Last time I left you all on the knife edge of the semi-finals, but here is another knife edge, well cliff hanger if you will because I will get back to the semi final review further into this elaborate piece.
I’m going to dive in head first into...
The quarter finals dream XI (4-4-2) -
GK - Rustu Recber - Turkey - Fought back the years to be a penalty shoot out hero putting the Turkish into their first European major competition semi final this decade.
DF - Philip Lahm - Germany - Pressed Ronaldo inside caused the Portuguese problems when moving forwards, his consistancy has brought the attention of the Europe’s best clubs after him.
DF - Yuri Zhirkov - Russia - The marauding wing back showed his qualities and caused the Dutch problem after problem, could not contain his overlapping ability.
DF - Dennis Kolodin - Russia - Long range efforts from 30 yards plus cause Edwin Van Der Sar issues? Damn right this boy was lethal from any distance had a few long range pops which scared Edwin into palming over and he played defensively well against the Dutch.
DF - Carlos Marchena - Spain - Contained Luca Toni along side Carles Puyol, effortless display and did a good defensive job keeping the Italians out.
MD - Bastien Schweinsteiger - Germany - Showed his class in the German midfield, he has silenced his Bundesliga critics and showed his true form with a well took goal against the Portuguese.
MD - Andrei Arshavin - Russia - The Zenit midfielder come striker showed the class he showed against rangers in the UEFA cup final he took apart the Dutch and scored Russia’s 3rd goal.
MD - Wesley Sneijder - Holland - Even though his team went out against Russia he never gave up the fight and tried and tried to get a goal but to no array, on of the best middlemen in the world in my eyes.
MD - Mauro Camoronesi - Italy - Italy looked a threat when he had the ball possibly one of the very few Italians in the national squad with real pace, he caused Spaniard Iker Casillas to make a wonderful reflex save.
ST – Semih Senturk - Turkey - Slowly becoming a popular face, the striker again broke croatian hearts by scoring a last gasp equaliser in the dying minutes of extra time to push the match to pens.
ST - Ivan Klasnic - Croatia - Back from a kidney operation and scoring two goals in a major competition, what a guy, his goal scoring exploits nearly put Croatia through to the semi final.
The semi finals
Turkey vs Germany - The Turkish before this match had 13 players to pick a starting 11 from, the Germans on the other hand had a full strength squad minus the defensive midfielding talents of Torsten Frings. This match was said to be definitely the Germans match to take. The Turkish on the other hand have a never say die attitude and in the match this definitely showed. Philip Lahm, Germany’s defensive wing back had his work cut out.
This time Germanys Mr Consistancy, Lahm, faced up against English born Turkish lad Colin Kazim-Richards, an ex-Sheffield United and Brighton player who was nowhere near any major competitions of world calibre 4 years back. Kazim caused Lahm plenty of misery cutting inside and out and firmly shrugging Lahm time and time again off the ball in the first half. Inside the first 12 minutes Kazim had already shook Jens Lehmann after he sent a venomous shot crashing off the German crossbar. Turkey hit the net first with a Ugur goal off another Kazim shot which struck the woodwork around 22 minutes, Lehmann tried to parry Ugurs shot but the ball nestled in his net.
A Bayern duo then made it all square. Bastien Schweinsteiger then leveled the proceedings with a finely struck right footed glancing effort off a Podolski cross from the left channel. All level at 1-1 with only 27 minutes played. It was Turkey who kept showing the attitude and spirit to get forward and have a go, the Germans looked shadows of themselves and seem to be chasing shadows at times when the Turkish attacking threat of Altintop and Kazim came at them. All square going into the half time break.
As it goes all Turkeys attacking effort was for nothing in the second half, it was nearing 79 minutes when Rustu Recber wrongly came for Philip Lahms cross and he misjudged it and missed it leaving Klose to head in to make it 2-1. It looked like the Turkish had shot themselves in their own feet, but the Turkish spirit lifted them once again and when they seemed to be heading out of the European Championships it was again Semih who saved them. Lehmann gifted Turkey a goal when Turkish player Sabri went past Lahm on the right and crossed the ball low into Lehmann’s right hand near post and as Lehmann went down to what he thought was an easy collection Semih ghosted in from Lehmanns blindside to beat Lehmann at his near post with a neat right footed finish. The score was now 2-2 with 86 minutes gone.
It was now time for Philip Lahm to overcome his in game mistakes, it was time for him to step up and wash his memories of Sabir and Kazim ghosting past him. Lahm came down the left side like a rampaging mad man full speed with the ball at his feet he came up against Kazim who Lahm brushed past and Kazim went down clutching his leg.
GK - Rustu Recber - Turkey - Fought back the years to be a penalty shoot out hero putting the Turkish into their first European major competition semi final this decade.
DF - Philip Lahm - Germany - Pressed Ronaldo inside caused the Portuguese problems when moving forwards, his consistancy has brought the attention of the Europe’s best clubs after him.
DF - Yuri Zhirkov - Russia - The marauding wing back showed his qualities and caused the Dutch problem after problem, could not contain his overlapping ability.
DF - Dennis Kolodin - Russia - Long range efforts from 30 yards plus cause Edwin Van Der Sar issues? Damn right this boy was lethal from any distance had a few long range pops which scared Edwin into palming over and he played defensively well against the Dutch.
DF - Carlos Marchena - Spain - Contained Luca Toni along side Carles Puyol, effortless display and did a good defensive job keeping the Italians out.
MD - Bastien Schweinsteiger - Germany - Showed his class in the German midfield, he has silenced his Bundesliga critics and showed his true form with a well took goal against the Portuguese.
MD - Andrei Arshavin - Russia - The Zenit midfielder come striker showed the class he showed against rangers in the UEFA cup final he took apart the Dutch and scored Russia’s 3rd goal.
MD - Wesley Sneijder - Holland - Even though his team went out against Russia he never gave up the fight and tried and tried to get a goal but to no array, on of the best middlemen in the world in my eyes.
MD - Mauro Camoronesi - Italy - Italy looked a threat when he had the ball possibly one of the very few Italians in the national squad with real pace, he caused Spaniard Iker Casillas to make a wonderful reflex save.
ST – Semih Senturk - Turkey - Slowly becoming a popular face, the striker again broke croatian hearts by scoring a last gasp equaliser in the dying minutes of extra time to push the match to pens.
ST - Ivan Klasnic - Croatia - Back from a kidney operation and scoring two goals in a major competition, what a guy, his goal scoring exploits nearly put Croatia through to the semi final.
The semi finals
Turkey vs Germany - The Turkish before this match had 13 players to pick a starting 11 from, the Germans on the other hand had a full strength squad minus the defensive midfielding talents of Torsten Frings. This match was said to be definitely the Germans match to take. The Turkish on the other hand have a never say die attitude and in the match this definitely showed. Philip Lahm, Germany’s defensive wing back had his work cut out.
This time Germanys Mr Consistancy, Lahm, faced up against English born Turkish lad Colin Kazim-Richards, an ex-Sheffield United and Brighton player who was nowhere near any major competitions of world calibre 4 years back. Kazim caused Lahm plenty of misery cutting inside and out and firmly shrugging Lahm time and time again off the ball in the first half. Inside the first 12 minutes Kazim had already shook Jens Lehmann after he sent a venomous shot crashing off the German crossbar. Turkey hit the net first with a Ugur goal off another Kazim shot which struck the woodwork around 22 minutes, Lehmann tried to parry Ugurs shot but the ball nestled in his net.
A Bayern duo then made it all square. Bastien Schweinsteiger then leveled the proceedings with a finely struck right footed glancing effort off a Podolski cross from the left channel. All level at 1-1 with only 27 minutes played. It was Turkey who kept showing the attitude and spirit to get forward and have a go, the Germans looked shadows of themselves and seem to be chasing shadows at times when the Turkish attacking threat of Altintop and Kazim came at them. All square going into the half time break.
As it goes all Turkeys attacking effort was for nothing in the second half, it was nearing 79 minutes when Rustu Recber wrongly came for Philip Lahms cross and he misjudged it and missed it leaving Klose to head in to make it 2-1. It looked like the Turkish had shot themselves in their own feet, but the Turkish spirit lifted them once again and when they seemed to be heading out of the European Championships it was again Semih who saved them. Lehmann gifted Turkey a goal when Turkish player Sabri went past Lahm on the right and crossed the ball low into Lehmann’s right hand near post and as Lehmann went down to what he thought was an easy collection Semih ghosted in from Lehmanns blindside to beat Lehmann at his near post with a neat right footed finish. The score was now 2-2 with 86 minutes gone.
It was now time for Philip Lahm to overcome his in game mistakes, it was time for him to step up and wash his memories of Sabir and Kazim ghosting past him. Lahm came down the left side like a rampaging mad man full speed with the ball at his feet he came up against Kazim who Lahm brushed past and Kazim went down clutching his leg.
Lahm continued his run to the left hand corner of the Turkish box where he exchanged a neat one-two pass with ex-Aston Villa midfielder Thomas Hitzelsperger, and Hitzelsperger played Lahm through on goal and Lahm fired a shot past Rustu high into the net to seal the 3-2 victory for Germany and to send them soaring into the Final.
Russia vs Spain - On the eve of this Match Andrei Arshavin, Russian midfield master, discussed his club future in an interview for the BBC. All the hype surrounding Andrei has been phenomenal and he became a casualty to his own hype as he entered the match against Spain with an un-clear head as such as his focus did not seem fully on the task which faced him.
In the match Arshavin seemed distant and seemed to look out of sorts in a match he should have been be well fired up for. The Spanish looked flamboyant on the ball and the Russians seemed to be chasing the Spanish around alot. The technique of the Spanish game showed in the first half with Senna securing the midfield defensively for the Spanish and Villa and Torres looking livelier than a pack of kids who have drank a case of Redbull. Villa was subsequently injured on the 34th minute and Arsenals Francesc Fabregas entered the battle ground. The fact was Russia kept the Spanish out for 45 minutes and it was all square going into half time, 0-0.
After the break it took 5 minutes for the extravagant Spanish to break the deadlock. It was Barcelona middlemen who gave Spain the lead. Andres Iniesta crossed and Xavi Hernandez finished who fired Spain 1-0 up. Russian goalkeeper Akinfeev was livid with his defence but it was Xavi who was ecstatic. Fernando Torres was substituted on the 69th minute and Daniel Guiza came on to play the frontline.
It was at this point Fabregas started to take control of the middle of the pitch, Senna was clearing up and Fabregas was venturing forwards. With 17 minutes left of the 90 Fabregas broke open the Russian defence to play in Guiza, who had been on the pitch for only 4 minutes, and he lofted Fabregas's wonderful pass over the clambering Akinfeev. Guiza then raced away into his bow and arrow celebration. It was now 73 minutes into the match, 2-0 down and Russian heads began to go down, they looked like they had given up.
A matter of 9 minutes later Spain hammered the last nail in the coffin as such as the creative Fabregas tore open the Russian defence again playing in the Liverpool touted midfielder Da Silva who fired a low shot past Akinfeev to beat the Russians and give Russian gaffer Guus Hiddink his 3rd semi final loss in major international tournaments. Spain celebrated in style as the final whistle blew. All what faced them now was a final against the Germans.
The semi finals dream XI (4-4-2) -
GK - Iker Casillas - Spain - Kept a clean sheet against Russia and looked tidy throughout the match even when Russia did threaten the Spain goal, made a world class fingertip save off a Pavyluchenko curler.
DF - Carles Puyol - Spain - Kept track of Pavyluchenko, was inevitably the man who stopped Roman from scoring and getting in behind the Spainish defence.
DF - Carlos Marchena - Spain - The Sydney 2000 Olympic silver medalist kept the Russian threat at bay and had his hand in fighting off Arshavin with Capdevila. His presence was felt every time the ball came near the box.
DF - Philip Lahm - Germany - Overcame his shocking errors to continue his consistancy again saving German blushes with a finely took run forward and a goal which was priceless.
DF - Mehmet Topal - Turkey - Was quite decent when the German frontline came at him and he looked decent going forward possibly made many new admirers with his impressive displays.
MD - Colin Kazim-Richards - Turkey - Knocked a boy inside knocked a boy out is a Dizzee Rascal lyric and that is what he did with Lahm, he turned him inside out on a few occasions an impressive performance, proved some of his critics wrong with this display.
MD - Francesc Fabregas - Spain - In a nutshell he changed the match, he like many before him Zidane, Roy Keane and Steven Gerrard all have that extra special characteristic which makes them change matches and he has it. Fabregas is a very special player and he showed it with his creativity.
MD - Bastien Schweinsteiger - Germany - This lad is also specal, would not surprise me if we see him in a top La Liga side or an English Premiership side in seasons to come. His timing was impeccable to the Germany attack.
MD - Hamit Altintop - Turkey - Time after time he pushed the Turkish forwards, he seemed calm and collective on the ball and you can see why he is on the team sheet at Bayern Munich. Nearly scored a 35 yard plus free kick over Lehmanns head.
ST - Semih Senturk - Turkey - Class act again he showed his predatorial class, this fellow could have a smorgasbord of clubs after him now due to his impressive displays. He will possibly now be a god like figure in Turkey.
ST - Daniel Guiza - Spain - He scored 37 goals last season for RCD Mallorca with 26 coming from open play, he gave us a taster of his finishing ability with a neat finish over the approaching Akinfeev. He now is also being touted by the top clubs.
The Final Review
Germany - Germany are full strength but Torsten Frings injured ribs are still questionable. Podolski will be asked possibly again to go down the left flank to get a few much needed crosses into Miroslav Klose. Defensively the Germans may call upon Arne Freidrich again after his decent display against the Turks. The Germans also have a bench full of talent including Mario Gomez and David Odonkor who can change matches but are yet to impress.
This is how the Germans will possibly line up.
Lehmann
Lahm
Metzelder
Mertesacker
Friedrich
Schweinsteiger
Frings
Ballack
Hitzelsperger
Podolski
Klose
Spain - The Spanish are without tournament top scorer David Villa but have plenty in reserve. I believe Fabregas will get the go ahead in this match and he will be more than capable of troubling Frings and Ballack. Torres may play a lone striker role but Iniesta or Silva may tuck in behind him when attacking. Daniel Guiza may be entered into the fray but not as a starter, he could appear as the game goes on.
This is how the Spanish will possibly line up -
Casillas
Ramos
Marchena
Puyol
Capdevila
Iniesta
Xavi
Senna
Silva
Fabregas
Torres
Head to heads
Puyol vs Klose - Klose has the aerial ability to find the net and Puyol has the heading ability to clear, has looked shaky with some crosses but he gets on with it and does it no nonsense style. This is where the match could be won for the Germans if Miroslav gets the best of Puyol for a split second, Klose will capitalise. Puyol needs to be at the top of his game tonight to keep Klose quiet.
Fabregas vs Frings - The suspected ribs of Torsten could come into play with Fabs hustle and bustle style of play at times but Frings does not shy away from a challenge either. Fabregas will try and pull and draw Frings and Ballack to him to create holes in behind them to let Torres and Iniesta drop into. Frings will need to be also at the peak of his conditioning to get the best of Fabregas but its unlikely if Frings is not 100%.
Torres vs Metzelder - Torres has the turn of pace, the in air ability and he can finish, he is due a goal and Metzelder may be the man trying to stop him. Metzelder played a handful of matches for his club last season and it has showed, Torres could runs rings round him if he is not concentrating fully. Tonight could be Torres' night.
All what awaits now is the final, 7.45pm kick off. I’m excited already and I cant wait to see what happens its surely going to be a great spectacle all I need now is a comfy chair and a television.
Next time - Euro 2008 Final review and sportswatch - all the sports news and news from Wimbledon.
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