Euro 2008 - Portugal and the winker

So Portugal are the first team through to the quarters. The game swung from one end to the other for the first 45 minutes with both teams getting on the score sheet once. Ronaldo had a quiet first 45 minutes but you can expect him to grab all the headlines tomorrow as he put Portugal back in front and then set up the winner in stoppage time.

I still expect the Czech Republic to qualify. They have been unlucky with injuries coming into the tournament but there here now and will have to perserve. A draw in their next match should see them through when they face Turkey. Cech made some good saves tonight but Portugal just had to much for them. I can see tonights match with Turkey and Switzerland being a stale mate.

At the moment I still think its between Spain and the Netherlands with the latter my favourites for the tournament. Torres has had a very long first season and I wasnt surprised to see Aragones pull him off earlier in the second half when they had the game won. Netherlands still have Robben to come back though whoever gets the chop, when he returns will be harsh after Mondays display against the Italians.

Ramsey is a gooner!

So the boy Ramsey has made his decision and opted for the Red of Arsenal rather than Manchester or the blue of Everton. Bit of a strange one if you ask me. It must be hard deciding your future at such a young age. He has not even been a paid professional footballer a year. I seen his interview with BBC recently and he seemed quite relaxed about the whole thing, not that he was giving much away. He simply stated he was a Cardiff player until he was told otherwise and was quite happy with his current situation. If only some of his peers could show the same attitude.

Its been a strange week for the kid. Manchester United had basically told the world he was their boy when they announced they were delighted they had agreed a fee with Cardiff and all that was left to do was for Ramsey to sign on the dotted line. He was shown around the training ground and stadium by United captain Gary Neville as Sir Alex was away on holiday. Why he got the chance to walk away from the club that day without signing on the dotted line is a mystery. Perhaps he wasn't impressed that Sir Alex wasn't there personally to meet him. They had a chat on the phone apparently. The next day Arsenal flew him out to Switzerland to meet Arsene Wenger. Maybe this turned his head. You can just imagine being a 17 year old being flown out to Switzerland while sitting in first class beside the clubs chief execeutive to have a chat with one of the most respected coaches in world football. Good luck to the kid anyway, there is space in the Arsenal midfield at the moment but whether Arsene will trust Ramsey at that age as he did Fabregras time will tell.

Euro 2008

I didn't think I would find myself wrapped up in Euro 2008. After a long season of expected misery with the Irish football team and a season that ended in pure joy for Manchester United, I expected to take a break from the game. But no, it just wont let me go. I made myself some promises after the European final and of course kept none of them. I promised I would not buy any newspaper that were only worth reading for football gossip but as soon as all this Ronaldo nonsense started I found myself dragged back into buying The Sun and the Mirror, along with the Times.

So far I have managed to watch two full games and the highlights of the rest. Any team that can afford to keep Alonso and Fabregas on the bench has alot of resources. Aragones deciding to start Torres and Villa, which cost Fabregras his place. It worked wonders. Torres was skipping past Kolodin with ease and Villa was making intelligent runs all game that must have left the Russian centre halves begging for full-time.

The other game I watched was the Netherlands vs Italy. Another game were the team put to the sword had the majority of possession but the Dutch on the counter attack were breathtaking. The speed at which they broke after Van Bronckhurst had cleared off his own line only to storm up the pitch to pick out Kuyt on the edge of the box who calmly placed into Sneijder to slam home. Kuyt gets alot of stick for his performances by overpaid English journalists like our friend Steve Howard at the Sun but you can see why Benitez rates him as does his national coach. He works extremely hard for the team, playing in a position relatively foreign to him. I think Marco will have to thank Rafa for moving him out onto the right wing as he set up two brillant goals against the World Champs.


It is hard to see a winner of the competion at this early stage. Can Spain or Holland play 6 games at that brillance or will they slide away as previous competitions have shown. France despite all the individual brillance they possess have never been the same team since their talisman Zizou hung up his boots and I don't even expect them to qualify from that group. Romania will prove difficult to beat as France can bear witness to. Italy may struggle to regroup after last night. They were pulled all over the place last night and Toni despite his heroics for Munich this year, looked off the pace. As for Van Nistelrooy's goal, it stands as far as I am concerned. A player is only not active on the field of play if he has gone down injured and has had to leave the field and may only return with the referees permission. Sliding off the pitch or falling into the back of the net, the player is still considered part of the play even if the Dutch were surprised the goal stood.

Larsson is in the starting lineup for the Swedes tonight and they can expect a tough time. There are no easy international games anymore. After Spains victory it has them in pole position with Sweden, Russia and Greece now battling for second spot. I expect Germany to easy into the quarter's with no one paying them much attention and from the same group I expect Croatia could reach the semis. On performance to date you would have to fancy Spain but I dont rate their centre halves or for that matter Holland's, its all very much early days but I am going to state the impossible and go for Holland and Romania to qualify from the group of death, leaving the World Champions and the runners up France saying ciao and au revoir to the competition.