i was surprised that they took that one so decisively (holland). congrats to the dutch fans.. probably my second favorite. they just have so much character. i'm getting to know some of em well thanks to real madrid. did robben even play today? i missed the first half and i took an hour lunch to catch the second and saw he was on the bench.

i just hope spain looks good tomorrow. it was reported that they are really hyped and hated to be waiting around for their chance to get started. i want a 3-0 for la furia roja (even tho i have a distaste for that nickname).

i got a romanian friend (and a soccer fan). he is probably not feeling so bad either. unfortunately for him that isnt likely to last long.. but who knows. from the little bits i saw they were holding their own well enough.

What is the world coming to?

A lot of English support the Netherlands, because England didn't qualify.

i was surprised that they took that one so decisively (holland). congrats to the dutch fans.. probably my second favorite. they just have so much character. i'm getting to know some of em well thanks to real madrid. did robben even play today? i missed the first half and i took an hour lunch to catch the second and saw he was on the bench.

i just hope spain looks good tomorrow. it was reported that they are really hyped and hated to be waiting around for their chance to get started. i want a 3-0 for la furia roja (even tho i have a distaste for that nickname).

i got a romanian friend (and a soccer fan). he is probably not feeling so bad either. unfortunately for him that isnt likely to last long.. but who knows. from the little bits i saw they were holding their own well enough.

Robben is injured. :( Happened during the training, he probably won't play France either, everyone hopes he'll be better for the match against Romania. Shame you missed the first half, we were on fire. :)

Spain will probably easily be top of their pool. They're lucky with that draw.

Russia is getting raped by Spain. 2-0 at the half.

What a game the Spain one was. Villa is looking impressive. The Russians never upped the tempo and that cost them the game.

I can't believe the Dutch beat Italy. What a game! Congrats to the Dutch.

Oh and seriously whats happened to England ;), just joking. I hope to see them at the world cup.

What a game the Spain one was. Villa is looking impressive. The Russians never upped the tempo and that cost them the game.


The Russians could have had a couple of goals but they botched all their chances. But yeah, Spain dominated.

spain started out real badly.. they looked terrible the first fifteen minutes. they looked like a bunch of amateurs.

..then the midfield started to wake up.

i cant imagine why the fuck fabregas didnt start.

iniesta is my boy. hes like our ribery type player, but probably not as good (yet anyway).

ramos played a pretty bad game. he basically messed up every time he had the ball.

villa is a passionate dude. he really gets up there and he wants the ball. he messed up a wide open shot but he still scored 3. one of them was real nice (the last one). the others were thanks to his great positioning rather than his on the ball skills, but thats just as important (if not more). i'm happy he got his chance again.. what a horrible season for valencia.

torres needs to want it more i think. he seems more intent in england than on the national team. maybe hell remember what a badass he was with sweden in 2006.. he seemed pretty happy then.

..speaking of sweden. wow, they sure have improved a lot since 2006.

(edit): fza: damn that sucks about robben.. but they sure did well enough anyway haha. i look forward to when they can plug him in. hopefully we meet you guys in the semis. then well both get far enough and ill be happy.. from there may the best team win.

I dont care what happens as long as ITALY LOSES! I hate them so bad, and i dont even know why. And espn's italians are the masters of arts of winning commercials do not help at all!

Im supporting Poland cause im polish, but theyll find a way to fuck up. Germany is gonna end up winning it, but id rather have netherlands win it, or spain.

miroslav klose is a pole.. he should be fighting with you guys.. thatd be a help for sure. i dunno.. seems kind of wrong that a polish powerhouse would be helping the germans..

..nothing against the germans of course. they play some very entertaining futbol.

..was further checking my facts and apparently his father was a polish international soccer player (klose).

its not only klose thats a pole and is playing for germany, its also fucking podolski, who scored the two goals against them. Both were born and raised in polands, stupid fuckers.

Yeah, Spain played really well to beat Russia. Villa was on fire. To whoever said that it's a shame Raul was left out, here's his replacement. Villa is all class.

Oh, well done to Portugal too. They're through now. They're playing good football, as shown in their 2-1 win over the Czechs last night.

Horrible game by Germany, but props to Croatia for taking advantage.

didnt see that coming.. croatia played a really good game.

Robben is fit again.

Tonight will be an exciting night (for me atleast :p), I hope we beat France. The outcome of Italy and Romania is going to be interesting too.

Italy 1-1 Romania

Interesting............ good save from Buffon.

That was a fucking excellent save. I actually raised my eyebrows in shock, heh.

Netherlands 1-0

but it's still early in the game.

woo robben! i'm calling it now: spain /netherlands duke it out in the semi finals.

Netherlands 3-1 France

This is fucking insane :D

4-1 BIATCH!

4-1 BIATCH!

That was a fucking excellent match. Wow.

Wow this Euro has been fucking righteous. I've only caught the Groups B and C matches but WOW.

Now I'm a Poland fan so let me start off by saying FUCK GERMANY!!! We always fucking lose and it's bullshit because Podolski should be on our fucking team.

Croatia is lookin real good right now and I'm really hoping we can pull something out of our asses and Austria pulls the greatest upset ever

As for the group of death AKA Group C......

Fucking Dutch. i always see them as a darkhorse. They can be on and off but when those fans are cheering and the stadium is flooded orange...watch out. I'm liking their odds right now with the momentum they have.

As for the Italians....hahahaha. That is all.

France has been shite too...never liked the French when it came to football anyway.

Spain looks good as well with what I've seen. Plus they've always been a team I liked. Hispanics have always been good at the sport and I feel like they're the country to represent that culture in Europe. Hard to explain but all I know is Torres is a fucking stud.

Can't wait for the rest of the tournament.

I can't believe Oranje has beat the two World Cup 2006 finalists the way they have. Fucking dominated.

Fza, you must be feeling ecstatic after that game! People were strongly tipping France and Italy to qualify but its the Dutch who's made them look ordinary.

I'm still going for the Portuguese but i wouldn't be surprised if the Dutch or Spanish won it.

Last night was utter madness, the whole town I lived in went batshit insane.

We were screaming and jumping through the room, after that we hit the bars. Shitload of fireworks went off, people cheering everwhere, was nice. :)

It wasn't a pretty match, but we won and are through and that's what counts, Robben scored a fucking GODLIKE goal too. We were scared he got injured at the end of the game but he made a good attack towards the end so it was just a scare.

Also, FUCK YOU MAKELELE, keep your fucking hands to your self, fucking ass hat should have gotten a red card for hitting van de Vaart and putting his shoulder in Kuyts face.

Check out the goal from Robben. (http://goalday.blogspot.com/2008/06/netherlands-vs-france-highlights-euro.html)

Brilliant goal by Spain!!!

ESPN was doing a segment on how quick the counterattacks have been in the Euro so far and that had to be the fastest. That ball got to the other side and in that net in like 10 seconds!

we played pretty badly over all.. and sweden played better than russia did. i just got another taste of why the spanish team worries me. aragones looks to make some dumbassed decisions from where im sitting. spain needs a goal or a sense of urgency to find inspiration, if not they just waste time. saved by villa again. gotta love that guy. what a way to act under pressure with such a light and perfect touch. we better win next game because a dutch team that beats grade a teams, even when they still look twice as good as we did today, will surely destroy us. we need time to wake up. maybe we deserve that slap in the face.. maybe then well get a new coach. that'll be a silver lining of a 4-0 defeat. aragones needs to retire.

edit: we could have used raul today. hes more level headed than anybody we had on the field today. he would have scored a simple goal or two out of some of those box messes we created.

turkey made an amazing comeback. I loved watching that game.

Goddammit. I only got to see the highlights because my mom wanted to watch lifetime. :(

Goddammit. I only got to see the highlights because my mom wanted to watch lifetime. :(

That has to suck. There was a part where turkey had possession for about 4 min, just shooting at czech's goal. It was intense.

yeah definitely one of the best games of Euro 2008

Germany through, it was expected but they played like shit again. Although they'll probably play better against Portugal then Austria would so that's good. But I don't expect them to win of Portugal.

So next rounds (the teams that have qualified);

Portugal - Germany
I expect Portugal to win.

Croatia - Turkey
I expect Croatia to win.

Netherlands - Russia
Easy win for the Netherlands.

Spain - Italy
Tough one could go both ways, but i expect Spain to win.




We (the Netherlands) played another awesome game, we got back to the level against Italy, although it was almost a complete bench team, only Engelaar, Robben en van Persie played the matches before. (2-0 against Romania)

Italy beat France (2-0), haven't seen the match.

Tomorrow Russia - Sweden, they could both go through. Should be an interesting match.

you forgot to favor the netherlands nomatter who they get.

good match i guess (italy france).. both teams would have been gimped against spain.. i dunno if i'm happy about that or not.

on one hand it'll be easier probably, but i want spain to have to get it for real. not because theyre getting lucky.

it would have been a france without ribery. and now its an italy without gatusso and i forgot who else it was.. it wasnt zambrotta was it.. and they already dont have canavarro. i think spain is looking good for this.

aragones will probably start fabregas against greece and hopefully that will get his dumb old ass to place confidence in him enough for a start against italy. i cant help but think both marchana and silva shouldnt be starting, even though silva has done well.. with a little tweaking and fabregas they should do better than with silva.

You don't think Spain will save all the important players?

And ofcourse I favor us against anyone, but I have a different accompanying message, I hope we play Sweden because Hiddink knows us too well. (obviously)

Yo! I'm jumping in this thread from the deep end. So we now know pretty much who is playing who in the quarter finals. Lets get some predictions.

Portugal vs Germany.
1-2 to the Germans. I'm slightly biased because I hate Portugal more than I hate the Germans (in fact I quite like German football even though I'm English). While Germany haven't really looked amazing during the group stages I think they've got what they need and will step up to the mark. Podoski is always a threat and if Ballack and Schweinsteiger can supply him well then I think he'll get one of the goals. I'd like to see Klose getting on the score sheet as well. I can't see Gomez getting on the score sheet with his form.

Croatia vs Turkey
2-0 Croatia. While Turkey were impressive against the Portugese I can't see them getting past Croatia who are turning into the dark horse of the tournament.

Holland vs Sweden (probably will be Sweden).
2-0 Holland. It will be a similar game that they played tonight. Because Sweden wont go forward as much as France and Italy the Dutch wont be able to kick their counter attack into gear as much but it will still be a comfortable victory for them. Sweden will feel the preasure without Wilhelmsson and their team will be too old to cope with the youth of the dutch. Larsen, Ljundberg and Ibrahimovic will look sluggish and expect Van Persie and Sneijder to get on the score sheet.

Spain vs Italy
The toughest to call out of all the matchs. It will probably be a very cagey game early on but the second half is probably going to be a lot more exciting and probably high scoring. I'm going out and am going to say 3-2 to Spain. Villa is likely to get one or more goals.

And let's do the Semi's while we're at it.

Germany vs Croatia.
Hard to call. Probably low scoring and defensive goal with probably only one goal. 1-0 to Croatia.

Holland vs Spain
Probably much more open and interesting to watch with a lot more chances. But i'd fancy the dutch because of their ability to counter attack against forceful teams. 3-1.

Final

Croatia vs Holland
I'd go for Holland but it will be harder for them. Much harder. May go to penilties after a 1-1 draw.

Jesus christ, we have the complete same predictions, only I think Portugal will win of Germany.

rest I predict the same outcomes, fucking Croatia. We'll beat them tho, it's been 20 years afterall.

They haven't even been a country that long!

But I think Germany can, and will, step it up against Portugal. They are the sort of team that can turn up the volume when it comes to crunch time. Remember 2006 when everyone said they wouldn't stand a chance. But then again I wouldn't be entirely suprised if Portugal did win. They are better down the wings and if they spead the play out enough around the pitch then the Germans may get in a bit of trouble.

Germany always steps their game up every round, but they have been completely SHIT this championship, even worse than normal.

i read off the euro site that aragones intends to sit torres and villa, and that he will start fabregas and alonso with guiza up top. also reyna will be in goal instead of casillas. silva is hurt apparently and so is puyol..

for some reason aragones doesnt put fabregas on the top list of important players.. and thats part of the reason im confused. i also think juaquin is a more powerful and talented player than silva and he didnt even make the team.. not to mention raul who still has plenty of steam in him based on his recent season with real madrid.

i agree with most of those predictions yet i dont think croatia will survive portugal or germany.. and i actually favor turkey.. but i dont really know them as a team real well. not much for turkey either except for their man on munich and their man on villlareal who are both talented.

i still hope spain goes all the way, and i'm glad theyll have a tough time getting there. it'll be funner to watch if they go through but they also might fall flat. tomorrow will be a good day for them to have some mental rest and experiment.. and then like i hoped maybe fabregas will pull some awesome shit and aragones will have no choice but to find a place for him to start.

I hope Portugal ins against Germany, I think they've been playing really well and they're more entertainig than the Germans.

Italy-Spain is going to be a good one, can't wait to see that, Spain is looking better this time round, but Italy has more experience, maybe we can get lucky and beat them them.

I'm really just happy the French are out.

Italy may lack the speed that the Spaniards have but i think they'll make up for it in experience, 4 time world champs btw.
Italy should win by a goal or two, aquilani, toni, pirlo, perotta, we're all good. Glad to see the dutch didnt throw the game just to face romania, whew! Thank god for espn360. watched both those games simultaneously with much interest. Great games the both of them. Satans team was overhyped i guess, they weren't so evil on the pitch vs the chilled out methodical pot smoking nederlanders.

Oh and this coming sunday/22nd is the USA qualifier for 2010. feel bad for Barbados.

Experience is just a eufemism for that they're fucking old. They stand no chance against a young team, as the Netherlands has shown. They only won from France because they got a red card in the 20th minute. All their matches have been fucking bad, every last one of them.

They don't stand a chance against Spain. Spain, Croatia and the Netherlands are the best countries at the moment.

My predictions;

Portugal 2 - 1 Germany

Croatia 2 - 0 Turkey

Netherlands 3 - 0 Russia

Italy 1 - 2 Spain

Netherlands 3 - 0 Russia


I think the Russian might push you all the way. Don't underestimate Gus Hiddink, He knows your team inside out.

I think the Russian might push you all the way. Don't underestimate Gus Hiddink, He knows your team inside out.

Yeah they were very good against the Swedish. I Didn't think they would get through at all. But I still think the Dutch will beat them quite easily.

Russia only had one decent opponent in that pool, which was Spain.

They lost 4 - 1 to Spain. Says it all in my opinion.

Germany 1 Portugal 0

Croatia 2 Turkey 1

Netherlands 3 Russia 1

Spain 3 Italy 1

I hope Russia wins it all but its not likely.

Oh and this coming sunday/22nd is the USA qualifier for 2010. feel bad for Barbados.

They should just forfeit. Its like 7-0 already.

Btw, here you can watch the all the matches online;

http://ek2008.nos.nl/live

For the people who can't watch live.

Is something supposed to work?

www.ESPN360.com works fine. Shows all the matches at the same time, fullscreen too.

Damnit, Germans are fucking through.

They're a fucking championship team, always growing the further they come. Damn them!

Never doubt them.

Told you. The Germans always step up their game when they need to.
Portugal didn't play badly but Germany held possesion better and scored a couple of great goals from fantastic set plays. Portugese defending was questionable at times.

the portugese created a lot of chances but you could tell they were real nervy and frantic (with good reason). it kindof pissed me off to see so many shots go so high. after a few of those youd think theyd make sure to focus before a shot more.. but it looked like they were just pulling the trigger like crazy. they had a shit ton of vitality, but thats mostly all they could muster (at least the second half because thats all i caught (work)). i was kindof disappointed. the germans are looking good though, and they deserved the win as far as i could tell.

Tell me a zip that works? I'm in Australia.

Tell me a zip that works? I'm in Australia.

20714?

turkey rocked croatia's world

Haha Turkey is awesome, but Germany will beat them. Croatia more or less owned that game and fell victim to horrible bad luck. Turkey has been extremely entertaining but I just can't root against my Germans.

wow i was rooting for turkey and i'm sitting there pissing everybody off with a laptop at the register at work watching it on 360, and then nihat goes off and crotia score.. i thought that was it. i was damned surprised when i found out what happened on the euro site.. i thought it was a typo. i'm honestly quite glad theyre still in it. i hope they give us at least another interesting game.

Well it's safe to say no one could have predicted the Netherlands Russia game. The Russians were running in circles around the dutch. All in all Russia deserved it and the Netherlands played like complete shite.

I'm still rooting for Spain to win.

And with it I'm hoping Liverpool sign David Villa...

We'd have Gerrard feeding balls to Torres and Villa...That would be fantastic :D

Babel should be fit for the new season aswell...Hopefully in time for the friendly against Tranmere.

Don't forget about Xabi in there. Oh man I love my Spaniard invasion of Liverpool.

...and Arbeloa and Reina.

As long as we win, I don't mind.

We have Gerrard, Carragher, Crouch (not sure for how long though) and Pennant to balance it out.

did the dutch just not want it or what? maybe goose or whatever really did outsmart them with that whole defend by attacking thing. took the fun out of their game maybe.. did not see that coming at all. i kept on thinking they were gonna wake up and it was gonna be over.. got to work at 1-0 saw a 1-1 later and figured it was a matter of time till the "oranje" made it their game. what a disappointment.. i thought they looked on top of the world but they couldnt complete the dream.. and whats worse is that its hard to see who they lost to as on the same level.. i dont even know if they stuck robben in at all. they should have if they didnt.

(edit) i'm worried about my spain tomorrow. if they make me proud tomorrow maybe theyll finally regrow some faith from within me. theyll always have my support.. but i have a vivid memory of the day i was all hyped for them to crush an under performing france in 06. i was pissed. dont let me down spain.

i think a few people in this thread are probably quite pissed right now.. sorry dudes i know how it is too.

I'm going to be so pissed if Italy wins tomorrow. They do not deserve to be in the semifinals let alone the quarterfinals.

Omfg Russia.

Hiddink proves he is a master yet again.

I really hope Spain win this now.

I think the Russian might push you all the way. Don't underestimate Gus Hiddink, He knows your team inside out.

What did I say? ;)

Russia have gotten better and better as the tournament has gone on. I think when Arshavin returned from suspension it really gave the Russians a huge lift. That Arshavin is quality!

The Dutch really missed Robben imo.

Yeah why didn't they bring on Robben? Time and time again he has proved that he can change games because he can create so many chances and that was exactly what Holland weren't doing in that game.
I think the difference between this game and their group stage games was that Russia weren't going forward as much meaning Holland couldn't counter. The Russians were much better at holding on to the ball around midfield and never let Holland a chance to break through their ranks.

Spain vs Italy tonight should be good. On paper Spain should be the favourites but with this tournament going as it's going, anything seems possible.

Italy vs Spain

A fucking waste of 2 hours. Thye shoot out was entertaining as always but the rest of the game was one of the most boring games I've ever seen.

Fucking yes!

This.

i rather liked todays game.. haha i was pretty happy.

gotta say i actually agree with aragones taking torres out at that point. torres was not producing, and guiza is much more direct. the pace changed there for a second.. then he pulled a ridiculous hand ball. he was part of a good play with a well thought out header tho.. but he didnt seem to get the idea that you cant play this one like any other league match. i figured he would be the one to botch a pk (and i'm surprised with the confidence of cazorla). guizas real good but he still needs some growth with the national team, then maybe hell become a big gun for us. he needs to cool his head just a little bit methinks. hes nice and strong too.

casillas was on like crazy. fucking hero.

(edit) wouldnt possibly be a boring match for spanish or italian fans. its something else to be on the edge of your seat for 120 minutes. i can understand whats up for everybody else tho. it could have been more interesting in a scoring sense but we canceled each other out and didnt deliver when we respectively got our chances.

why don´t they cancel overtime and go directly into penalty shootout? then the 90 minutes playing time would be with a higher incentive to win it earlier and more goals with less tactic gameplay would occur ..

because some people dont mind watching more soccer...

if its an important do or die match its better to play tactically. 90 minutes wouldn't change that.

why don´t they cancel overtime and go directly into penalty shootout? then the 90 minutes playing time would be with a higher incentive to win it earlier and more goals with less tactic gameplay would occur ..

Because settling it with Penalties is kidda unfair. If one team has dominated the match but still come out with a draw and then lose on Penalties then it's pretty harsh. If they are dominating the game they have more of a chance to score in extratime. Plus, if a team scores in extra time their opponents who are chasing the game always up the level of play and it can be a pretty intense half and hour.

I actually kind of like penalties.

If you ask any footballer on the planet to kick a ball 12 yards into a net they can do it- ask some of these players playing at this level and they could pick out a square of net to hit it into. A goalkeeper doesn't massively change that, in terms of technique the odds are still massively stacked in the kickers favour. any player can do this.

Ask a player to take a penalty kick after 120 minutes of exhausting football, surrounded by team mates relying on you and you alone and in front of 80,00 passionate fans who idolise you and treat you as a God and it becomes something completely different: a test of nerve and steel of one individual at one moment of time, something you maybe don't see much of in team sports.

1-1 Some great goals so far in the Turkey-Germany game.

The better team lost tonight that's for sure.

qfmft!

Good game either way but I fucking hate the Germans...

I would have liked to see Turkey take the tournament, but I'm rooting for Germany now.

i was supporting turkey.. and they played real well. its unfortunate. germanys keeper looked like an utter liability tonight. now spain just needs to beat russia again.. i hope they dont let me down. they dont sound to be underestimating them as far as interviews go. that would be a big mistake.

Lehmann definitely didn't play well tonight which makes me worried for the finals. I'm sad to see Turkey go but I've been supporting Germany since the beginning so it's all good. I'm dying to see a Germany-Spain final though if Germany plays like that against Spain or Russia then they won't have a chance.

Spain Are In The Final! :D

wow.. after that first goal russia lost their shape and we walked right on in. go spain! that was a nice performance. our defense was looking tight too. i'm feeling good about sunday :)

I hope it'll be a great game.

Good to see you yanks enjoying footie! Good lads.

I'm rooting for Spain tonight, even though they beat us last week, they've been playing awesomely I think they totally deserve to win.

I would have loved seeing Portugal in the final as well, I love how they play.

Spain are European champions then. Well done to them.

Yeah congratulations to Spain they definitely outplayed Germany. Damn Germany did absolutely nothing. Where the hell was Ballack??...or Podolski or Klose for that matter. Ugh. Oh well I still love Torres.

Spain totally deserved to win, they should have scored more.

Where the hell was Ballack??...or Podolski or Klose for that matter.

Who are these beings you speak of?

i wish i was in spain for this :)

i am a happy camper! the game was pretty sloppy at times.. but spanish international soccer has finally gotten some "silverware" (dont like the term but ill use it) in my lifetime.

well, now its another two years lol

spain will probably feel a little better about the wc now. its not all bad news anymore haha.

I'm sad because Germany lost. But Torres is awesome.