Euro 2008 - Italy vs. Romania 1-1

[MADrigal]

Yes I was also very impressed by Nederlands, what they did with just reserve players is incredible!

Russia shouldn't be a problem for Sweden, so good luck tomorrow!

[carlsson]

At least we lost fair and square. No reason to argue referee calls and so on.

Hm, didn't Guus Hiddink meet the Netherlands with his former national team too - South Korea was it? Or maybe it was one of the other exile Dutch coaches.

[MADrigal]

At least we lost fair and square. No reason to argue referee calls and so on.

Oh I learnt the result from your post, I was pretty sure that Russia was to loose the match. I'm so sorry.

Hm, didn't Guus Hiddink meet the Netherlands with his former national team too - South Korea was it? Or maybe it was one of the other exile Dutch coaches.

Hm, I really don't know this - I'm no such soccer fanatic to know all coaches - I personally never even heard his name before.

Question: who do you think is gonna win the championship, and who would you prefer to win?

[carlsson]

Hm, the Netherlands didn't qualify for WC2002. However Hiddink indeed coached Korea in 2002 to a 4th place, knocking out both Italy and Spain in highly doubtful games where both European teams were robbed off legimate goals.

Before the current tournament, I actually believed Italy would win it all. Sorry, but now I'm not so sure anymore. As mentioned, the Netherlands have shown a lot of skill and would be a worthy contender.

A part of my heart wishes for Spain to finally get some international success. Despite having one of the best leagues in the world and also be ranked by FIFA in top 5, their only senior title was in the European Championships 1964. That is 44 years ago! Indeed they won the Olympic football tournament in 1992, but those teams are mostly under 23.

So my answer is divided into three parts:

* By logic, Italy should win
* By brain, the Netherlands should win
* By heart, Spain should win

[berserk1981]

Spain waits for us now, hopes to win

[MADrigal]

* By logic, Italy should win
* By brain, the Netherlands should win
* By heart, Spain should win

At first I thought Portugal would win the tournament - and I would also be pleased to, of course just in case Italy was not to win. But now I think Netherlands would.

I have a little fear of Spain, but I'm not sure if their attackers would win against our super-defenders. The main problem with Italian team is that our defenders are not yet 100% scheduled, and the coach often changes them. This makes the match quite unpredictable...

I remember the good old days of Nesta + Cannavaro: 2 defenders like those would stop ANY attackers from whatever team in the world. But Nesta is retired, and Cannavaro injured, so we don't have the best defenders in the world anymore. Our current defenders are not bad, but the main problem is that Spain has teh best middle-field players in the world, and this may cause some problems.

To me:

* By logic, Netherlands should win
* By heart, Italy should win
* By heart, I really wish Spain won't win the tournament - because I don't like that team!

[carlsson]

Portugal, Croatia and the Netherlands are now eliminated. All of them won their respective groups. The only group winner left to play is Spain.. so by logic, Italy should win tomorrow.

Russia impressed me with their compact defense and quick, wide attacks. The winner of Spain - Italy could really get some difficulties in the semi final, even if Spain already defeated Russia 4-1 in the group stage.

[MADrigal]

So it's over at last... needless to say how disappointed I am... being beaten through penalty always has a bitter taste...

My opinion is that neither Italy nor Spain played a good match yesterday: Spanish attackers were unable to beat Italian defense, and Italian middle-field players were unable to send the ball to the attackers... none of the two had both good middle-field and attackers, such capable to beat each other's defense.

I'm disappointed at the Italian coach: I thought he should have let Camoranesi play from the beginning, and eventually remove Toni who was really tired and uncapable of thinking well. Also, he should have left Del Piero kick earlier on the penalties kick, because he's a specialist of free kicks, and would have helped a lot.

By the way, I still think that Spain doesn't deserve to win the Euro championship... Russia played far better than Spain...

[carlsson]

Over here a columnist wrote that if Toni played for Portugal, he would become the best scorer in the tournament and Portugal would remain in the championship.

Maybe Turkey can borrow a few players from the eliminated teams? It is is said they have so many suspended, injured and tired players that the coach seriously considers playing their 3rd goalkeeper either as a defender or center forward, at least available for substitution.

[MADrigal]

Spain is the winner... this should make Carlsson very happy!

Of course I wished Germany would win the cup... but Spain overall played far better than Germany in the end. True pity imho.