Spain narrowly through

Villa wants to fly to the moon with his strike partner Torres

This is probably the weirdest match I've watched in the tournament so far. There are goals in the match, but it's exceedingly boring at the same time. Spain suddenly turned into Italy of the night as they keep lots of possession but couldn't really penetrate much through the Swedish defence. I find the Swedish more adventurous with their offence. Torres opened the scoring using the sole of his boots to push the ball into the net. Ibrahimovic equalised at the 34th minute when Sergio Ramos could not match the tremendous strength of the striker to close him down. From then on, it's being rather monotonous. Every time the Spanish moved near to the Swedish penalty box, their attack would be snuffed out before they could take a shot. Then, the Swedish will try to counter-attack but the quality is rather bad as the Spanish would similiarly block the shots. Another thing is the high amount of stoppages from fouls. It seemed so irritating that the whistle was blown so frequently. David Villa was relatively quiet UNTIL the very last minute when he pounced on a cross that is missed by Torres to go clear at the Swedish box. No mistakes on the spot as Villa slid in the winner. 4 goals in the tournament for the Spanish marksman.

Hmm..I was wondering if the Nederland match had affected the way I watch the match. Now, it seems that every match had to be played like the Dutch way for it to be fun..lol. Anyways, Spain would most likely avoid Nederland in this case for the quarter-finals..haha. They would be so glad to advance to the next round and need not wait anxiously until the last match for a decider. Sweden would feel that they're being robbed at the last minute but they can't really blame anyone for it since the defenders went sleeping at the last few seconds. The proponents of anti-football, Greece is out of the tournament and will not be able to defend their status quo as the 2004 champions. Well, they can't just continue smoking their way through and with old legs in the squad, I don't think they have that much stamina to maintain their parking bus positions. With Spain through, I would also expect them to rest key players in their final match against the Greeks.

Oranje demolition job

Rafael van der Vaart and Dirk Kuyt are ecstatic to put one past Les Bleus

Nederland ruthlessly crushed the French 4-1 to book their place in the next round of Euro 2008. This is pure Dutch masterclass as another team is run ragged by the Oranje offensive play. France came into the match being very aware of the way the Italians were dismantled by the rampage. Efforts were being placed to stifle the Dutch attacking motion. Makalele and Toulalan are placed in the middle to anchor the defence. Henry plays as the lone striker supported by Ribery in the AMC position. The Dutch played the similiar starting eleven that they used against Italy.

The first blood was drawn by the Oranje just within 9 minutes when Kuyt pumps in a header from van der Vaart's corner kick. The Dutch onslaught has begun. The French came close a couple of times during the first half to equalise but van der Sar was there to save the day as always. The first half ended with a goal in favour of the Dutch. van Basten's intention to seal the game was evident when he decided to pull out the defensive Engelaar for Arjen Robben. So, in goes Robben at the wing and Sneijder back at center along with van der Vaart. Dutch attack went one up notch. At the 55th minute, van Persie was thrown in to create an ultimate attacking force. 4 minutes later, van Nistelrooy does a nice back flick to Robben who in his energetic sprint dashed across the left wing to set up a goal for van Persie. 2-0 up, and the French felt that it's gonna take a hell of a task to get back on track.

France could have perhaps gotten a lifeline when Henry glided the ball across the goal mouth where it just managed to squeeze in. van der Sar didn't take much action because it looked as if it would be heading out. The Dutch pegged back immediately within seconds and Robben is at again but this time, he finishes it himself to restore Nederland's 2 goal cushion. It was a tight angle but he managed get it through. At the 92nd minute, Sneijder blasted one from outside the box, leaving Coupet with no chance at all. The world is left breathless at the sight of such stunning display of attacking football. This is the rebirth of Total Football.

Previously, Nederland had found themselves under criticism for lack of teamwork and quality. Four Four Two and Football Weekly had articles declaring that Total Football is dead. And they were proven WRONG big time.Obviously at press time, the writers could not imagine that the Oranje would actually put 7 goals past the World cup finalists and conceded only 1 goal in the process.

The 3-0 victory over the Italians is of no fluke as the French have discovered themselves after being thumped 4 goals. Never have I seen an international team so devastating in tearing apart another and what made it more impressive was that those were titanic teams and not little noobies. The Dutch defence can be horrible at times but the attack is so excellent that they could just play a game where they can outscore their opponents. The speed of attacking and counterattacking is devastating, and even at such high speed, passing accuracy is not compromised at all. I would say that it can easily reach 90% above. Another strange thing is how the Dutch attackers could intercept and tackle so cleanly and efficiently to the extent that it can sometimes put Rio Ferdinand to shame.

The team that finished second in Group D will have the misfortune in encountering the Dutch. The case in Group C is that regardless of what results Nederland gets against Romania, they will still finish first. As for our dear France and Italy, they have to slug it out and hope that Romania don't achieve victory. For the Oranje, the key players can take a nice rest as they prepare for the quarter finals.

Woeful Mannschaft stumbles

Ballack and Co. are clueless what to do next

What kind of *&$^#%@ tactic is Loewe putting out? Where was the team geist? This is possibly one of the worst Deutschland matches that I had ever watched. First touch was poor, passing was bad, off the ball is horrendous and defending was just awful. First of all, questions must be asked for the choice of the first eleven, particularly in the attacking department. Podolski on the wing, Schweinsteiger left out and Mario Gomez upfront sums up the the type of "attack" that would be "effective" against Croatia. Just because that sort of first eleven formation worked against Poland, it doesn't mean it will work against a better team like Croatia. And the German victory against Poland was partly contributed by the fact that the the Poles put up suicidal tactics of pushing their defensive line so upfront.

I can't believe that Loewe can't see that Mario Gomez is just not fit to be upfront. Yes, his domestic form is superb but international footie is a different story. Already in the Poland match there are ominous signs that he's gonna draw blanks. Most of the off-ball runs that he made were wrongly timed and he wasn't of any threat to either the Poland or Croatian defence. With no support from his partner, Klose is similiarly useless and can't do much upfront. Podolski's talent and goal poaching skills were not being utilised properly. Of course, his domestic form ain't as good as Gomez but he has proven more than enough that he's a different player altogether at the international level. Oh gosh, I would even rather gamble Kuranyi in than play Gomez upfront.

The midfield looked extremely lethargic and uninspirational. They were predictable and for some reason or so, captain Ballack was far from the form he was at Poland. They kept losing the ball just as quickly as they had won it. I was horrified to see Loewe putting Schweinsteiger to replace Gomez only at the 65th minute. One could see that there was an improvement in the German attack when Schweini plays on the left wing and Podolski was reverted back to his original role. The attack also became more organised for the first time during the match. It is only proper and vital that Lahm and Schweinsteiger link up together on the left too as they both have a strong understanding based on experiences in club and World Cup. Schweini provided the spark for the zombified Germans to press forward. The impact was evident with Schweini barely missing from a tight angle shot and he later inspired the Podolski goal which gave some form of hope in the last few minutes. Alas, too late is too late. I'm just surprised that Odonkor was subbed into the field earlier than Kuranyi and Schweini when he was meant to be an impact player and not a tactical one to be placed so early in the game.

To add insult to the bad tactics, there was a card frenzy at the dying minutes of the match. Schweini apparently got frustrated and reacted to one of the Croats by pushing him to the ground. The referee saw the incident and pulled out an immediate red out of his pocket. Lahm and Lehmann rushed to the referee in protest and both of them got a yellow card for that too. Now the Germans are in trouble with one of their vital attacking players out on a suspension from the decisive Austria match.

Salutations to Croatia for a passionate game of football where they played as a team and outwitted the Germans in almost every department. The bubbly and animated nature of the manager rubs onto the players and that gave them the spirit to move forward. This was the same Croatia team that beat England 3-2 in Wembley. Looks like the Germans would have to ensure that they get the three points from their Anschluss buddies if they wanna reach the quarter finals.

Btw, what's up with the Polish politicians nowadays? First, Podolski is being threatened to have his Polish passport withdrawn (very strange since Poldi himself said that he didn't even own one) Now the Polish PM feels like "killing" Howard Webb the referee, spawning threats from the British Polska community against the poor Brit ref. Seriously, let's leave politics out of football yea?

Portugal first to quarters

Goal-scorer Deco and Captain Nuno Gomes share their delight together

It's a reunion of Ronaldo and Cech at the opposite ends of the field. If Portugal wanna go through, they have to get past Czech's Cech first. And they have to rely on the experience of Ronnie who happened to beat Cech and put one past him just last month in Russia. This match is between the two favourites of group A and the winner of this match would guarantee a place in the next round.

The Czechs started the first half unauspiciously when they conceded a goal after just 8 minutes of playing time. Fumbles and confusion in the Czech half at that point of time, but Deco was at the right place and right time to do just a short tap in. The Czechs pulled one back to level with Sionko's header from a corner kick. It looked like a deadlock up till the 63rd minute when golden boy Ronaldo put on his scoring boots to give Portugal the lead again. Ronnie was at it again at the dying minutes of the game. Ronaldo's nicely-timed movement left the Czech offside line stranded and that allowed him to go one on one with Cech. Nice to see him unselfishly pass to Quaresma to seal the game once and for all.

Honestly, the Cech did his best to keep the balls out but the Portugese were just too good. Anyways, he could take pride with the fact that his country would have conceded more if not for his brave goalkeeping. Portugal is one funny team which doesn't have proper strikers apart from the aging Nuno Gomes but the superior quality of their midfield is good enough to get the goals. And with 2 wins out of 2, they look deadly enough to finish up Switzerland, which just crashed out of the tournament after losing to Turkey.

Villa Hat-Trick Ace

Remember the name and number: David Villa

Spain entered the tournament with much to prove to the world that they will no longer be an underperforming side. For all the talents in their team and the local stars in La Liga, Spain has not really been able to win the big prizes at the international stage. Somehow for this tournament, there's just a weird feeling that they may just do it. With emerging talents such as Fabregas and Sergio Ramos plus hot on form strikers like Torres and David Villa, the Spanish team is one not to be reckoned with.

It was a sluggish start for the Spanish at the first quarter of the match but eventually, they broke the deadlock when Torres unselfishly passed the ball to David Villa for him to score the first. Not long afterthat, Villa was at the receiving end of a piercing Iniesta pass and he made no mistake in securing his second. At the second half, a magnificent solo ball control movement by Villa enabled him to pop his hat-trick in. The three goals were truly magnificent finishing from the Spanish marksman. The Russians were left dejected after being run ragged by Villa. Anyways, to retain some form of pride, they managed to score a consolation goal to make it 3-1. But Spain was not done. Fabregas was introduced as a sub into the game and he too wanna get into the scoresheet. And he does it superbly with a connecting header late in the game.

The 4-1 scoreline reflects the superiority of the Spanish in the match although they had to take some time get settled into the game. Lol..to think that this was the Russian team which edged out England for Euro 2008. Gosh..Steve McClaren really blew it up.

At the end of the first round of the group matches, there ain't any surprising upsets (apart from Italy, if u want to count it) and the results were more or less predictable. Spain will face Sweden in the their next match.

Oranje Blitz

Van the man celebrates his opener with his teammates and fans

What a match! In one of football's most delicious match-up, it certainly didn't disappoint. Two distinctly different systems at work - The flamboyant Dutch and the organised Italians. In the end, the Dutch proved to be too much for the Italians as the Azzuri had no reply to the way the Orange men had been playing. The Italian defence is just as clueless in stopping the rampage. They were outclassed and outplayed time and time again by the Dutch attackers.

Of course, Italy had been touted as favourites for the match due to their status as World champions. There were many supporters of Italian footie around me but personally, I don't really fancy them.(partly cos they gave Deutschland the boot at the WC) At the international stage, I'm a fan of two countries, one being Nederland because of the brand of creative footie that they play and the other being ironically, their bitter rivals, Deutschland whom I regard as a solid balanced team with a strong determined spirit.

I had earlier predicted that Nederland would overcome Italy with a scoreline of 1-0 or 2-1 but I certainly didn't expect them to romp past at 3-0. In any case, I was delighted with the way the proponents of Total Football had won the match and proved to football skeptics that the game is not just about a straightforward game of 22 behind a ball.

Ruud van Nistelrooy opened the scoring with a rather controversial offside goal but UEFA ruled later that it is valid. The reasoning given was that although Panucci has been off-field as a result of the momentum, he is still considered to be in-game and as a result, his position ahead of van Nistelrooy played him onside. The second goal which followed after the first was a beauty and a testament of the particular distinct Dutch style of counterattacking. From an Italian corner, the ball is cleared away from the Dutch lines and almost immediately afterthat, waves of Orangemen started to sweep across the field in terrifying speed. It started with van Bronckhorst who passed it to van der Vaart. Vdv then planted a superb long range pass back to van Bronckhorst who then crosses it to Kuyt and Sneijder finishes it with style from a volley. From an Italian corner to a Dutch goal..lol. The third one is rather impressive too and again it is a component of counterattacking which the Italians dreaded so much on that night. Van der Sar made a superb save from a Pirlo free kick and the Orangemen were off and away again in pushing towards the Italian goalpost. The Oranje weaved a set of crafted moves which ended with van Bronckhorst heading the ball into the net to make it 3-0.

Italy has been well known to play a short passing and slow build up game. Opponents often find it hard to match up with them because they retain the ball most of the time all the way to the final third where apply a finishing. The Dutch playing style disrupted their traditional rhythm and the Italians were often thrown into disarray the moment counterattack occurs. As such, it is common to see the Italians retreat in panic. Sometimes, there are up to 3 blue shirts chasing after 1 orange fella. The agile silky movements of the Dutch made the Italians look like Ah Peks or grandpas on the ball. Italy is one hell of a juggernaut of physical superiority but Nederland made up the shortage with a keen flair on the creative manipulation of the ball and speed. Honestly, defence has not been the main highlight of the Oranje but for them, attacking is a form of defending. Look at the amount of times van Bronckhorst has pushed upwards and being a constant pain to the Italian defenders even though he was the left back. When the Dutch defence has being breached (which is quite often..haha..and sometimes done in deliberation for counterattacking purposes), they always have one solid person to depend on who have time and time again denied the Italians with his classy saving skills - van der Sar. Nederland would have conceded goals if not for the giant between the posts whom in my opinion, is comparable to the influence that Oliver Kahn had on the German team.

As for the other match, it's a bore 0-0 draw between France and Romania. By overcoming Italy, Nederland has one foot foot into the quarter finals since on paper and theoretically, they shouldn't have problems in dispatching Romania (cannot be guaranteed cos Nederland actually had trouble with Romania during the qualifiers). Anyways, Italy would need to work hard to win the remaining two matches if they wanna go through. As for the Oranje, they have Les Bleus as their next opponents for another delicious encounter.

Poldi's Brace

Podolski coolly smashes in his 2nd goal of the tournament

Germany started the campaign well with a 2-0 win over Poland, thanks to double goal scorer Lukas Podolski. The Germans were highly organised in the match and the passing was done with precision. I'm kinda amazed that even when the Germans were forced through narrow paths by the Polish defence, they managed to get the ball through to each other. The Polish defensive tactics were very flawed from the beginning. They pushed up the line so far ahead that they were left vulnerable the moment Germany counter-attacked. The first goal was conceded in such a manner. The Poles got a couple of shots but none of them were of quality to trouble Lehmann.

The German attack got boosted in the second half with the introduction of Bastian Schweinsteiger and it was clear that he was the architect for the second goal. One of the Polish defenders dwelt on the ball for a few seconds too long and Schweinsteiger punished him for it by snatching the ball away. He crossed the ball in for Klose who missed but Podolski was there to pounce on it. Poldi did excellent in his role as a goal poacher. Much has been criticised about his inconsistent form in the Bundesliga but he does really perform when it comes to the international stage. Mario Gomez, who has been touted as one of the bright new talents of German attackers, had been particularly disappointing with so many misses from easy chances. He gotta improve his strike qualities if he wanna retain his place in the starting eleven. One interesting thing that I noticed was that Lahm and Schweinsteiger were both playing at the right wing instead of their traditional left. It worked out nevertheless. Compared to his poor form in World Cup 2006, Captain Ballack was absolutely superb in the opening match. He was the midfield general who coordinated all the movements of the squad with gusto.

I really respect Podolski for his muted celebrations when he score both of his goals. Poland was his birth country and he reminds us that one should never forget his old roots.