Spain - European Champions

Spain, then, are the European champions and, with the benefit of hindsight, it's difficult to argue a case against them winning it. Euro 2008, however, was just like that in many respects. How many times did you sit down in front of the television and think, "Well, they're definitely going to win it"? At least three or four, I'd bet. Before we get going with what actually happened in Vienna last night, it's time to dispel a quick myth about Spain's Euro 2008 win before it starts to get out of hand. Euro 2008 was not, by extension, a victory of Liverpool Football Club. The Spain team that started last night contained one Liverpool player - Fernando Torres - and a further one - Alonso - who got on the pitch as a substitute. This has been the pattern throughout the tournament, but Liverpool supporters are suffering from some extreme delusions of grandeur if they think that last night was about them. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Villareal all fielded more players in the Spanish team that kicked off last night than Liverpool did.

The match itself was intriguing rather than exciting - a chess match, rather than a 100m sprint. Indeed, the best chance of the opening twenty minutes came with Andres Iniesta's low cross that was deflected goalwards by Christoph Metzelder, forcing an outstanding save from the suddenly vastly improved Jens Lehmann. Midway through the first half, Spain came even closer, with Torres inexplicably out-jumping the massive German defender Per Mertesacker and and heading the ball past Lehmann and against the base of the post. Spain were getting closer and closer, and one began the suspect that a goal for Spain had a veneer of inevitability about it. When it came, it was a goal that was worthy of such an occasion. Xavi's deep pass caused a moment of uncertainty for Germany's left back, Phillip Lahm, allowing Fernando Torres to come in from a seemingly impossible and flick the ball past Lehmann and into the empty net. Torres' persistance was such that one couldn't even really fault Lahm for taking his eye of the ball for the one-hundredth of a second that he did. It was a tough break for the German left-back, who had been one of their best players of the tournament up until that point - he was substituted at half-time, a decision which seemed to rob Germany of one of their more effective attacking options.

Into the second half, and with Michael Ballack looking like a bad drag act Amy Winehouse impersonator after requiring medical attention to a head injury that could quite easily have seen him replaced, and Spain continued to dominate, with Xavi shooting narrowly wide from the end of the penalty area and Sergio Ramos trying to flick Silva's driven cross in with his heel. It continued to look more likely that Spain would score a second goal than that Germany would pull the scores level, although Michael Ballack did at least show some sighs of resistance in shooting a foot wide of the penalty area. In the closing stages, Spain again started look like extending their lead. The best chance fell to Sergio Ramos, who sprang a feeble German offside trap but found his header well saved by Lehmann, but the follow-up was just as close, with the resulting corner ending with Torsten Frings clearing Iniesta's driven shot off the line. With all the cliches that follow them around, the watching audience could have been forgiving for expecting the inevitable German equaliser, but the goal didn't come. Indeed, with ten minutes to play, Guiza heaed across the face of goal and Senna slid in but was unable to apply a finishing touch and the ball drifted harmlessly away.

Spain, then, are worthy champions. The defensive concerns that might have blighted their chances never materialised, with Carlos Puyol and goalkeeper Iker Casillas playing outstandingly well. Spain conceded just two goals in their five matches. At the other end, their attacking play was frequently as breathtaking as anyone else in the tournament's, with Torres and David Villa, whose unfortunate injury robbed him of a place in the final, showing time and time again that they are truly world class players. Also, one can't help but admire Luis Aragones, no matter what one's opinion of him might be otherwise. Last night, against Germany of all people, he replaced Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas of all people, yet his team never seriously looked like conceding a goal. In the end, the difference last night might just have been the attacking players. Whereas Spain had brilliance up front, which was best demonstrated by the speed with which they moved the ball from deep midfield players and into attacking positions. Whilst the likes of Miroslaw Klose are good players, but Torres, Fabregas and Villa are, on the sort of form demonstrated over the last three weeks or so, outstanding players, and that, on the night, was enough.

Germany, who had not played especially well throughout the rest of the tournament (remember that 2-1 defeat by Croatia in the group stages?), were undone by Spain. They will be back, though it is heartening to see that the best team in the tournament was the eventual winner. Where Spain go from here is considerably more intriguing. They have managed to fall short of expectations for much of the last four and a half decades, but with the albatross like psychological baggage that comes with the nickname of "under-achievers" now lifted from around their necks, what are they capable of? Spain has never failed to produce excellent players, though they have consistently managed to find even more strange and interesting ways to lose than even England have. Now, however, England are alone amongst the countries that they would like to consider their peers in having won nothing whatsoever in the last four decades, and they don't look like changing that record any time soon. Spain, however, deserve our congratulations - they're worthy champions of Europe. Don't start getting them confused with Liverpool, though.

Brushed Aside

We had very high hopes for this match, didn't we? When pressed, this was going to be the classic of the two matches. The match that would repeated in slow motion with a light opera and indie rock soundtrack. As it turned out, though, Russia vs Spain was a comparatively one-sided match, won convincingly by Spain against a Russian team that really failed to turn up at all. Andrei Arshavin, who had given indications that he was starting to believe the hype with his somewhat ridiculous claims that he had always been a Barcelona fan, was the most notable absence on the night, with this performance (or lack thereof) raising questions about his ability when under the spotlight, regardless of how sensationally he transformed the Russia team when he returned from suspension. Meanwhile, in a display of an ill wind blowing someone quite a lot of good, it was the enforced replacement of David Villa with Cesc Fabregas that really transformed Spain. Fabregas has looked very impressive every time he has made one of his cameo appearances for Spain, and the likelihood now has to be that he will start the final.

Things might, however, have been different. After a cagey start that saw a couple of comfortable saves from Akinfeev and a couple of long shots from Russia, Pavlyuchenko fired a shot from the edge of the penalty area which whistled just wide of the post. It took a couple of viewings of the replay to establish that, in fact, Iker Casillas had made a magnificent save with his fingertips, a save so deft that only the slowest of slow motion replays could pick it up. The breakthrough, when it came, had an element of fortune about it. Iniesta's cross-cum-shot from the edge of the penalty area was diverted in by Xavi but, while Iniesta would doubtlessly now protest otherwise, I am still less than convinced that his involvement in the move was a cleverly played pass to an unmarked striker. I suspect that it was actually a very tame shot that Xavi cleverly managed to anticipate and intercept. The replacement of Fernando Torres with Guiza proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back for Russia, for whom this was really a match too far. Four minutes after Guiza's introduction, he scored the second goal to put the match beyond them once and for all - a neat passing move that cut through the Russian defence like a hot knife through butter and finished with him lifting the ball over Akinfeev to kill the game as a competition.

At 2-0, the game slowed to a jog as Spain eased up, but they still had time to add a third goal with eight minutes to play. Cesc Fabregas, whose introduction to the team had completely opened up the Russian defence slid the ball across for Marios Silva to drive the ball in for a third goal. Quite what happened to Russia is a mystery. Maybe the exertions of extra time against the Netherlands last weekend had got to them. Maybe, for the first time, they had started to believe the hype about themselves and had managed to persuade themselves that all they need to do was turn up in order to win against Spain. They had a shock in store. Luis Aragones had clearly watch the video of the Russia vs Netherlands match over and over again, and was determined not to make the same mistakes that the Dutch had. They didn't cede any ground in the middle of the pitch, didn't give away possession easily and kept up a high tempo, pressurising Russia into making quite a few quite basic mistakes. Spain, however, should try and keep their focus. One of the more striking things about this tournament is that teams have often followed magnificent performances with very bad ones. It happened to Portugal, it happened to the Netherlands and it has now happened to Russia. If there's one thing that has been regularly punished at Euro 2008, it has been complacency.

No Stopping Them

In the end, then, Turkey didn't have quite enough about them to be able to keep Germany at bay but, lord, they have given us some fabulous memories in this tournament and will be sadly missed in the final on Sunday evening. Germany, by contrast, are in the final of another major tournament without having played particularly well last night, and will face the winners of tonight's match between Spain and Russia. It promises to be an absolute thriller. In all honesty, last night's match was played very much in the shadow of this evening's match. Most of the press attention here over the last couple of days has been drooling over the clash between Arshavin & Pavlyuchenko and Villa & Torres, and the column inches dedicated precious little to the internecine battle between Germany and Turkey, but this match far outshone the low expectations that accompanied it.

Much had been made before the match of the selection problems facing Fatih Terim, with Nihat joining the heaving treatment table with a knee injury that ruled him out for the rest of the competition. The Turkish side had an element of a patchwork look about it, and it was this that informed the belief that Germany would stroll to a comfortable win. Turkey, however, started far the stronger of the two teams against a German team that looked simultaneously sluggish and complacent, and hit the crossbar early on with a crashing shot from ten yards by Kazim Kazim - Semih then shot narrowly wide from a tight angle after Germany failed to successfully clear the ball. The breakthrough came midway through the first half, and had more than an element of luck about it. Kazim looped a shot over Lehmann which came down off the crossbar, and squad player Ugur put the rebound past the German goalkeeper, who curiously tried to stop the relatively tame shot with his feet rather than with his hands. The lead lasted just five minutes for Turkey, and was cancelled out with Germany's first serious attack of the match. It was a sweeping move from midfield that caught Turkey out, with Hitzlsperger finding Lucas Podolski in space on the left, with his low cross being delightfully turned in by the unfairly derided Bastian Schweinsteiger. It was tough on Turkey, who had dominated the early stages of the match, and one might have expected Germany to go on and win the match comfortably from this position, but there were still plenty more twists and turns to come.

Germany started to assert their authority more effectively in the second half, and Lahm was unfortunate not to be awarded a penalty after he was chopped down on the edge of the penalty area, although it took a replay to confirm that Sabri's foot had been inside the penalty area when it took him out. Hitzlsperger then shot narrowly over and narrowly wide, before Germany took the lead. Prior to this, though technical difficulties meant that we lost all pictures from Basel. The sound of panicking across Europe was almost audible as the technicians at the stadium struggled to find which particular lead had become disconnected (it turns out, in fact, that it was a storm near the stadium that was the cause), but there were no pictures for a few, agonising minutes before they returned, without commentary. All of this led to Alan Green's biggest ever audience, as people hit the red button on their remote controls and switched to the unharmed BBC radio commentary, but the quality of pictures coming from the stadium was still flaky and cut out again just before Germany snatched the lead. Some of you may remember what I said about Recber Rustu at the weekend and, yes, he did it again, coming unconvincingly for a long, deep cross and leaving the goal empty for Miroslaw Klose to head the favourites into the lead.

Of course, you write Turkey off at your peril, and with five minutes left to play of another breathless match, they levelled things up again. This time, the spotlight was back on Jens Lehmann. Sabri wriggled his way clear of Lahm and crossed low into the six yard box, allowing Semih to turn the ball past Lehmann and in, but the replay again showed that the Stuttgart goalkeeper had left his near post hopelessly exposed, and the crouching movement that he made in expectation of getting the ball was reminiscent of a wicketkeeper than of an international goalkeeper. It was another lapse in concentration from Lehmann, and not his first of the tournament - the sort of thing that will fill the winners of tonight's match with confidence. It looked as if yet another late comeback had forced the match into extra-time, but Germany finally broke Turkish hearts as the clock ticked over ninety minutes. It was, I have to say, a goal worthy of winning such a match. You think that Total Football began and ended with the Dutch side of the 1970s? You might want to tell that to Phillip Lahm, who began and ended another thrusting German pass and move attack by sweeping the ball past Rustu and in, to take Germany into the final.

So, another extraordinary match, that ended in Germany somehow ending up on top. One can't help but think of the phrase, ""Football is a game of eleven against eleven, and in the end, it’s the Germans who win". Turkey, with their squad ripped to pieces by injury and suspension, gave it everything they could but didn't quite have enough in the tank to be able to earn a result. Their performance in this competition has, however, been absolutely thrilling to watch, and they deserve our thanks for having played every single game to the death. For them to lose in the same way that they had beaten Croatia and the Czech Republic only adds to the irony of a competition that is sticking to the script by the very skin of its teeth. Germany, meanwhile, rumble ominously on to Sunday's final. Unless Jens Lehmann starts tidying up his play, though, Guus Hiddinck and Luis Aragones will be looking forward to Sunday with the knowledge that there is nothing inevitable about this Germany team winning Euro 2008.

Breaking The Jinx

Everybody has their bogey team, and so it has been for Spain against Italy for almost ninety years. No competitive wins against them since 1920, and the massive feeling of injustice brought about by the 1994 World Cup. Of all the teams that they could possibly have been drawn against in the quarter-finals, Italy was the only one that could have given this resurgent Spanish team cause for serious psychological concern. There is an element of self-determination in the Spanish perception of Italian football. The Italians always cheat, always go for the gamesmanship, get away with the refereeing decisions and ride their luck. Spain, by contrast, always play football, never have any luck and always end up losing - usually against Italy. It is a chip on the national shoulder, an itch which they have not been able to scratch in living memory. Until now, that is. Last night's victory on penalties against Italy was more than just a win for Spain. It was a psychological exorcism.

The Spanish media is second only to the British in terms of its hyperbole and hubris, and the build up to this match was an exemplary display on their part of getting the excuses in early. At the top of the list of Spanish grievances is the 1994 World Cup quarter-final against Italy. "If there is an image that sums up Italy v Spain meetings it's the bloody face of a crying Luis Enrique after getting an elbow that referee Sándor Puhl didn't see - or didn't want to see", says La Marca, Spain's biggest selling newspaper, all of which chooses to overlook Spanish substitute Julio Salinas missing a fairly straightforward one on one against Italian goalkeeper Gianluca Pagliuca with five minutes left to play which would have almost certinly sent Spain through to the semi-finals. It's far easier to blame your shortcomings on others than it is to look questioningly at your own performances. The Spanish media had the excuses lined up in swathes should their team have failed to perform against Italy last night. In fairness, though, the Italians did make this somewhat easier for them by reacting to the absence of Andrea Pirlo by opting to retreat back into a defensive formation, one which gave the impression that they were playing for penalties from the very start of the match.

So it was that we were treated to one of the more forgettable one hundred and twenty minutes of football of the tournament so far. There was really only one significant moment of excitement for either team. Just after the hour, Spain failed to clear an Italian attack successfully, only for Maur Camoranesi's shot to be brilliantly blocked by the foot of Iker Casillas, and with ten minutes to play, Buffon fumbled a long range shot from the impressive Marcos Senna which dribbled agonisingly against the post and back into the grateful goalkeeper's arms. Other than that, it was a largly sterile match, with Italy frequently keeping seven or eight men behind the ball. Such a tactic might not have been to the taste of the watching neutral, but it did at least have effect of rendering the much vaunted Spanish attacking pairing of David Villa and Fernando Torres ineffective, to the extent that Torres withdrawn for Daniel Guiza with five minutes left to play.

Although the match opened up a little in extra-time, there was still something crushingly inevitable about the goal-less final scoreline and the penalty shoot-out that would come as a result of it. Finally, Spain had a big enough character to win the match for them, in the form of the Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who saved from De Rossi and Guiza to give them a decisive advantage, before Cesc Fabregas, showing the cool detachment which goes some of the way towards explaining his success at club level, sent Buffon the wrong way to send Italy out and Spain into the semi-finals of a major tournament for the first time since the 1984 European Championships. Italy's negativity, ultimately, received what it deserved. Donadoni had retreated into a cautiously defensive shell when faced with attacking flair and one cannot help but feel that the moral satisfaction felt at the Spanish victory goes some way towards negating the frustration felt at seeing two such talented sides play out a largely lifeless match. We might not again see such drama as we saw in the earlier rounds of the competition, but with Italy out, and Spain, Russia, Germany and Turkey playing out the semi-finals later in the week, we have at least a fighting chance of more football in keeping with what has preceded it.

Not Enough Dutch Courage

For the second major tournament in a row, the team that came out of the starting blocks the quickest have fallen at the quarter-final stage. It is a measure of the quality of last night's Russian performance that the Netherlands were dependent on an exceptional performance from their goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Saar to even get to extra time in the first place, but ultimately the advantage of not having come into the competition at the end of a long, hard season seemed to tell for Russia. For the Dutch, the mood was sombre. The black armbands were a signifier of the sad personal events surrounding Khalid Bhoularouz, and they started in a sluggish manner, which was in sharp contrast to their performances in the group stage.

From the very start, the Russians were too quick and too slick for the Dutch. Andrei Arshavin's introduction into this Euro 2008 team has been the final piece in a jigsaw constructed by Guus Hiddinck, and this particular missing piece has transformed his team into a fluid, attacking unit and, as their confidence has grown since their opening defeat by Spain, they have started to flourish, firstly with an outstanding performance against Sweden and again last night against a Dutch team that had deservedly jumped to become the tournament favourites off the back three marvellous performances against France, Italy and Romania. Pavlyuchenko headed over when he possibly should have done better, Van Der Saar had to dive acrobatically to his left to tip away a shot from Arshavin and Denis Kolodin had two shots from distance, the first of which forced another save from Van Der Saar whilst the second of which dropped just over the crossbar. In retailiation, the Ruud Van Nistelrooy missed a low cross that he probably should have made for the Netherlands, but the surprise when half-time came was that Russia hadn't managed to take the lead.

The breakthrough came eleven minutes into the second half, when Russia deservedly took the lead. Arshavin played Sergei Semak, and his low cross was touched over the line at the far post by Pavlyuchenko. After the goal, it looked more likely that Russia would double their lead than that the Netherlands would find a way back into the game. Anyukov's shot had to be pushed away by Van Der Saar, whilst a low cross from Arshavin could have been touched in by Saenko. As time wore on, the Dutch did begin to have more and more possession, but they were unable to convert possession into clear goalscoring chances until, with five minutes to play, Wesley Sneijder's free-kick was headed in by Ruud Van Nistelrooy to take the match into extra time, although there was still time for a little controversy in the dying seconds, when Kolodin initially picked up a second yellow card for a foul on Wesley Sniejder, but was reprieved after the referee spoke to one of his assistants.

One might have thought that the psychological boost of the late goal might have buoyed Dutch spirits going into extra time, but Russia continued to control the majority of play as the match went into it's additional thirty minutes. Pavlyuchenko hit the cross bar and Arshavin had another shot well saved by Ven Der Saar, but the Dutch defence couldn't hold out like this indefinitely, and Arshavin crossed again for Dmitri Torbinski to fire past Van Der Saar to give Russia the lead again with three minutes to play in the first half of extra time. A minute into the second half, the result was put beyond any doubt as Arshavin scored a third Russian goal. The Dutch game was up. They had been outplayed by a better, faster, fitter and more fluid team. Having shown up both of the last World Cup's finallists in the group stages, they were undone by a Russian team that rode its luck to get to the finals in the first place. Roberto Donadoni and Luis Aragones will have been watching with interest and, I would rather suspect, not a little trepidation.

Bosphorous 1-0 Balkans

It's almost as if Michel Platini was sitting in the stand with a remote control. "Honestly", he thought to himself as he recalled the one hundred and eighteen minutes of dirge that he had found himself sitting through, "if you leave them to do it for themselves, you'll always end up with one really duff match in the end". He reached into his pocket and brought out his gold and black Sony Euro-Joystick and switched it on. Within twenty seconds, Rustu Recber had run fifteen yards from his goal after a ball that he would have needed Inspector Gadget's arms to get to, gifting Klasnic and Croatia what looked for all the world like the winning goal, from Luka Modric's cross. "Hmm", thought Platini, "if this ever becomes public knowledge, they'll make mincemeat of me. I need to do something to level things up. That way, if anyone ever finds out about this, I can always say, 'Well, at least I was even-handed about it all'. That should cover me". Barely two minutes later, in the injury time of the second period of extra time, Rustu launched a long, aimless ball into the Croatian penalty area. With military precision, Platini sent a hundred volts through the testicles of the two Croatian central defenders -the distraction providing just enough space for Semih to drive the laser-guided ball past Pletikosa and in off the underside of the crossbar. "Well, that livened things up a bit", thought Platini to himself whilst putting Euro-Joystick away, "but if Turkey win the penalty shootout, I'll probably be needing this baby again".

Thirty minutes or so into this game last, I had a very sentient thought. Rustu is a strange, strange goalkeeper, I thought to myself. He is a good enough goalkeeper to be able to win a match for you against anyone, and is capable of amazingly acrobatic saves. On the other hand, though, you just know that, somewhere along the line, he is going to make a horrendous mistake that is going to cost his team dear. Turkey have to win matches with the full knowledge that this may well be in spite of something that your goalkeeper may well have done. Some goalkeepers have just got that look about them, like Gabor Kiraly, that Crystal Palace goalkeeper who wore those ridiculous grey tracksuit trousers. Ray Clemence had that look. Roy Carroll's got it, too. They just look as if they are going to make some terrible, horrible, basic error. You can almost visualise their faces as they stand up half covered in mud and start shouting and gesticulating ineffectually at their defenders before putting their hands on their hips and kicking an invisible ball because that, ultimately, the only people to blame for the ball dribbling slowly through their legs or whatever was themselves, and no-one else. That's the look that Rustu has got about himself, and that's why there was no great surprise about Klasnic's goal.

It's not all about "that look", though, and Rustu's dignity was partially restored a minute into the stoppage time allowed by the referee. As Slaven Bilic protested over not being allowed to bring on a substitute (and it was difficult to have much sympathy, considering that he was, ultimately, trying to do nothing more than time-waste), Rustu launched the long, ambitious ball that led to Semih's equaliser. In the penalty shoot-out, he proved his value still further. Even from the normal camera angle (which normally make the job of scoring a penalty look much easier than it actually is under such fraught circumstances), he seemed to fill the goal, his very stature being enough to intimidate Modric and Rakitic into shooting wide of the post before he saved Petric's kick to send his country through to a semi-final against Germany that they had scarcely deserved. Turkey had seldom seriously threatened the Croatian goal over the one hundred and twenty minutes of normal time, with Croatia having had the majority of possession and the best chances, particularly in the first half, when Luka Modric's run to the touchline set up Ivica Olic, who hit the crossbar when it seemed easier to score. The rebound fell for Niko Krancjar, but the ball fell at an awkward angle for him and his header sailed harmlessly over the empty goal.

The match was commentated upon by the BBC by the ever-improving Steve Wilson. Whilst Jonathan Pearce has been earning some critical commendation for his performances at Euro 2008 so far, his voice still sounds to me like the sound of fingernails being dragged down a blackboard. Wilson, however, is starting to sound more and more like the finished article and would be my preferred option as the BBC's main man for when John Motson finally decides hang up his microphone. He did, however, sail close to the wind in almost being prodded into making a pretty fundamental mistake at the end of extra-time, when Lawrenson almost had him persuaded that they were already out of time when Turkey scored because the clock had ticked over the one minute of injury time that had been signalled by the fourth official. You'd almost think that Lawrenson never went to any football matches. Hasn't he ever heard the tannoy man announce that "the fourth official has indicated that there will be a minimum of one minute of stoppage time at the end of this match"? Considering that the fourth official had indicated a minimum of one minute of injury time at the end of the match (as per the laws of the game), the disallowing of a goal after thirty-one minutes and four seconds of extra time would have been very harsh indeed.

Panic On The Streets Of Chelsea?

I have been trying not to mention the Premier League in conjunction with Euro 2008 but, my word, Portugal made it difficult for me last night. While ITV was, predictably enough, focussing on every single move made by Cristiano Ronaldo, a far more interesting situation was developing at the other end of the pitch, where a team coached by Felipe Scolari was defending like they had only just been introduced to each other. As if the defensive failures of Scolari the new Chelsea coach weren't bad enough for Chelsea supporters, there was also the small matter that the Portugal defence contained three Chelsea players, with new £13m signing Jose Boswinga lined up alongside Ricardo Carvalho and Paolo Ferreira at the back. The truth of the matter is that Scolari was let down by three appalling lapses by the Portuguese defence. I had idly speculated that they might struggle against teams that them under pressure, and the truth of the matter is that, after a first round in which they had been treated relatively gently, even the German attack, which isn't the best in the tournament by a long chalk, was too much for them to be able to cope with.

The first goal came as a result of yet more of the slick inter-play that has, thus far, been a feature of the tournament, with Lucas Podolski managing two one-twos before sprinting down the left hand side and crossing low for Bastian Schweinsteiger to slide the ball past the prone Ricardo. Atrocious marking from Portugal and Boswinga was left for dead by Podolski, but there was worse to follow. Just a couple of minutes had elapsed when Germany doubled their lead. Schweinsteiger's free-kick should have been easy for the Portguese defence, but they hopelessly mis-timed what looked like a half-hearted to play an offside trap. The result was a completely static defence, and Miroslav Klose surely couldn't believe his luck as he stooped to nod the ball in to double their lead. Of course, for most teams, going two goals down inside the first half an hour against the Germans would signal defeat, but Portugal have such an array of attacking options that pulling the deficit back was never completely beyond them, and they hauled themselves back into the game when Cristiano Ronaldo, who had been largely a spectator worked himself a little space and had a shot that Jens Lehmann could only block, allowing Nuno Gomes to twist and put the ball in.

The game was back on, and the neutral sat through half-time wondering if the Portuguese could manage a comeback as extraordinary as Turkey managed against the Czech Republic earlier in the week. The answer was, this time, a resounding "no", and the result was really put beyind any doubt sixteen minutes into the second half, with a goal that featured more set piece defending from the Keystone Cops School Of Football Coaching. Bastian Schweinsteiger threw over another free kick from the left, and this time the Portuguese defence didn't pick up Michael Ballack, who headed past Ricardo, who had decided to come for the cross himself, albeit unfortunately about six seconds too late. From here on, Germany were just playing out time. The surprise replacement of Gomes with twenty minutes to go allowed Ronaldo (possibly unilaterally) push into the middle of the pitch, but by this time Germany were coasting. The temperature didn't even rise by that much when Helder Postiga rose unmarked to pull a second goal back for Portugal with three minutes plus stoppage time to play.

I am still less than convinced by Germany's credentials to win this competition. Portugal had a terrible bad day at the office last night, and Germany were fortunate enough to recognise this and take advantage of it three times, but it's difficult to imagine anyone else being this generous. Scolari had worried publicly about the height of the German midfield and attack, but one suspects that he would have been better served worrying about his own defenders' marking. For Chelsea supporters, next season may well be high in entertainment, but whether he will be successful there is certainly open to question. They might be wishing for the return of Avram Grant by the time that the nights start to draw in again.

Russia Hour

After a certain, indefinable point, failure becomes a default option. Like the South Korean team who, for so long seemed capable of doing everything but winning a match in the World Cup finals, so it was with Russia. Would they ever get past the group stages of a major tournament again? The answer to that, finally, is yes, and they managed it some style this evening with a win against Sweden that was the best performance that I can remember having seen from either a Russian or Soviet team. The first half of the match was almost embarrassingly one-sided. Having brought in Andrei Arshavin into the team after he missed the first two matches due to suspension, they looked a transformed team and, whilst it's probably fair to say that Sweden took about fifteen or twenty minutes to even turn up, this was a performance that will at least give the Netherlands pause for thought before their meeting with them in the quarter-finals on Saturday.

Where, then, has it gone wrong for Sweden? Most people blelieved that they would get through this group with Spain, but it turns out to have been a tournament too far for many of their older players. Henrik Larsson may have shown profound irritation when he was reminded of this in a post-match interview by ITV last night, but the fact of the matter is that, at 36 six years old, he (and the majority of his team mates) didn't have the legs to keep up with the Russians. This combined age, coupled with the fact that the Russian league season is only a few weeks old, was enough to knock them out. When Russia went a goal up last night through Roman Pavlyuchenko after a wonderful, sweeping move that carried the ball from one end of the pitch to the other, it looked as if the sky might fall in on Sweden completely and, although Russia failed to capitalise on the chances that they created, it was still difficult to see a way back into the game for Sweden.

The second goal, coming as it did five minutes into the second half, effectively killed the game as a contest and simultaneously emphasised what a difference Andrei Arshavin makes to their team. The Zenit St Petersburg midfielder rolled the ball in after another excellent run down the left hand side by Zhirkov. Freshness, here, was the key. Sweden looked tired and all out of ideas, like England at the last World Cup, but without the well-organised defence to give them a chance of sneaking them the clean sheet that would give them a chance of qualification. Even at 2-0, Russia had the majority of the possession, with Sweden only occasionally testing the Russian defence. In the end, it was a comfortable victory for them.

In the other match in Group D, Spain beat Greece 2-1 after the Greeks had taken a surprise first half need - or was it, considering the number of changes that Aragones made to the Spanish team? The Greeks, then, return home with one goal and no points to show for their defence of the tournament. Not many people will miss them.

Au Revoir

Farewell then, France. Last night had been an evening that promised to hit a crescendo of tension, excitement and drama, but in the event the evening in Zurich all went off like a firework display in a monsoon, with a French selection and performance that gave Italy a relatively comfortable ride through to the quarter-finals, whilst in Berne the Dutch comfortably found a way past a Romania side which, three games in, finally showed up the shortcomings that many had suspected would lead to them being one of the tournament's lame ducks before so much as a ball was kicked.

France's failure against Italy can be best summed up by twenty-five minutes of misfortune, tempestuousness and incompetence. They lost Franck Ribery, the creative spark that has lit up their midfield at this tournament and frequently looked like the only player capable of carrying them through the group stages to injury after just seven minutes. His replacement, Sami Nasri, would last just nineteen minutes before suffering the ultimate indignity of the substitute - being substituted himself, to be replaced by Jean-Alain Boumsong. The reason for the subsitution was plain enough - a couple of minutes beforehand, Abidal had managed to get himself in a pickle over the sight of Luca Toni bearing down on Gregory Coupet's goal. His foul was a clear red card and penalty, which Andrea Pirlo dispatched with ease, and what had started out as a difficult evening for France suddenly became an insurmountable challenge.

Italy played better than they had in their previous game against Romania, not that this was saying much. With France having had their formation put through the mincer by the events of the first thirty minutes, it never looked as if they needed to do any more than enough. The second goal came just after the hour mark, and was further proof that the footballing gods were looking down on the Azzurri with considerable benevolence. Daniele De Rossi's free kick was from such a distance that it really had no right to be going anywhere near the goal, but the ball clipped off the foot of Thierry Henry, on the end of the French wall, and spun agonisingly away from Coupet and into the back of the net for the second goal. France may yet have found a way back into the game into the closing stages, but the dying embers of their tournament challenge were extinguished once and for all when Buffon dived across goal to flick away Karim Benzema's shot. At that moment, France were out and Italy could only rely on the news from Berne.

They needn't have worried. Some pre-emptive gamesmanship from the Italian press seemed to have worked like a charm for Italy, with unfounded allegations that the Netherlands would throw the game agaist Romania proving to be all the encouragement that the Dutch would need to see off the surprise package of the group. True enough, they made numerous changes from the side that had beaten France on Friday night, but this was a team of reserves eager to prove themselves to Marco Van Basten with their last opportunity to before the knock-out stages of the competition. One young man that seized the opportunity was Ajax's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who had previously scored seven times in twelve matches for the Dutch, but had been unable to impress himself upon the first team ahead of last night's match. He scored the first goal last night - proof, as if it was needed, of the glorious attacking options that Van Basten has at his disposal - and looked like a menace all evening before being taken offwith seven minutes to play. In the closing stages, Robin Van Persie added a second goal to remove any doubt that it would be the Netherlands and Italy qualifying from the group.

In the end, the football gods presumably decided that we had all had too much excitement already. The Dutch were workmanlike, France were poor and Italy did just about enough, and one suspects that Spain, Italy's quarter-final opponents, will have too much in the tank for the world champions unless they raise their game. It would be foolish to suggest that the Italians aren't plenty capable of doing this, though. The Netherlands, meanwhile, will go on to play the winners of tonight's match between Sweden and Russia. On form, it looks like they should be a shoo-in for a place in the semi-finals, but Euro 2008 hasn't normally being much attention to the form book so far. A repeat of the group match between the Netherlands and Italy at the semi-final stage remains a distinct possibility.

Auf Wiedershen, Mein Host

Last night, Austria followed Switzerland out of Euro 2008 with a performance which, whilst not lacking in heart and courage, ultimately showed up the gap in quality between themselves and the tournament favourites. Germany eventually eased their way into the quarter-finals with a win from a match in which they didn't play particularly well and will now play Portugal in the quarter-finals, whilst Croatia finished as the group winners with three wins out of three, and will take on Turkey.

It was asking too much to expect another pair of classic matches, but Austria's naivete going forward was almost breathtaking. They continually managed, without too much opposition, to get the ball into the final third of the pitch but failed completely to get the ball into dangerous areas or work themselves into positions that they could worry the Germans from. On several occasions, the surprisingly benevolent German defence allowed them plenty of space on the edge of the penalty area but their shots were always charged down. Austria, ultimately weren't good enough.

The match was decided as a contest early in the second half, with one of the rare moments of quality in an otherwise tepid match, when Michael Ballack drove an absolutely unstoppable free kick into the top corner of the Austrian goal. It was the first goal of the tournament to come directly from a free kick. Proceedings might have been even more straightforward had Mario Gomez put away a simple chance from a couple of yards out early on in the game, but he spooned the ball straight up in the air and then appeared to be curiously disinterested in trying to touch the ball over the line, instead allowing an Austrian defender to clear the ball off the line.

One cannot help but wonder how this German team is going to cope with Portugal in the next round. Whilst Austria's downfall was a lack of ability going forward (and the best that can be said of their record in the competition is that they achieved their absolute minimum aim - they were humiliated at no point in any of their three matches), Portugal have an embarrassment of attacking riches, both up front and in midfield. Germany won't have it this easy again. Certainly their performance over the last two matches makes something of a mockery of their position as pre-tournament favourites. They will have to play much better than they have over the last two matches if they are to progress to the semi-finals or the final.

For Croatia, meanwhile, a lone goal from Ivan Klasnic was enough for the group winners to see off a lacklustre Poland side. The gulf between these two teams was perhaps demonstrated by the fact that Croatia coasted to a relatively comfortable win in spite of making nine changes for this match. Poland had a couple of decent chances with the score still tied at 0-0, but Klasnic's goal early in the second half ended the one man resistance of Celtic's Artur Boruc, one of the few Poland players to deserve better than to finish bottom of the group with just one point from three matches. Croatia will, of course, bring back all of their first choice players for the quarter-final against Turkey, and we can anticipate a better performance from them later in the week. It's hardly beyond the realms of possibility that they will be facing Germany again in the semi-finals.

Czechs Bounced Etc

Slowly but surely, the records are being broken. It feels as if, one by one, new legends are being created on an almost daily basis at Euro 2008, and last night we had a new one to add to the list: the greatest comeback by an international team in the finals of a competition. To be honest about it all, the first seventy-five minutes of last night's match between Turkey and the Czech Republic were fairly ordinary. The Czechs had gone two goals up through a factory-fit header from Jan Koller in the first half and an acrobatic slide-cum-stab from Plasil just after the hour mark. So far, so good. Apart from that, it was so-so, with both teams limited to a couple of long range efforts and almost accidental looking shots at goal each. With fifteen minutes to play, though, Turkey ripped the script up and threw it away, replacing it with one that the writers of "Escape To Victory" would have replaced for being too far fetched.

First up, Turan popped up with a shot from the edge of the area that beat Petr Cech at his near post. It's possible to absolve Cech of any blame for this goal, a well-hit low shot from the edge of the penalty area that skidded on very wet grass. There were less forgiving circumstances seven minutes later, though. Hamit's cross was inexplicably dropped by Cech, allowing a dumfounded Nihat to roll the ball into the empty goal. I've watched this goal about fifty times over now, and I still can't see how this happened. The ball wasn't spinning, and there was no great pace on the cross. The ball just seemed to bounce up and out of his hands. The debates have been raging over whether this means that Cech can be described as the Emporer's New Clothes - not the fantastic goalkeeper that we all thought that he was. I'm inclined to think that we'll find out whether he's a great goalkeeper over the next few months. It's the reaction to the mistake rather than the mistake itself that will determine whether he retains his reputation or not. He didn't have much time to dwell upon it. Two minutes later, Nihat was put through and he drove the ball in off the underside of the crossbar to win the match for Turkey. Even then, the tension rose still higher, as the Turkish goalkeeper Volkan was sent off for shoving Jan Koller to the ground. No mean feat in itself, if you stop and think about it for a second. With all three of their substitutes already used, Tuncay went in goal for the last couple of minutes, but he wasn't tested and Turkey hung on to win 3-2 and book their extraordinary passage into the last eight of the competition. Full marks also, by the way, to Steve Wilson of the BBC, whose commentary on the match added to the breathless, disbelieving air of it all. He would be a much more suitable replacement for John Motson as the BBC's main man than Jonathan Pearce.

The other match between Switzerland and Portugal in Basel was, ultimately, a meaningless match for both teams, and acted as a send off for Kobi Kuhn, who has now quit the Swiss coaching job. His wife's serious illness throughout the competition and the quiet dignity with which he coped with the twin pressures that faced him provided an important reality check for those in the media who talk about the all-importance of winning football matches. The Portuguese dropped eight players from their previous match, and Chelsea supporters may have been looking nervously at the effect of such widespread squad rotation. Switzerland won 2-0 thanks to two goals from Hakan Yakin and thoroughly deserved their win. They played reasonably well in all three of their group matches, and deserved better than to be knocked out of the tournament with a match still to play. Regarding Portugal, I would question again the wisdom of any coach that ends a winning run in order to rest players. I could be wrong on this, but it strikes me that a winning streak is an exceptionally difficult thing to build up - will Portugal simply be able to able to pick the baton that they have dropped and start running with it again? We shall see.

Saved By The Bell

Out go the holders, then, and one suspects that few people are going to miss them that much. Greece's defeat by Russia yesterday evening was one of the more mediocre matches of the tournament so far, enlivened only by a horrific mistake by the Greek goalkeeper Antonis Nikopolidis allowed Konstantin Zyryanov to prod the ball over the line for the only goal of the match. The result was just as good for Russia. They haven't got through the group stages of a major tournament since the collapse of the Soviet Union almost twenty years ago, but they have a chance to, now. A win against Sweden in their final group match will be enough to put them through to the next round. Sweden, meanwhile, pushed Spain all the way before falling to a late, late goal by David Villa yesterday evening.

The Spain vs Sweden was the better of last night's two matches. Spain started the stronger of the two sides and took the lead after fifteen minutes when Fernando Torres scored from close range, but things took a turn for the worse for them ten minutes later, when they lost defender Carlos Puyol to injury. Without Puyol's influence at the back, Spain's defence began to look more more and more strained, and Sweden started to get back into the game. They brought things level ten minutes from half time, when Zlatan Ibrahimovich put the ball past Iker Casillas from close range. There was some criticism of Casillas on the television last night for failing to stop the shot, but it looked more from my angle as if the blame laid more with the defender that allowed him to get a shot in when he started with his back to goal. The second half was a slightly more disappointing affair, but right at the death David Villa latched on to Joan Capdevila's long pass and, in spite of being surrounded by Swedish defenders managed to squeeze through and win it for Spain.

Next week, then, Russia will need to beat Sweden because Sweden have the better goal difference of the two teams. If Russia do manage to get through, it will be for the first time in twenty years, and the last time they did it they got to the finals of the European Championships. This might be a stretch too far for them this year, but it's as good a chance as they've had since 1988.

Netherlands 4-1 France

Still the goals keep going, still teams refuse to sit back and merely defend, and still the Dutch look like the best football team at Euro 2008. It's almost as if the players and the coaches of all the nations have got together and decided to play with the care-free air of an end of year party. At the end of a year which has seen my spine start to curl with cynicism over the state of the modern game, it's like a breath of fresh air, as, for about the sixth match in a row, two of Europe's best played out an absolutely magnificent match which could have gone in either direction but ended in another resounding win for a Dutch team that is rapidly starting to look as good as the team that won the competition twenty years ago, or even (whisper it) the great team of the 1970s. They booked their place in the quarter-finals last night, and they did it eventually with room to spare, but to say that this was the full story of last night's match would be doing a great disservice to France, who played a full contribution to proceedings and were harshly served by the eventual 4-1 scoreline.

The opening goal was a conventional enough affair. A corner from the right, headed in by Dirk Kuyt, who has produced more football of any value in his last 180 minutes for the Netherlands than he did all season Liverpool. France had the better play for much of the rest of the first half, but the score stayed at 1-0 thanks in no small part to some excellent goalkeeping from Edwin Van Der Saar, who blocked a low shot from Willy Sagnol outstandingly and had to stretch to save a low shot from Franck Ribery. There were period, early in the second half, when it looked as if a French equaliser was inevitable. Ribery shot wide from close range when he probably should have scored, Henry had a shot blocked by Andre Ooijer on the line that looked as if it bounced off his arm (though it would probably have been a harsh decision had it been awarded). The key moment came on fifty-three minutes, when Malouda's over-head kick put Thierry Henry through on goal. Usually, one would have bet their life savings on Henry scoring from the position that he was in but, with Van der Saar coming out towards him, he showed an uncharacteristic heaviness of touch and lifted the ball over both Van Der Saar and the crossbar.

The game opened up upon the introduction of Robin Van Persie, who was brought on to replace Dirk Kuyt shortly afterwards. A fantastic turn and pass by Ruud Van Nistelrooy put Arjen Robben away on the left hand side, and his low cross was touch in with virtually Van Persie's first touch. It was virtually Van Persie's first touch, and the French goalkeeper Gregory Coupet almost kept it out, but the ball dribbled agonizingly over the line to double their lead. Two goals down and with thirty minutes to play, France could have given up or the Netherlands could have put eleven men behind the ball to try and protect their lead, but neither of these outcomes would have been particularly characteristic of Euro 2008 so far. Twelve minutes after the Netherlands doubled their lead, France found what they thought was a route back into the game, when Willy Sagnol's cross from the right-hand side was touched in by Henry. It looked as if a barn-storming last twenty minutes was on the cards, but any hopes that the French may have had of a revival lasted barely thirty seconds, as Arjen Robben got away down the left and scored with a shot into the roof of the net from an absolutely impossible angle. The third goal was probably the fatal blow, and there was no route back for the French, although one suspected every time that they got forward that they might score and bring themselves back into the game. The icing on the cake, however, came in the last couple of minutes, as Wesley Snijder lifted the ball over Coupet and into the top corner to make the final score 4-1.

Where next, then, for the Netherlands? Moreover, where next for Group C? The Dutch are home and dry - expect to see Robben and Van Persie starting the final match against Romania. If Romania win that match (and they took four points from six in their qualifying group), they will be through and both France and Italy will be out. Otherwise, the winners of the France vs Italy match will join them. If France and Italy draw and the Netherlands draw against or beat Romania, then Romania will still be through unless Romania lose by three goals, in which case UEFA will invoke the little-known triangular pitch with three goals, and make them all play-off against each other*. It will be a tense evening.

*Not strictly true - if someone wants to clarify all the permutations for me, feel free to do so in the comments section

Italy 1-1 Romania

I've never been to Italy. I have, however, from a young age formed a view on Italian fashion that was largely shaped by the film "National Lampoon's European Vacation". In said film, the central characters, the Griswold family (with Chevy Chase as the patriarch) travel across Europe, getting into a variety of "scrapes", one of which involves them losing their luggage on the way to Italy. Their insurance, of course, covers the cost of this lost luggage, so they go to a number of boutiques in Rome (cue a montage of cut-aways of them in clothes of varying degrees of awfulness) before coming out looking like the 1980s Euro-fashion dream. Well, more or less half-way between robots and pimps, to be more accurate. I have, at various points throughout my adult life, wondered whether Italians actually dressed like that, and I'm a little clearer on it now. Upon seeing Gianluigi Buffon's black bandana close up this evening, I'm starting to think that, yes, there are probably some Italians that do dress like the Griswolds did in "National Lampoon's European Vacation". What's the deal with that bandana, then? He looks as if he's planning to go on "Stars In Their Eyes" as Kevin Rowlands from Dexy's Midnight Runners.

But I digress. Italy vs Romania was another splendid match from a tournament which, after a slow start, is starting to turn into an absolute belter. The irony was rich. Italy played very well against the Netherlands earlier in the week, and received a considerable amount of sympathy for being on the wrong end of a 3-0 reversal in a match that they had made a full contribution to. There can be no such praise tonight. This was the other Italy playing this evening. The Italy with a long and ignoble history of contriving to pull defeat from the jaws of victory. Romania, by contrast, looked like a team that had been completely energised by containing France without breaking into much of a sweat. This evening they were comfortably the better of the two teams, and were unlucky to not win the match. As it is, Italy are still holding on by their fingernails, knowing that they have to beat France in their final match to stand any chance of getting through to the quarter-finals.

The single most refreshing thing so far about Euro 2008 is that attacking play has been rewarded, and negativity has, by and large, not been enough to grind out results. Romania came out this evening with the knowledge that this Italian team is beatable, and they went for it. The deadlock was broken ten minutes into the second half, when Zambrotta woefully under-hit a header back to Buffon, allowing Adrian Mutu to nip in and lift the ball over the goalkeeper. The lead lasted barely a minute - Christian Panucci touched in Chielli's header to level things up, and we were back to square one again. Surprisingly, Romania reacted to this in about the most positive way that they could. It would have been unsurprising if they had folded after the psychological damage of conceding a goal so soon after scoring, but they instead took an attitude of, "We've done it before, we can do it again", and poured forward, dominating much of the final third of the match. The decisive moment came seven minutes from time. Panucci hauled Daniel Niculae at a corner, and the referee awarded a penalty. A brave and correct decision for the second day in a row. Adrian Mutu stepped up, but his kick wasn't a good one. Plenty of power, but only a foot to one side of the centre of the goal - Buffon had guessed the right way, and flicked out an arm to save.

His save was enough to keep Italy in the competition, for now at least. They will, however, have to beat France in the final match in order to get through to the quarter-finals and their was very little in their performance to to suggest that they will be able to manage this. By contrast, Romania took four points from six from the Dutch in qualifying, and will fancy their chances of bagging a place in the quarter-finals alongside a side that may, by the time that the match comes around, hav already qualified for the next round. If Romania were to beat the Netherlands, the Italy vs France match would become one of the highest-profile wooden spoon matches of all time.

Viennese Whirls

First of all, apologies for not having put anything up on here yesterday. I am currently in the middle of working out the details for the new Twohundredpercent, which will open for business in about three or four weeks time. Secondly, I do feel rather that the content on here over the last week or so has been rather dry. Time constraints have meant that I have been unable to put much more than match reports up on here, but I'm aiming to set that straight over the weekend. Turning back to the football, it was a bad day at the office yesterday for Germany and Poland, not that you'd notice from the sports pages of this morning's "Independent", where a generous five pages have been handed over to the appointment of Luiz Felipe Scolari as the new Chelsea manager. One would question the timing of the announcement - is the middle of a tournament that his team have got an outstanding chance of winning really the best time for it? It is a subject that we will be returning to after Euro 2008 has ended but, for now, there are bigger fish to fry than Chelsea.

It was, initially at least, a bad day at the office for Germany. They looked lackadaisical against Croatia, and Slaven Bilic's team were excellent value for their 2-1 win yesterday afternoon. Darijo Srna slid in to give the Croats the lead after twenty-five minutes, and there was little question thereafter that the three points would be heading east rather than north. The second Croatia goal had an element of farce about it. Rakitic's crossed clipped off Lucas Podolski, wrong footing Jens Lehmann and hitting the foot of the post before bouncing perfectly into the path of Ivica Olic, who could scarcely believe his luck in rolling the ball into an empty goal. Germany rallied, and pulled one back through Lucas Podolski with twelve minutes to play (three goals in two games for Podolski now, he says without having double-checked this - I warned you about the time constraints that I'm under), but the late dismissal of Bastian Schweinsteiger was an unnecessary moment of petulance that might yet cost them. Still, at least the German coach, Joachim Low, was magnanimous enough to admit that his side deserved to lose: "Looking back at the match, we deserved to lose. We were unable to play our combinations or play a fluid game", he said at the post-match press conference. I'm not entirely sure what he means by "play our combinations", but we should nod our heads sagely anyway.

This result opened up a back door back into the competition for Austria and Poland, who met last night in Vienna. Austria, it has to be said, were unfortunate to lose against Croatia last weekend, and it looked for all the world as if the curse of the host nations that has blighted this tournament so far was set to contiune, after they wasted three gilt edged opportunities in the first twenty minutes (thanks in no small part to some outstanding goalkeeping from Celtic's Artur Boruc) and then went a goal behind to what may have been an offside goal from Roger Guerreiro, that came from more or less Poland's only serious venture into Austrian territory in the entire first half. Austria were denied a penalty at the start of the second half by "England's Howard Webb" (and how many times did the television commentary team remind us of that last night?), and seemed to fade in the second half. Poland's bluntness in front of goal meant that they were still in the game going into injury time, when Webb, made a name for himself in the right way, by correctly and (as this morning's papers are only too please to tell us) "bravely" awarding a penalty for a shirt pull by Marcin Waliewski on Sebastian Prodl going into injury time. Ivica Vastic, "The Austrian Beckham", showed none of his namesake's nerves when taking important penalties and smashed the ball in to level things up for the hosts, keeping them in the competition (for the next few days at least) and knocking Poland out. The result also did Germany a favour - they now only need to draw against Austria in their final match in order to edge through to the quarter-finals.

This evening, Italy play Romania in the thirteenth match of the competition and on Friday the thirteenth. I'm not sure now superstitious the Italian team is, but it can hardly help their mental state, can it?

Switzerland 1-2 Turkey

All those years of planning, and Switzerland's journey in the European Championships is over. None of this is to say that they have played badly. Indeed, they were better team against the Czech Republic and were desperately, desperately unlucky to be knocked out tonight by a late, deflected goal in a match that they had dominated for long spells. It did look as if the Gods may be transpiring against Switzerland in some way. The storm clouds gathered over Basle this evening in a manner that reminded one of a black and white vampire film. You half expected the referee to come out dressed as Bela Lugosi.

Shortly into the match, a downpour started that rapidly assumed biblical proportions, and the pitch rapidly became unable to drain off the excess water, and things became thrillingly, brilliantly exciting. With standing water on the pitch and tackles bringing up a spray that cat on a surf board could probably ride, everything became less predictable. Switzerland adjusted to the new conditions, and it was out of them that their goal arrived, when Eren Derdioyk got away down the right hand side and got a low cross in that slowed down so perfectly in front of Hakan Yakin that he almost slipped before, thudding the ball in with his shin. It was a ridiculous goal in extraordinary conditions, but it counted all the same - the roof almost lifted off the stadium and Switzerland were off and running. At half-time Switzerland were good value for their slender lead.

It took about five minutes to become apparent that Turkey had received a better half-time team talk than Switzerland. The Turks defended more deeply, cutting out the danger posed by long balls being sent through the air in their direction. They matched the pace of the Swiss, and played a safety first game that soon saw them getting the vast majority of possession in the centre of the pitch. As they began to assume control, so the half-chances started to come, and twenty minutes into the second half, Turkey were level, a header from Semih beating the feeble flapping of Diego Benaglio in the Swiss goal. This scoreline favoured Turkey more than Switzerland, but they didn't seem to want to go on and take any chances to win the game. The pendulum swung the other way, and Switzerland started to dominate play again. They poured forward in search of a critical goal and a great chance with nine minutes to play when Volanthen's shot was saved by Volkan, who then got up to block Hakan Yakin's follow-up.

In the dying seconds, the killer sucker punch. With the clock ticking over ninety minutes, Arda Turan got away on the right, and shot, which, from twenty yards out, took a horrible deflection off Valon Behrami, wrong-footing Benaglio and ending up in the top corner of the net. Turkey had the win - knocking out the host nation in the process. Turkey's progress is hanging by a wire, even now. If they lose to the Czech Republic, they're still out. For Switzerland, with two hearty and unlucky performances under their belt, it seems harsh that they should be knocked out with one match to spare. They deserved better this evening but, ultimately, lacked the fire power to score the goals that they needed to progress.

Portugal 3-1 Czech Republic

It is a curious anomaly of Euro 2008 that this evening's match between Portugal and the Czech Republic saw, in the tournament's ninth match, the first equalizing goal of the competition. It counted for nothing in the end, but it did at least breathe life into a match that, prior to this, had started to look as if it would be little more than a procession for Portugal, who further reinstated their case for being amongst the favourites to win the trophy outright. Both sides won their opening matches - Portugal at a canter against Turkey, the Czechs with considerable labour and no small amount of luck against Switzerland - so the only result that would beyond doubt would be that the winners would be through to the quarter-finals (barring something just shy of a miracle).

Portugal started the stronger of the two sides, and it took them just eight minutes to take the lead. For all of his artistry and jiggery pokery, it's difficult to fault the sheer persistence of Deco, who bundled the ball over the line with Cech scrambling to get across the goal to smother it. The Czechs, however, were showing signs of being able to make a real game of it, and with Sionko looking very impressive on the wing, it was no surprise when they equalised through Sionko's diving header. For a while, Portugal looked shaken, and it is this sort of concern that casts a shadow over their aspirations of winning the tournament. They are blessed with an embarrassment of riches up front, but defensively they still look prone to the occasional lapse and, whilst the sides with the best attacking players have flourished so far, this may not be the case to the same extent when they start playing each other. Portugal have only conceded one goal in two matches, but that's not to say that they don't need to tighten up.

Portugal started to asset themselves better again in the second half, and regained the lead when Cristiano Ronaldo shot in from the edge of the penalty area, though they were still not quite home and dry. Sionko pulled a very good save out of Ricardo which might have levelled things up, but Portugal eventually put the match beyond the Czechs when Quaresma rolled the ball into an empty net in the closing stages with the Czech defence having pushed forward in the search for an equalizer. With this result, Group A is interestingly poised. The Portuguese are home and dry, but the Czechs are likely to have to go into their final match needing to win against Turkey to guarantee a place in the quarter-finals. Meanwhile, Switzerland have to beat Turkey tonight and then pick up a result against Portugal go get through, but might the Portuguese be tempted to rest a few players with their place in the next round assured? Finally, a special mention for ITV's summariser David Pleat, who is either an absurdist comedy genius or rapidly going senile. In the space of about five minutes this afternoon, he described Ruud Van Nistelrooy's goal for Holland against Italy "a farce" (in spite of a perfectly straightforward explanation from UEFA over why it was a perfectly good goal) and called the Czech Republic "Czechoslovakia", before correcting himself and calling them "The Republic of Czechoslovakia" instead. Almost, Dave. Almost.

Greece 0-2 Sweden

I don't, with any conscience, have much time for ITV's match summariser Jim Beglin. Unlike most other Liverpool players of the 1980s, I have no idea what he looks like (the fact that he has an Irish accent and is called Jim leads me involuntarily towards Jim McDonald out of "Coronation Street"), and I care for him even less than I did before after his pompous performance this evening during tonight's match between Greece and Sweden. As Greece passed the ball around their defence towards the end of the first half, he unleashed a torrent of outrage at the fact that they weren't committing many players forward that made my ears prick up. As it turned out, Jim got what he wanted, but surely I wasn't the only person sitting at home willing the Greeks to a 0-0 draw that would frustrate the hell out of "football purists", was I? I see no problem with them playing dour, defensive football. They know their limits, and they stick within them. They did this to devastating effect four years ago, when they bruised and battled their way to possibly the most unlikely tournament win in the history of international football, but it was too much to ask for a repeat of the heroics of four years ago his time around.

It was somewhat apt that this meeting between the two oldest teams in the tournament should be played in Salzburg, since the birthplace of Mozart seems to be the perfect place to host a match that, for much of the first half at least, looked like nothing so much as twenty-two partnerless old men waltzing around an end of pier ballroom. As the ITV commentary team frothed at the mouth about what they took to be an affront to the beautiful game, the two teams played out a dreadful first half, and it was hilarious. Sweden didn't seem to have much of an answer to Greece's tactic of passing the around very slowly at the back and the lumping it forward, and the two sides reached half-time with scarcely a shot on goal having been managed between them. The deadlock finally broke twenty minutes into the second half, but not it wasn't the first clear chance of the match. The hubris would have reached exceptional levels had Petter Hansson's defensive header just sneaked the right side of the post, but it wasn't to be for the holders. Yet again at Euro 2008 (and this seems to have been happening in more or less every single match), a clear chance at one end led to a goal at the other, and more or less immediately Sweden took the lead with an absolutely tremendous long range shot from Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Five minutes later, they scored a second when Freddie Ljungberg's long range shot looped up off the Greek goalkeeper Nikopolidis and fell for Petter Hansson, who contrived to bundle the ball over the line even though he didn't look much capable of stopping himself from tripping over his own feet.

What, then, to make of Greece and Sweden. With Spain still to play, Greece are surely out of the competition now. Their formation worked at Euro 2004 because the coaches that they were up against had underestimated them and didn't have a proper plan to break them down. The coaches this time could be expected to have a better game plan - decent coaches don't usually make the same mistakes twice - but, although Sweden eventually ground them down, it took them almost seventy minutes to score the opening goal and the match could quite easily have faded out into a goalless draw. One suspects that this group could yet spring a surprise. Russia are a better team than their scoreline against Spain would suggest, and I was less than impressed by the labour that Sweden had to put in to wear down a Greek team that often failed to what they did so well in Portugal four years ago - defend well. The group table may make it look like a foregone conclusion, but the outcome of this group is far from certain for the time being.

Spain 4-1 Russia

Slowly but surely, Euro 2008 is coming to life. After last night's contender for Match Of The Tournament between the Netherlands and Italy, tonight's match between Russia and Sweden ran it fairly close. Against the wishes of anyone that wishes to steer clear of optimism surrounding the Spanish cause, it was a pretty outstanding start from Spain, whose expectation levels will have risen in the space of just two hours from "let's get this over with and get on with La Liga" to "hang on, there's a chance that we can actually win this". Russia, it has to be said, didn't play badly. They hit the post in the first half and were unfortunate to be two goals down at half-time. Ultimately, though, they paid for lax defending, in particular from Denis Kolodin, who failed to clear his lines for the first goal and was caught hopelessly out of position for the second.

The match started in weather that one could argue theoretically argue favoured the Russians. The two teams kicked off in the middle of a heavy downpour that looked through the television cameras as if it might even develop into a monsoon, and Russia matched Spain pretty well in the opening stages, with Shemshov heading right. Such undermining of the natural order of things, however, couldn't be allowed to continue, and a couple of minutes later Torres caught the unfortunate Kolodin in possession, ran through and pulled the ball back for David "Linked With The Premier League" Villa of Valencia to open the scoring. With Spain looking more settled with the opening goal, Russia started to push forward more, and two minutes from half-time, and came achingly close to levelling things up when Roman Pavyluchenko's shot came back off the post. One thing that teams at Euro 2008 are starting to learn is the need to get defenders that have strayed out of position back, and it was a lesson that Russia learnt the hard way. Two minutes after they'd nearly equalized, the ball was at the other pitch with Volodin about thirty yards off the pace, as Andres Iniesta freed Villa to double their lead.

With the match effectively over as a competition by half-time, the second half saw the pace slow as Spain sought to protect their lead and Russia ran out of ideas. The Russians started at a high tempo, with Bystrov heading straight at Castillas from a corner when he should arguably have done better, and Spain replaced Torres with Cesc Fabregas as they sought to slow the pace of the game. Villa, however, remained a constant threat up front, firing a low shot just wide before adding his hat-trick and Spain's third goal with a run into the penalty area, a twist and a turn, and a low shot past Igor Akinfeyev fifteen minutes from time. From here on in, the match took on the feel of an exhibition match, but there was still time for two more goals. Pavlyuchenko pulled a goal back for Russia with five minutes to play with a header from a corner, but the three goal lead was restored a couple of minutes later when Villa passed for Xavi to shoot - his shot was parried by Akinfeyev, but the ball bounced up giving Cesc Fabregas plenty of time to head in a fourth Spanish goal.

The question that will be perplexing coaches that have to take on Spain in the rest of this competition is a simple but fiendishly complex one. How do they contain David Villa without opening up space that the likes of Fernando Torres can exploit? It's a tricky question, and not one that has an easy answer. Villa's performance this evening was the best individual performance of the tournament so far, and his three goals give him an outstanding chance of winning the Golden Boot award. It's difficult to see how the aging Greek and Swedish defences will be able to cope with him, either. Yet for all the lavish praise that one can heap upon Spain's attacking play (and this was every bit an impressive performance as the Dutch performance was last night), there are still question marks surrounding their defence. They did concede a comparatively soft goal tonight and will face better strikers than they did against Russia. They look to be a shoo-in to make the quarter-finals, but how much further they can go than that when they might have to face both the winners and the runners up of the GROUP OF DEATH to get to the final is still open to question.

Netherlands 3-0 Italy

...And as if by magic, the Dutch and the Italians arrived. Barely half an hour after I finished writing about a match that was described (accurately) by Alan Hansen as "one of the worst games of football I've ever seen", they kicked off in Berne for a match that has finally kicked some life into the body of Euro 2008. With the truly great matches, you can retire with the knowledge that the final score of the match could have been anything. So it was tonight - Italy could just have easily won 3-0 as the Netherlands did - and it poured a breath fresh air into a tournament that had started to go stale after four matches of a mediocre nature and one outright bad one.

The Italians played a full part in a breathless, dizzying match, in which play swept from one end to the other like a wave lapping against a beach, but whilst one feels a degree of sympathy for Roberto Donadoni, whose team twice saw themselves coming within an inch of hauling themselves back into proceedings, but for the scoreline to have finished with anything other than a decisive Dutch victory would have been ill reward for Marco Van Basten's team, who cast aside their workmanlike reputation to summon up a performance that was the match of anything achieved by Cruyff and Neesken's team of the 1970s or Van Basten himself and Gullit's team of the late 1980s. They were fortunate with the first goal - the injured Christian Panucci behind the goal being the only player that could conceivably have played Ruud Van Nistelrooy onside as he passed the ball past the hapless Buffon in the Italian goal.

The result of the match was determined in thirty astonishing seconds not five minutes after the Dutch had taken the lead. Pirlo's deep corner was headed off the line by Giovanni Van Bronckhorst. Van Bronckhorst's clearance fell to Wesley Sneijder, who in turn found Rafael Van Der Vaart. Van Bronckhorst hadn't stopped running from the initial clearance and Van Der Vaart swept the ball wide to him from the centre circle. In turn, Sneijder had kept running and chased fully seventy yards to get onto the end of Van Bronckhorst's return pass to fire the ball past Buffon. It was a glorious moment - surely the goal of the tournament - and put clear daylight between the two sides that would have been extended still further had not Buffon not saved well from Van Nistelrooy just before half-time.

By comparison the Italians looked positively leaden-footed up front, but the replacement of Di Natale with the 33 year old Bruce Springsteen lookalike Alessandro Del Piero breathed new life into them midway through the second half, and the Dutch were to be grateful that their goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Saar was on top of things in order to protect their lead. The highlight was a free kick from Pirlo which he scrambled across the goal to save. Had it gone in, the Dutch would have been 2-1 up with ten minutes to play. As it turned out, they broke quickly. Dirk Kuyt's shot was blocked and Van Bronckhorst headed in to make it 3-0 (a goal which David Pleat, whose descent into apparent senility makes watching live matches on ITV a curiously unsettling experience, uncharitably tried to call as an own goal because the ball hit a defender on the line before going in).

It's difficult to believe that the Dutch will be able to play this well again. The spectre of Argentina at the last World Cup, who dazzled against Serbia & Montenegro in the first round and then limped tamely out to Germany in the quarter-finals, lives long in the memory. They have, however, given themselves an outstanding chance of making it through to the quarter-finals, and one dreads to think what they might do to France if they play as well again and France play as badly. Italy played well enough in patches for the neutral to believe that they could yet qualifty from this group . They are plenty capable of beating France and Romania, and this would secure their passage into the quarter-finals. The more important question regarding them is what psychological damage might have been done by last night's result. In France or Italy (or maybe both of them), Euro 2008 could be missing one of its favourites by the time it reaches the last eight.