Summer UEFA Euro 2012

[Jorge D. Dragon]

Let's hope that the referee wion't make any mistakes in favour of any team today as it would totally ruin the game. I would like to see not only an interesting game, but I also want to see a clear game, without any help from referee.
Hope we will enjoy the performance.

 

[jorped]

Definitely. I thinks its going to be an amazing game. Spain is definitely the favorite ... but anything can happen.
Go Portugal

 

[Doraku]

I'm clearly rooting for Portugal tonight. It's gonna be fun if Spain's defenders are busy marking Ronaldo while in fact it is the other Portugal players who make the decisive goal. Even though I'm not sure if this Iberia derby without strikers would be as awesome as when Torres and Postoga play.

 

[ibra87]

Definitely cheering for Nuno's team tonight (Portugal). GO RONALDO!!!!


----------[sizept=1]beating portugal in the final would be so much easier than Spain..[/sizept]-------------


Winning this match might earn him the ballon!

 

[BBB Banana]

If I had filled in all my bracket I would have won this thing

 

[goldb]

My brackets were screwed up by Holland and whole bunch of other final positions, but I'm mainly blaming Holland. I'm rooting for Spain tonight, since the former is out of the tournament, they are my favourites to retain their trophy. GO SPAIN!!

 

[ibra87]

36 minutes in and so far: Portugal >>>>>> Spain. Mainly because of Ronaldo, but also Nani (and the fact Spain can't pass today)

 

[goldb]

Really open game tonight, Portugal look really hungry for the ball and goal, also sharp on the run; Ronaldo and Nani in particular. Joao Moutinho is cleaning up that midfield really well. They look a real good team.

Come on Spain, pulling your finger out

 

[Doraku]

I hate penalty shoot out.

Portugal was on par with Spain, unfortunately through normal and extra times they couldn't score, even though they had some good opportunities, IMO.

 

[FrostyMouse]

I think it was a poor game overall. Not that poor, as there were some good moments, but the passing was not very good for the majority of the match.

I think Ronaldo was afraid to take a penalty after his failure in the CL SF against Bayern. The second that he didn't step up first, I had this feeling that we wouldn't see him taking a penalty.

 

[BBB Banana]

Great game Portugal showed they can be on pair with any great team imo. Why the hell would they put Bruno Alves to try a penalty is beyond my compehension... The guy is average in game and sucks at passing the ball and kicks, they could have sent Coentrão. And Moutinho is also to blame but he did well enough in game so can't get mad at him.

Shame Well still Germany is gonna take the trophy.GO Germanyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

---------- Post added at 06:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:36 PM ----------

I think it was a poor game overall. Not that poor, as there were some good moments, but the passing was not very good for the majority of the match.

I think Ronaldo was afraid to take a penalty after his failure in the CL SF against Bayern. The second that he didn't step up first, I had this feeling that we wouldn't see him taking a penalty.

Yeah Spain was poor until the last 10 minutes in the second half. And during extra time Portugal was too scared to try anything.

I think it's kind of marketing and trying to protect the team's star, they leave them for the end so they can be considered the saviours of everything... though if you put players like Bruno Alves instead then you are making a big mistake...

 

[jorped]

Not everything is that simple. If they decided to put Bruno Alves, they surely had their reasons. Saying to put Bruno Alves is something that will prejudice Portugal is the same as saying that for example Ramos would also prejudiced Spain, and he didn't. I mean it's the luck of penalties ... anything can happen. Even Moutinho, that was one of the best of the game failed. And so did Alonso. It's sad to loose like this ... but it's football...

 

[goldb]

I at first also thought Ronaldo was trying to save himself to be the hero with the last penalty but that's leaving a lot to chance and hoping that the 5 penalty would be the decisive one. In my opinion and agreeing with Frosty, I think he didn't want the pressure on him and the attention of having missed a penalty. Took Spain so long to play like their normal selves, but credit to Portugal for pushing them and exposing their game.

 

[FrostyMouse]

Great game Portugal showed they can be on pair with any great team imo. Why the hell would they put Bruno Alves to try a penalty is beyond my compehension... The guy is average in game and sucks at passing the ball and kicks, they could have sent Coentrão. And Moutinho is also to blame but he did well enough in game so can't get mad at him.

I agree. I completely didn't understand the Bruno Alves thing.

Shame Well still Germany is gonna take the trophy.GO Germanyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Yeah, it looks like it that way. This level of Spain won't beat Germany.

Yeah Spain was poor until the last 10 minutes in the second half. And during extra time Portugal was too scared to try anything.

I think it's kind of marketing and trying to protect the team's star, they leave them for the end so they can be considered the saviours of everything... though if you put players like Bruno Alves instead then you are making a big mistake...

I still question why defenders were taking so many penalties there. I had no problem with Ronaldo not taking the first penalty, but he needs to at least be taking the second penalty.

The most important thing is winning, not marketing or any other crap. Personal glory isn't important. I do think that Ronaldo was afraid of taking a penalty. Meireles would've taken a penalty, but he was subbed off, and then his replacement, Varela, didn't even take a penalty. Nelson Oliveira didn't take a penalty, ugh...

Drogba was Chelsea's final penalty taker usually, but we had enough good penalty takers that we just wanted him to finish the deal for us. After Drogba got himself sent off in extra time against United, Gus Hiddink had Terry take the last penalty (which we all know was probably the worst moment in Chelsea history) in order to have our Captain win it. It's not like having your star/captain/whomever take the final penalty isn't a good idea, but it needs to be finished earlier.

Schweinsteiger took Bayern's final penalty against Chelsea, which Cech finger tipped away, so you do see the star of the team often being in the position of being able to win it for their team, but in Portugal's case, there was no other big player on the field. Portugal is currently the third best team in Europe (unless Italy manage to upend Germany), but it's not the type of situation where Ronaldo can be waiting for the final penalty.

 

[jorped]

I at first also thought Ronaldo was trying to save himself to be the hero with the last penalty but that's leaving a lot to chance and hoping that the 5 penalty would be the decisive one. In my opinion and agreeing with Frosty, I think he didn't want the pressure on him and the attention of having missed a penalty. Took Spain so long to play like their normal selves, but credit to Portugal for pushing them and exposing their game.

Spain only managed to play like their normal selves ... when we changed Hugo Almeida for Nelson Oliveira.. he is still really young .. and doesn't has the quality for these games. I think he will be a great player but that will be in the future .. not now. With him Portugal stopped being able to hold the ball on Spain's side ... which made Spain control the game easier and being able to have more oportunities.

 

[BBB Banana]

I actually think that Pedro was the one that made the difference Jorped. Pedro makes a great duo with Iniesta. Almost all dangerous plays came form him.

 

[Jorge D. Dragon]

Of course Pedro made a bit of a difference, but mostly it was due to Oliveira who practically couldn't hold a ball on Spain's side, thus practically making 10 against 11.

Spain again made a badf performance. I would even say that even if I normally root for Spain, I liked Portugal in this match more. They really showed that they can be real opponents for everyone, but they didn't have luck in penalties, but Spain has more experienced team and especially they have more skilled players.
And I was actually surprised that the game ended 0-0 not only in 90 minutes, but also in extra time.

 

[ibra87]

I agree with you Jorge. Honestly, performance-wise, Portugal should have gone through to the final. I can only hope that Spain will now perform well against the Germans otherwise we're in for a one-sided match (as we've seen the Germans did indeed beat Real madrid as well...).

 

[Jorge D. Dragon]

I also hope we'll get something more interesting in the final be it Spain against Germany or Spain against Italy, but I hope we'll see several goals either in 90 minutes or including extra time.
And I hope Spain shows better performance in the final.

P.S. I also hope that Torres remember that he is striker for God's sake. The same actually aplies to Negredo. As they both aren't impressive((

 

[ibra87]

45 min in, so far I love Italy in this match. They are playing completely awesome against Germany.