Day 13
Germany 3-2 PortugalI was sticking with my earlier predicton that Portugal will win the EURO before the game started. And at the next morning I woke up, I was pretty shocked by the result. A Germany win? How could that be? 3-2? A pretty tight game I guess. But in fact, Germany nearly threw their lead away since the scored 2-0 in such blistering pace in the 1st half before getting equalized. Again, Mr Ballack smashed in another of his trademark freekick and secured a famous and important win for the Germans. Weird though to see a team play like god in one game and lose in the coming one. This is also the only quarter finals game without the need of extra time. Many blamed Scolari for the news that he'll leave for Chelsea to be leaked out so soon before the tournament ends. But that is understandable in football. (Probably the bookies were not immunized for the total bets on Portugal and SOME sort of action was taken to protect themselves.)
Shocking result level 3.5 out of 5
Day 14
Croatia 1-1 Turkey (Turkey won 3-1 in penalties)
It's cruel but it's fair. Many think that penalty is an unfair way to decide the winning team, but in my opinion, penalty is one of the best ways in football when it comes to stalemate. Don't you think penalty is something which needs certain technique and mental strength? You need to be calm, you need to be brave, you need to be good in shooting, you need to be focused. There is of course one thing which might also influence the result, which is luck, but that is just a small portion of it. If you train hard enough for the penalty, it's just that easy to hit it with no one in world able to stop.
OK, enough bull shitting on penalties. The 1st penalties needed in EURO 08 to decide the winner happened after some controversial extra time between Croatia and Turkey. Turkey again made it late in the game. Both teams played quite decent and it came to a draw. Volkan , the Turkish goalkeeper who's supposed to stand between the posts was replaced by Recber Rustu, the veteran goalkeeper who made his name in the World Cup. Again, he proved himself with some penalty saves that won the Turks a famous win. Not very impressed with Turkey's technical ability, but they were always fierce and determined not to give up. Some key players such as Tuncay and Arda Turan who both contributed a lot to the team will be suspended for the next game, and this will be a major blow to the squad already without Nihat, their Saviour in their last game against Czech due to injury.
Shocking result level 4.5 out of 5
Shocker of the day!! No one would ever thought that Russia can win Holland which is the hot favourites of the tournament. There are some facts I need to point out in this thrilling game.
The lineup was the same as in their 1st game. 2 holding midfielders, 3 roaming attackers, 1 target man. However, they played poorly in the first half, nearly conceding a couple of goals, thanks to Van der Sar's heroics.
Arshavin, in particular, was impressive against Holland. probably it's due to his freshness where he skipped the 1st 2 games. The one thing I think van Basten was wrong is that he substitued wrongly. Kuyt although was poor with no contribution in attack, he was a pretty useful player due to his ability in covering the full back. The marauding Arshavin and Zhirkov was very threatening to the Dutch, and van Basten did nothing to stop it. Instead, he tried the same trick he used against France by throwing in attackers. The whole system was spoiled and the Holland's backline was highly exposed.
Credits to Russia for gettng so far. Based n what I saw, it's true they were playing better than the Dutch. Kolodin, the defender shocked everyone with his first few long range power shots which tested van der Sar early in the game. Van Basten just couldn't resist the temptation to bring on his attackers to revert back to The "DUTCH way of Football"(A system with no balance with all attackers on the pitch)-which costs them dearly in the past. Substituting Engelaar and Kuyt out so early is a mistake!!
Shocking result level 5 out of 5
It's cruel but it's fair. Many think that penalty is an unfair way to decide the winning team, but in my opinion, penalty is one of the best ways in football when it comes to stalemate. Don't you think penalty is something which needs certain technique and mental strength? You need to be calm, you need to be brave, you need to be good in shooting, you need to be focused. There is of course one thing which might also influence the result, which is luck, but that is just a small portion of it. If you train hard enough for the penalty, it's just that easy to hit it with no one in world able to stop.
OK, enough bull shitting on penalties. The 1st penalties needed in EURO 08 to decide the winner happened after some controversial extra time between Croatia and Turkey. Turkey again made it late in the game. Both teams played quite decent and it came to a draw. Volkan , the Turkish goalkeeper who's supposed to stand between the posts was replaced by Recber Rustu, the veteran goalkeeper who made his name in the World Cup. Again, he proved himself with some penalty saves that won the Turks a famous win. Not very impressed with Turkey's technical ability, but they were always fierce and determined not to give up. Some key players such as Tuncay and Arda Turan who both contributed a lot to the team will be suspended for the next game, and this will be a major blow to the squad already without Nihat, their Saviour in their last game against Czech due to injury.
Shocking result level 4.5 out of 5
Day 15
Holland 1-3 Russia Shocker of the day!! No one would ever thought that Russia can win Holland which is the hot favourites of the tournament. There are some facts I need to point out in this thrilling game.
The lineup was the same as in their 1st game. 2 holding midfielders, 3 roaming attackers, 1 target man. However, they played poorly in the first half, nearly conceding a couple of goals, thanks to Van der Sar's heroics.
Arshavin, in particular, was impressive against Holland. probably it's due to his freshness where he skipped the 1st 2 games. The one thing I think van Basten was wrong is that he substitued wrongly. Kuyt although was poor with no contribution in attack, he was a pretty useful player due to his ability in covering the full back. The marauding Arshavin and Zhirkov was very threatening to the Dutch, and van Basten did nothing to stop it. Instead, he tried the same trick he used against France by throwing in attackers. The whole system was spoiled and the Holland's backline was highly exposed.
Credits to Russia for gettng so far. Based n what I saw, it's true they were playing better than the Dutch. Kolodin, the defender shocked everyone with his first few long range power shots which tested van der Sar early in the game. Van Basten just couldn't resist the temptation to bring on his attackers to revert back to The "DUTCH way of Football"(A system with no balance with all attackers on the pitch)-which costs them dearly in the past. Substituting Engelaar and Kuyt out so early is a mistake!!
Shocking result level 5 out of 5
Day 16
Italy 0-0 Spain (Spain won 4-3 on penalty)
I didn't watch the whole match due to tiredness, but everyone was shocked byt what happened few days ago before this match. All favorites were out of the competition and Spain were feared to be doing the same. A less exciting game which ended in 0-0. Italy without Pirlo is just nothing in midfield. The lack of creativity and the lack of sharpness of Luca Toni made life less difficult for Puyol and Co. But the problem was Spain's ability to score when Italy were playing so defensively.
Nothing special really happened. Torres was surprisingly substituted early and did not participate in the extra time, but the overall performance was okay by both sides.
When it came to penalties, I was a bit worried for Spain. Although I did not rate Spain as champions contender, but due to the Anfield connection, I would love them to win also. Reina as goalkeeper for the penalty will be much more convincing than Casillas because I know he s not a good penalty saver. But god knows Italy's poor effort on penalties sent the Spaniards to the semi finals with Russia.
With all the big guns gone, I think supporting Spain won't be a bad idea anyway. LOL!
(My friend Yanz, i'll follow you this time! We support Spain together.)
Shocking result level 2.5 out of 5
I didn't watch the whole match due to tiredness, but everyone was shocked byt what happened few days ago before this match. All favorites were out of the competition and Spain were feared to be doing the same. A less exciting game which ended in 0-0. Italy without Pirlo is just nothing in midfield. The lack of creativity and the lack of sharpness of Luca Toni made life less difficult for Puyol and Co. But the problem was Spain's ability to score when Italy were playing so defensively.
Nothing special really happened. Torres was surprisingly substituted early and did not participate in the extra time, but the overall performance was okay by both sides.
When it came to penalties, I was a bit worried for Spain. Although I did not rate Spain as champions contender, but due to the Anfield connection, I would love them to win also. Reina as goalkeeper for the penalty will be much more convincing than Casillas because I know he s not a good penalty saver. But god knows Italy's poor effort on penalties sent the Spaniards to the semi finals with Russia.
With all the big guns gone, I think supporting Spain won't be a bad idea anyway. LOL!
(My friend Yanz, i'll follow you this time! We support Spain together.)
Shocking result level 2.5 out of 5
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