Euro 2008 Semifinals Preview

What a feast of football Euro 2008 has been so far. Three out of the four semifinalists only managed to finish as runners up in their respective groups, with Spain breaking the pattern in penalty kicks against Italy. Every game has featured sublime skill, great drama and plenty of twists to keep the fans entertained. The quarterfinals saw Germany vs Portugal, Croatia vs Turkey, Russia vs Holland and Spain vs Italy. Here’s how they went:

I didn’t manage to see the Germany vs Portugal game, so had to be satisfied with the highlights. After watching Germany labor to a second-place finish in Group B, it was a surprise to see them come out on top against an in-form Portugal side. Amid plenty of speculation over his future, Cristiano Ronaldo was unable to drag his team to victory, something he did repeatedly for Manchester United this past season. The Germans have their own form player in Lukas Podolski. In and out of the Bayern Munich side, Podolski seems to thrive on the pressure of major tournaments and has helped make up for Mario Gomez’s complete lack of form. Despite their excellent record in the latter stages of these competitions, and the prospect of Turkey in the semifinal, I can’t see Germany winning Euro 2008. I think they’ll dispatch Turkey to reach the final, but will lose handily to whoever they meet there.

Speaking of the Turks, they’ve been the dark horses of the tournament so far. Improbable comeback victories over Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Croatia have been achieved despite numerous injuries and suspensions. Still, their star turn Nihat has gone home with injury and they simply don’t have enough left in the tank to go any further. That said, they’ve been written off before and are still alive. On a side note, I’ve read that UEFA is considering allowing them to call up ‘emergency’ players in light of their injury crises. To my mind, this is ridiculous, as it’s partly due to their poor disciplinary record that they find themselves short. I suspect they will have to make do with what they’ve got.

Russia are my pick to win Euro 2008. I’ve been talking up Andrei Arshavin for a while now, and he’s now propelled himself into the awareness of football fans across Europe. In the UEFA Cup Final, he was excellent, inspiring Zenit St. Petersburg to victory. He was similarly influential in the final group match (his first of Euro 2008) against Greece and in the sparkling win over Holland. It’s said that he favors a move to Barcelona, and I’ve no doubt that he has the requisite quality. I thought that the exertions of extra time against Holland might harm their chances of lifting the trophy, but their semifinal opponents Spain faced the same in their game against Italy.

That game promised to be the pick of the bunch, but instead proved to be a cagey affair thanks to the Italians. Their playacting, feigning injury and negative tactics were exacerbated by a referee that was alternately fussy and gutless. Spain should have easily had two or three penalty kicks before half time, with Ambrosini and Grosso relying on the referee’s lack of bottle to bail them out. In the instant replay of the last incident, you can actually see Grosso pointing to the grass just outside the penalty box, urging the referee to give a free kick from there instead of the penalty spot. Instead, the ref gave nothing and simply waved at David Silva to get up. Fortunately, justice was done in the shootout as Spain broke their jinx against the Italians to advance. Will this herald a golden era of Spanish football? I believe so.

It’s been two weeks of non-stop action, which will now break for three days. Here’s hoping the rest will allow the players to come back fresh for what ought to be two cracking semifinals!