Spain worthy winners – 2008

I wan’t exactly supporting Spain at Euro 2008 but must admit to being won over by their play in the final.

The only team who really played nice flowing football in the game thoroughly deserved the crown as champions after the 90 mins and to finally get a trophy after 44 years is a great achievement.

Torres’ goal was a superb dink over the keeper, and the German defence was abysmal to say best.

Much has been made about the Germans weakness at the back throughout the tournament but I can’t help but feel their weakness up front was even more worrying.

The only German player who came out of the game with any credit was the outstanding Schweinstiger who for me was one of the payers of the tournament.

So congrats to Spain, who also had midfielder Xavi named as player of the tournament. I can’t help that they must now also be favourites for the World Cup!

Germany through, who will join them? Spain or Russia

Well after the twist and turns of last nights match between Germany and Turkey what can we expect from tonights match?

Obviously a lot of people will be looking at the job Spain did on russia in the group stages, beating them 4-1 and think they’ll do them over again.

Personally I think and hope Russia can do the job and make it to the final, but having watched the opening 5 minutes of the game, Spain are looking dominant and full of life early on. Torres has just pulled a good save out of the Russian keeper and I feel he could be in for a busy night.

Interesting to see that both of these teams tonight have only one player each plying their trade outside of their respective countries.

It’s hard to stuff this Turkey!

There’s 11 minute left in the semi-final between Turkey and Germany and Germany have just scored.

Putting them 2-1 up.

I was looking forward to watching the Germans after their superb win and performance in the last round I thought they would be super confident and break down a Turkish team who only have 13 fit players with comfortable ease. Turkey where bound to turn up and just kill the game weren’t they? Surely!

However I must say for most of the game Turkey have been the exciting, forward thinking team. Germany have found it hard to string together more than 2 passes at a time and apart from Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has been excellent in my opinion the whoile German teamn have looked less than average.

whoa whoa whoa…… Turkey have done it again, they’ve equalised!! 4 minutes left and it’s 2-2.

You have to say they deserve it and the Germans must have been idiots to feel they had this game won.
Turkey have done this 4 games on the trot now and you have to say that this time they thoroughly desrve to take something from this game!

It’s hard to stuff this Turkey!

There’s 11 minute left in the semi-final between Turkey and Germany and Germany have just scored.

Putting them 2-1 up.

I was looking forward to watching the Germans after their superb win and performance in the last round I thought they would be super confident and break down a Turkish team who only have 13 fit players with comfortable ease. Turkey where bound to turn up and just kill the game weren’t they? Surely!

However I must say for most of the game Turkey have been the exciting, forward thinking team. Germany have found it hard to string together more than 2 passes at a time and apart from Bastian Schweinsteiger, who has been excellent in my opinion the whoile German teamn have looked less than average.

whoa whoa whoa…… Turkey have done it again, they’ve equalised!! 4 minutes left and it’s 2-2.

You have to say they deserve it and the Germans must have been idiots to feel they had this game won.
Turkey have done this 4 games on the trot now and you have to say that this time they thoroughly desrve to take something from this game!

Russia stun Holland – And me!

Russia inspired by the ever lively Arshavin, stunned not just Holland last night but most of Europe.

I thought their best chance of anything from the game would have been to use spoil tactics and stop the Dutch from playing their flowing game, but the truth was it was the other way around. Holland could not live with the Russians for much of the game and although they managed to grab an 86th minute equaliser that took the game into extra time, that period of extra time was dominated by the Russians and they scored a further 2 goals.

Hiddinks men where superb throughout and many are saying that they can now go on and win the whole thing, but in my opinion (which changes daily in this outstanding tournament) it is now wide open.

Italy I’m sure will be glad to see the Dutch head home after their mauling in the group stages, and should they now beat spain in their next game my master plan that says they will be champions this year could well come true.

Never write the Germans off

This afternoon in the office I was talking about how only a fool would write off the Germans.

They always get better as a tournament proceeds.

I have to admit there was a part of me that said Ronaldo, Deco and the other Portuguese stars had too much pace for the Germans to handle at the back, but sitting here now watching Germany lead 3-1 after 66 minutes  it’s hard to see  how Portugal can pull this one back.

Germany have looked a much improved team tonight. They started the game looking hungry and the first goal cam about from some beautiful football down the left of the field.

Portugal on the other hand seem to want that one pass too many in the opposing half , despite their undeniable talent they just don’t seem willing to try their luck once in a while. Maybe they got of f to such a good start that they became complacent, thinking they would waltz past the Germans as they have some other teams.

What is slightly concerning, seeing as though he is due to arrive to manage Chelsea in a few week is that Big Phil seems to be out of ideas as to how to pull it back.

I wonder what the Chelsea chairman is thinking now?

Actually he is probably still celebrating Russias excellent win last night!

Germany defeated but not yet pole axed!

Croatia deserve huge credit tonight for their performance against the favoured Germany in Euro 2008.
They played some swift well controlled football and exposed the gaps in the German defence to earn a well deserved 2-1 victory.

Germany found it hard to live with the pace of the Germans and their tag as favourites must surely now wave in the balance, although this is the Germans we are talking about, only a fool would rule them out of it.

Germany did prove one thing once again though. If you give Schweinsteiger a sniff of goal he will happily bang one in. He got his third of the tournament as they tried to pull themselves back into the game.

As an Everton supporter I have to say I am really pleased for Slavin Bilic, he’s done a superb job with his team and they must remain dark horses. One thing for sure, nobody will relish having to face them as they look to work as a superb unit from back to front.

Portugal too good to win Euro 2008?

Well it’s started! Euro 2008 got under way with a better game than I expected actually. The Czech’s where a lot worse than I expected but the Swiss were spirited and it was an, as expected, even game. The swiss for me where the better team and I felt for them as they ended up coming from the game with nothing.

The second match saw Turkey play many people’s favourites Portugal.
I had tipped Turkey to cause an opening day upset, but from the kick off it looked very unlikely.

Portugal where too fast, too organised and overall just too good for the Turks to live with. There could have been several more goals against them with Portugal putting the ball in the net two times only to be dissallowed by the referee and they hit the woodwork I think three or four times.

They made it a good game Portugal, despite never really being in any trouble. They entertained and set
the bar high for any teams that where watching them looking at who is in with a chance and who’s not.

As I am writing this Germany have just scored against Poland. From memory I do not think Poland have ever beat Germany and from what I have seen so far here tonight, there’s little chance of that changing any time soon.

Germany are the tournament favourites. From what I’ve seen so far they don’t move as well as the Portuguese, they don’t pass as well as the Portuguese, they don’t seem to have the sparkling, twinkle toed approach as the Portuguese but they have something. Something I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s just the knowledge that everyone still seems to dislike them, maybe it’s a certain amount of German ignorance, I’m not sure, but there is something there that tells me they look like they could win this thing!

You may ask yourselves why I keep overlooking the Portuguese, if they look so good why won’t I turn around and say I think they will win it? Well the answer is this. I think they are too good. I think recent history shows it’s not the best team in the tournament that wins it, it’s a bit of an underdog which is why, as I have said for the past few weeks I still think it will be Italy who win it. I wonder when the last time a team that is World Champions went into a tournament without even being amongst the top 5 favourites to win it?

So with half time approaching in the Germany Poland game I’m going to grab myself a beer and get ready for the second half and I reckon Germany could get another 2 goals yet!