Official Euro 2008 Thread

[ACF]

Bye-bye, Holland.
I think Hiddink is pretty
unpopular back home?!
Well, hats off to Russia!

[Casperian]

Well done Arshavin. He impresses me more and more every time I see him play.

Van Basten fired? Should be.

Arshavyn is officíally a beast. Absolutely impressive, although the dutch defenders seemed to have no energy left for the last 40 minutes.
With all the Abramowitsch connections, I can see him going to Chelsea.

Van Basten already signed with Ajax before the euro started.

[Who]

Well done Arshavin. He impresses me more and more every time I see him play.

Van Basten fired? Should be.

Arshavyn is officíally a beast. Absolutely impressive, although the dutch defenders seemed to have no energy left for the last 40 minutes.
With all the Abramowitsch connections, I can see him going to Chelsea.

Van Basten already signed with Ajax before the euro started.

I didn't know that. That's unfortunate for Ajax. Hopefully he turns into a better club manager than national team manager.

Arshavin has really impressed me. He's freakishly smart with his runs and passing. Very aggressive running at people and a constant goal threat.

I don't think he'll leave Russia yet. Isn't he already on 55k a week or something along those lines? I can those billionaires paying ridiculous numbers to keep him around a bit longer. He'll be a great signing for whoever gets him.

[Edgar]

Well done Arshavin. He impresses me more and more every time I see him play.

Van Basten fired? Should be.

Arshavyn is officíally a beast. Absolutely impressive, although the dutch defenders seemed to have no energy left for the last 40 minutes.
With all the Abramowitsch connections, I can see him going to Chelsea.

Van Basten already signed with Ajax before the euro started.

I didn't know that. That's unfortunate for Ajax. Hopefully he turns into a better club manager than national team manager.

Arshavin has really impressed me. He's freakishly smart with his runs and passing. Very aggressive running at people and a constant goal threat.

I don't think he'll leave Russia yet. Isn't he already on 55k a week or something along those lines? I can those billionaires paying ridiculous numbers to keep him around a bit longer. He'll be a great signing for whoever gets him.

Yup that was why i pointed that before about Marco. I dont know maybe in Holland he will do better.
There are lots of histories like that.

Arsha will be soon headed to Spain , England or somewhere like that.

[Casperian]

Well done Arshavin. He impresses me more and more every time I see him play.

Van Basten fired? Should be.

Arshavyn is officíally a beast. Absolutely impressive, although the dutch defenders seemed to have no energy left for the last 40 minutes.
With all the Abramowitsch connections, I can see him going to Chelsea.

Van Basten already signed with Ajax before the euro started.

I didn't know that. That's unfortunate for Ajax. Hopefully he turns into a better club manager than national team manager.

Arshavin has really impressed me. He's freakishly smart with his runs and passing. Very aggressive running at people and a constant goal threat.

I don't think he'll leave Russia yet. Isn't he already on 55k a week or something along those lines? I can those billionaires paying ridiculous numbers to keep him around a bit longer. He'll be a great signing for whoever gets him.

I saw an interview with him last week on german TV, where he said he wants to leave russia to prove hmself in a big, european league. He said something like "If I don´t leave now, I will never leave". He´s kind of a national hero over there, highest paid player with big endorsement deals and even politically active, and he said there´s nothing left to prove for him in russia.

[Who]

Well done Arshavin. He impresses me more and more every time I see him play.

Van Basten fired? Should be.

Arshavyn is officíally a beast. Absolutely impressive, although the dutch defenders seemed to have no energy left for the last 40 minutes.
With all the Abramowitsch connections, I can see him going to Chelsea.

Van Basten already signed with Ajax before the euro started.

I didn't know that. That's unfortunate for Ajax. Hopefully he turns into a better club manager than national team manager.

Arshavin has really impressed me. He's freakishly smart with his runs and passing. Very aggressive running at people and a constant goal threat.

I don't think he'll leave Russia yet. Isn't he already on 55k a week or something along those lines? I can those billionaires paying ridiculous numbers to keep him around a bit longer. He'll be a great signing for whoever gets him.

I saw an interview with him last week on german TV, where he said he wants to leave russia to prove hmself in a big, european league. He said something like "If I don´t leave now, I will never leave". He´s kind of a national hero over there, highest paid player with big endorsement deals and even politically active, and he said there´s nothing left to prove for him in russia.

That's great news. Better chance to see him play more often. I wonder where he'll land. I hope Edgar is right and that he comes to Chelsea, he'd fit in nicely playing off of Drogba.

I've seen very few rumours about him which is odd for such a talented player.

[ederson]

Arshavin indeed asked for a transfer. Advokaat verified this. I expected Russina but not this good! And they miss their starting stiker. Pavlyucenko (or something like this) is god but he can`t score easily. He wasted too many chances. His ratio is 1 goal every 10 attempts which is decent but in this level strikes score every 7 attempts.

Interesting stat : the group winners always fail in the knock out stage! Only France in 1986 went all the way. So it`s Spain`s turn today ?

[Casperian]

Interesting stat : the group winners always fail in the knock out stage! Only France in 1986 went all the way. So it`s Spain`s turn today ?

Germany in 1996 also won their group.

[ederson]

 
You are right.... The stat gets less interesting

I should know by now not the trust Greek commentators.

Turkey seems in deep *****. Many players are out for the semifinal.

[ederson]

I got another one

Spain`s results on june 22nd are ... pretty bad.
1986 Spain-Belgium
1996 Spain-England
2002 Spain-Korea

All three games went to penalties and Spain lost !

[Max Power]

The Jinx of quarter finals is over .... Spain wins!!!!

Iker , iker , Iker ...

[celticmaestro]

as i haven't posted for a few days, here's my view on the 1/4 finals:

portugal-germany - germany completely outclassed portugal and look like the best team in the tournament right now.

croatia-turkey - croatia were desperately unlucky. slaven bilic is an outstanding coach and they're longer a "surprise team."

netherlands-russia - as predicted, russia outplayed the dutch and fully deserved their win. the netherlands are a great counter-attacking team and as i previously stated, "you don't win a tournament playing attacking football."

spain-italy - boring game. nothing else to say really. it was that bad. although finally they overcame the june 22nd penalty curse (weirdest stat of the year).

semi finals:

germany-turkey - no nihat for turkey, not that it matters. germany should win this very comfortably.

russia-spain - with arshavin back for this game, russia are a different side and i expect them to meet germany in the final.

side note: with ronaldo's departure imminent, i'd love to see arshavin brought in with van der vaart and ronaldinho and money left over.

second side note: i can't talk highly enough about arshavin. he was my tip before the tournament began to be one of the star players and he's not let me down.

[ederson]

Everyone who managed to watch the whole game yesterday is a hero! At least italy didn`t qualify. But the Spain we saw yesterday doesn`t stand a chance against Russia.

The Russians have a great advantage. All but one play in the local championship which started a few weeks ago. They are in the begining of their season. Their are fresh and full of energy while all other players are in the end of an 10-11 months long season.

[ederson]

Bilic was so frustrated that thought about ending his carier 

Turkey`s problems are huge! In defence they `ll miss 3 players (one of them being the tall bearded central defender) and they asked for special permission from UEFA to call an extra defender for the game against Germany (of course UEFA said no!)

[Who]

Sounds like I was alone but I enjoyed that Italy-Spain game. I thought it was really interesting watching the two sides battle it out tactically while exposing weaknesses in each other's game.

Ambrosini played well. Italy really should have won that game but the two players behind Toni were awful - Cassano, Di Natale, Del Piero .. Camronesi was alright but too far up the pitch for him - if Italy actually got some quality out of those guys they would have scored. Chiellini was brilliant for Italy. De Rossi did a nice job and the two fullbacks Zambrotta and Grosso were very good.

Spain were very poor and a lot of it was down to Xavi and his aversion to making quick direct passes. It's near-impossible to walk the ball into the back of the net against a defense like Italy's. You've got to mix up your passing and attack from different angles. Too predictable and too poor. They got better when Fabregas came on unfortunately he had two players in front him (the guys that replaced Torres and Iniesta) who had no business being on the pitch and wasted several possessions.

Senna was incredible for Spain. Italy would have won that game if Senna didn't play, if he were replaced by any of the other Spanish midfielders. Senna did a fantastic job shielding the back four and allowing the midfielders ahead of him to get ahead and take some risks.

Fernando Torres and Villa were still impressive. The slightest half chance and they looked like they could score. Silva was up and down but very threatening. I was happy with Iniesta and Xavi defensively, they didn't get pushed around despite their small size. Sergio Ramos is a really odd player. Very young and talented, capable of great things, and probably Spain's biggest defensive weakness last night and not for the first time this tournament. He has great size at RB which stopped a lot of Italy long balls over the top. Puyol was average again getting caught under the ball on crosses a number of times. Marchena was excellent, very impressive.

The two keepers Casillas and Buffon were excellent.