Euro 2008 : Russia outclass Holland

The third quarter final match between Netherlands and Russia, was the most thrilling of the knockout matches. I hadnt seen Russia's game so keenly in the group matches and was happy to see them giving a good fight to the Netherlands. 

Holland started slow in the first half of the match. Russians were a pumped up lot and looked more energetic. Netherlands were quick movers in all their group matches, but the Russians proved to be even faster. The attacks from both the sides produced some great quality football. 

For the first time in this tournament, Netherlands conceded a goal before scoring one themselves !!! From then on, they were in catch up mode. Probably, this was the only match they were in pressure to score a goal, not to seal a victory, but to equalize. The quick Russians stretched the Dutch, and created lovely spaces to score goals.

The Dutch hero, Van Nistelrooy scored a goal in the 86th minute to give Holland some hope. In the extra time, Russians seem to be even more pumped up. Or may be, the Dutch got lethargic. Whatever the reason, Russians were the first to score in extra time as well. And, then came the last nail in the coffin, with the hero of the match, Arshavin scoring the thrid goal for Russia. It was game, set and match for Russians. The Dutch fans were simply stunned.

With this match, we have all the 3 top leading teams in the 3 groups, knocked out of the semis. Will Italy follow suit ? Are the Russians peaking at the right time ? Or is it the Turks ? I was hoping for a Portugal and Holland show down for the finals. And here we have both of them knocked out in the quarter finals itself !!! This tournament always has a thing for springing in more and more surprises. It was the unknown team of Greece that stunned the football fraternity in Europe in 2004.  Are we in for a Turkey Russia final then ? 

Turkey does it again

Turkey have suddenly earned the name of "Fight Back Team" in Euro 2008, or should I say, late scorers ? It started in the last match of their group game against Czech Republic, where they were lagging by a goal, and ended up scoring 2 goals in a span of 3 minutes in the dying moments of the match. These goals not only won them the match, they also made them qualify to the quarter finals, knocking out the shocked Czechs.

To the much delight of all the Turks, and fans of Turkey, they did it again !!! Just, that this time the prize was much bigger. They booked themselves a place in the semi finals against the mighty Germans. If the Germans have been watching the way Turks play, I am sure they must be preparing a lot more on their defense tactics, especially in the dying moments of a match.

The second quarter final match of Euro 2008 between, Croatia [ which i thought was the team to win this match !!! ] and Turkey was very close to being a dull match. Croatia must be kicking themselves for rueing their chances they had to score goals. For majority of the 90 minutes, both the teams made good advances, but always found the defenders stealing the ball from them. Towards the 90th minute, people were hoping for the Turkish magic to work, and hoping that they would score the winning goal. But it wasnt to be. The players were all tired and lethargic. All 22 players on the field wanted to play safe and take the game to penalties.

Even in extra time, they seemed to show the same lack of will to score any goals. In the 119th minute of the match, Croatia were delighted to see the Turkish goal keeper, "Rustu", who was having a great day at office, squander away from the goalpost for a moment, to give Croats a great chance to score through an empty goal. The Croats did just that. With just about a minute left in the game, plus some injury time, Croats had almost booked their place in the semis.

But, as it was in their previous match, Turks in a most astonishing way, found an equaliser in the very dying moments [ or should i say seconds ? ] of the match. The Croatian coach was angry at the referee for allowing the game to exceed by "two extra minutes", when the official verdict was to extend the game by only "one minute" as injury time. A match which had nothing to offer to the spectators suddenly turned into anguish and hope for either side of the fans. The equalizer goal from Turkey, made the Croats feel like having lost a winning match. At the same time the Turks were pumped up for the penalty kicks that followed.

The Croats were completely demoralised and 2 of the penalty kicks they took did not even hit the target !!! The pumped up Turks scored all their goals and surprisingly booked themselves a semi finals place against the Germans.

My predictions so far have gone horribly wrong for the knockout matches. Both the teams, Portugal and Croatia, whom i expected to see in the semis have failed to do so. My predictions for the other 2 quarter final matches are Netherlands and Italy. Its gonna be fun to see how these predictions shape up :)

Euro 2008 : Germany storm into Semis

The first quarter finals match between Germany and Portugal was a high octane match. The pace was great at all the times. But it was sad to see Portugal crash out.

Germany stuck to their World Cup strategy of scoring early and defending well. I am sure this strike from Ballack he scored in the previous group match against Austria must have been the turning point for the Germans in this tournament. 

Conceding 2 goals in a span of 4 minutes that too just after 20th minute of the match, puts a great deal of pressure on the opposition. Thats exactly what the Germans did to Portuguese. It certainly lifted the tempo of the match and we got to watch the fascinating technique of Portugal fight against the mighty [ both in terms of physique and game control ] defense of the Germans. This relentless attack from Portugal produced a goal for them in the dying moments of the first half. Portugal werent going down without a fight. Infact they had a very good chance to fight back when the scoreline read 1 goal to 2 at the end of the first half.

The second half started with even more fierce attacks from Portugal, but the German defense had the better of them. But it was Germany who scored first again. Portugal failed to find an early goal in the second half. Portugal finally scored their second goal in the 84th minute of the match, but it was a touch late to come.

German defense prevailed, and Portugal had to bow out from this tournament. Germany have a very high chance of meeting Netherlands in the finals, while they await the winner of Turkey v/s Croatia match. I guess, either of them should not cause any problems to Germany in the semis.

Euro 2008 : Ready for Knockout

From the 16 teams that qualified for this year's Euro 2008, we finally have the best 8 of them after the end of the group matches. The schedule for the knockout is below :

The most surprising team to qualify for the knockout stage were Turkey. Not because they were considered weak, but because they defeated a so called good team, Czech Republic. Turkey were lucky to have qualified and should fancy their chances against Croatia in the quarter finals. Turkey might be the surprise team to make it to the semis though.

Russia too were the under-dogs in their group D. But an out of form Sweden was all they needed to qualify themselves for the quarters. Russians might be in dilemma though. Should they be happy that they qualified for the quarters, or be sad that they have to meet probably the best team in this tournament, Netherlands in their quarter final encounter !!! I would be really happy to see them give a good fight.

Had it not been for a bad day at office for the Germans, we could have seen them fight the Portuguese in the semis. But as it stands now, we would have only one of them proceeding to the semis, which is kinda sad. And this very thing should give the Croats a good chance to proceed to the semis.

The red card ghost seems to have followed France from the World Cup to Euro 2008. In the first half itself, they were reduced to 10 men. Had it not been for an unbelievably bad day for Luca Toni, Italy would have beaten France by more than 2 goals. The Henry magic failed miserably this time, with his touch providing the rivals their second goal. Italy have their task cut out. They have to beat the quick fire Spaniards in the quarters and then be prepared to meet the Dutch team in the semis. The World Cup champions have to prove their mettle against a very tough draw to make it to the finals.

My favorites to make it to the semis would be Portugal, Croatia, Netherlands and Spain and probably have a Portugal and Netherlands final. On second thoughts, if the most fierce freehit taken with great German precision by Ballack, boosts his team, we can have a German Dutch final as well.

Euro 2008 : Round Robin 2

Please click on the image below to see its details

Group A match between between Portugal and Czech Republic was a treat to watch, and more so if you are a Portuguese fan ;-)

Croatia pulled out a stunner in the Group B match beating the Germans 2 - 1. Germans were completely in disarray for the entire duration of the match. They just had a horrible day at office. Not a single pass was in the right place. I dont remember seeing Klose making any impact on the match. And thats a very unusual thing to see. Germans now have to win their next match with Austria to qualify to the quarter finals. [ or atleast draw with Austria ]

The way Netherlands is playing, there is little doubt in assuming that they would make it to the finals. I am expecting to see a Holland - Portugal final. The Dutch are in prime form and are playing their football with great flair and teamwork. They certainly look invinsible. Italy were stunned by the drawn match with Romania. Romania have a technical chance to make it to the knockout stage, but only if they beat the inform Dutch team, or atleast if they draw with Dutch, while the Italy and France match as well ends in a draw. This sets up the Italy and France match very precariously, with both the teams needing nothing less than a win to move ahead to the quarters. Will we see a repeat of the World Cup final in the results ? Hopefully, both the teams play some watchable football and go for the kill.

As expected, the Russians knocked out Euro 2004 champions Greece in the second round robin match itself. It was the Spanish and Swedish match that created more fervor than any other in this group. The referee for this match was horrible. He was hell bent on breaking the flow of the match, by taking his own time to blow the whistle for free-kicks. It was even worse to see him blow the half time whistle when Spain was near to complete an attack. Probably, it was just providence that Spain scored the final goal to beat Sweden and lead the teams in this group. 

Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, France, Sweden and Russia would be the teams that will be to watch out for the last round of the round robin matches in this Euro 2008.

Quality Striker

The mark of a quality striker is his sense of timing to be at the right time at the right place. Thats exactly what Christiano Ronaldo did to be part of all the 3 goals Portugal scored against the Czecks to seal their place in the knockout stage. They could most probably meet Croatia in the quarter finals.

The first goal was a sweet pass from Ronaldo that gave Deco all the time to score an early 8th minute goal to set up a high tempo to the entire match. The Czecks gave a good fight and thats what made the match even more interesting. Ofcourse, they lacked the skills of a neat striker like Ronaldo. The ball possession of Portugal for the entire match was good. The commentator gave a very good statistic during the course of the match. Just about during the half time, Czecks had about 120 successful passes while Portugal had close to 260 successful passes !!! Well, he did point out that it isnt the about how many successful passes you have that counts, but what you do with them that matters :-)

The second goal scored by Ronaldo was taken very quick and very clean. The ball was hit with great accuracy and speed which left the goal keeper very less time to save it. It was a Ronaldo special.

The class of this man was seen in the third goal, when he broke through the defense with such alacrity that the Czecks were caught unaware. Ronaldo very unselfishly passed on the ball to his team mate, Quaresma to score an easy goal.

Like always, Ronaldo was at the right place at the right time. He has been judged the PFA player of the year for 2008. Only time will tell if we can see him produce more magic in Euro 2008.

Euro 2008 : Round Robin 1

Here are the team standings after the first round of matches in the group stages. Another 2 more round of matches to go before we have a clear list of teams that make it to the knockout stage.