards (Camoranesi, DiNatale and Toni) and Del Pierro right behind them.

Crazy? Desperate? Well, understandable.

ROMANIA

Romanian forward Ciprian Marica was certainly missed on the opening match against France. 

The yellow heads needed a more offensive team and the lack of action from both sides made that match the most boring so far in the competition and the only match that ended up goalless. 

But Victor Piturca decided not to use Marica on today's match against Italy because of the head injury suffered by the forward during a training session on June 10th.

Still according to Piturca the team intends to show a much more offensive football today than what they displayed against the French.  

Better late than never. Romania has a slight advantage in the table compared to Italy. And in this group 1 point might really mean a lot.

VS

Podolski is not really the nicest of the players. I have German friends who actually hate the kid. But at age 23 he has definitely gained the respect of the world of football with 49 caps and 27 goals for the National Team since 2004 when he had his debut.

He rarely misses a chance to score and even though he doesn't have the dribbling ability of a Cristiano Ronaldo or the drama factor of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic the Germans can always count on the young striker to decide matches.

Germany also has other great players to work the ball with the typical discipline and efficiency that already gave the country three titles in the competition, the last one in 1996. Ballack, Lehmann, Frings, Klose, Neuville; represent the experience and Mertesacker, Schweinsteiger and Mario Gomez join Lukas Podolski on the young and talented side of this well balanced team.

As for Croatia, the team once known by playing a style closer to the South American football in times of the defunct Yugoslavia, qualified for the final stage of this Euro as one of the possible surprises but the injury of their Brazilian-born striker Eduardo came as an enormous bucket of icy cold water on the Croatian squad. The team is still dangerous with the brothers and long-time team leaders Robert and Niko Kovac. On the youth side the most dangerous player is Tottenham midfielder Luka Modric.

Both teams won their opening matches. Croatia beat co-hosts Austria by the minimum score on a penalty executed by Modric and the Germans beat Poland by 2-0 with Podolski scoring twice and showing respect to his Polish descent and refraining from celebrating.

Whoever wins this one will have their ticket to the quarterfinals almost guaranteed but I'm predicting a 1-1 score for this one.

VS

The Turks didn't impress me when they played Portugal. The team is not bad, Nihat, Mehmet Aurelio, Hamit Altintop... I expected much more from Turkey, specially from Atintop but they really disppointed me.

Switzerland on the other displayed great football in the opening match but ended up with two defeats. One was the goal that gave the Czechs the victory and the other was Alexander Frei's injury. I'd love to see Derdiyok have more time on the pitch.

A MUST win match for both teams. Switzerland will have to face Portugal in the last round of this group phase so if they're still hoping to move on in the competition they'd better get this one!

I just hope that we don't see embarrassing violence scenes like the ones from the last match between these two teams. But anything is possible. There's certainly some tension in the air.

You can follow all the action in the MATCH CENTRE with live commentary and a heated chat room!

Join me there!

The first weekend of the Euro 2008 can be summarize like this: Great Saturday, Boring Sunday.

The opening match between Switzerland and Czech Republic had tears, strategic battles - Switzerland playing offensively and Czech Rep. all the way back in defense - and an undeserved Czech goal scored by a substitute player. It was great.

Then we had Portugal vs. Turkey. A very interesting match. Portugal hit the Turkish post three times, Cristiano Ronaldo made his traditional funny/frustrated faces and defender Pepe scored his first goal with the National shirt after an excellent one-two play. Turkey has a good team but not good enough to beat one of the favourites to win the title and at 93rd minute Raul Meirelles sealed Portugal's triumph.

Then on Sunday Croatia and Austria played one very boring match. The goal scored by Croatia on a penalty kick on the 5th minute set the final score and for the other 85 minutes I had to force myself no to fall sleep.

The so expected clash between Germany and Poland was a little better (or less worse). Podolski respect for Poland (he was born there) and for his Polish family was admirable. He didn't celebrate the two goals that seal Germany's victory and what a beautiful goal was that second one. But besides that none of the teams really impressed me.

But monday has finally arrived (football is the only reason to make me happy on a Monday morning) and right now I'm here at OleOle's HQ sitting next to my friend Frenchi just waiting for the (hopefully) two great matches of the day...