Euro 2008 Austria-Switzerland

Another surprise was to come this evening in the match between Netherlands and Russia. The good displays of the Dutch team from the group games were stopped by a confident team guided by a great coach. Gus Hiddink, which is a Dutch himself, had to send home his national football team.

Russia dominated the game from the begging and opened the score in the 56′ with a great execution of Pavlyuchenko. The scored was leveled by Ruud van Nistelrooy in 86′. Check the video below to see its header.

The match was decided in the extra time, when Tobinski and Arshavin have sealed the score. The final result showed Netherlands 1 - 3 Russia. The Oranje has been sent home, by a team with less experience in European competitions but with a great coach.

Russia is the new revelation at Euro 2008. I hope they will meet Turkey in the final, because they showed an astonishing performance in the match against Croatia.

Now that my team has left the competition I am a declared fan of Turkey. Fatih Terim did his magic again and sent the team into the semi-finals.

Croatia had lead the game until its last minute of the extra-time, when Semih scored to make the score 1-1. Then came the penalty shoot-out. Croatian star Modric missed his shoot, same as his colleague Ivan Rakitić. Rustu saved Mladen Petrić’s kick and open the road for the next stage of the Euro 2008 competition.

After the penalty shoot-out the scoreboard showed Croatia 1 - 3 Turkey. The Turkish team will play against Germany in the next match.

Tonight we had a big show at EURO 2008. I watched the game between Turkey and Czech Republic on a live transmission  online. At the beginning I thought that the Czech Rep. would qualify with a final score 2-1, but Turkey didn’t agree with my prediction. After the first half, Czechs were ahead with one beautiful goal scored by the giant Koller. The Turks didn’t play at all until they were behind with two goals.

The first signal of the great victory was seen at Turan’s goal in 75 minute. The goal (a beautiful one) has made them play real football. Then the football machine unleashed. The Czechs couldn’t escape from the Turkish siege. In the final moments of the game the captain (Nihat) speculated a mistake of Petr Cech and scored, min. 87. But the final strike was to come. Nihat, again, has found the way to defeat Cech along with his team. The Czechs were in a dramatic moment when Volkan (the Turkish goalkeeper) was sent out. Unfortunately they didn’t had time to shoot for the goal. Turkey goes in the next stages, while Czech Republic cries its unfortunate fate.

Another team which won’t continue in the tournament is Switzerland, which has made a good impression scoring two goals against Portugal. The final score was 2-0, but this one was too late for any change.

Tonight, Portugal has beaten Czech Republic scoring 3 goals, while the opponents found the goal once. The victory was inspired by the Manchester’s star Cristiano Ronaldo which leaded the team in the second half. Czechs played well and had many possibilities to score in the second half, but unfortunately they couldn’t face the enthusiasm inspired by Portugal’s stars - Ronaldo and Deco.

The goals: Sionko 16′ (CZE) and Deco 8′, Ronaldo 63′, Quaresma 91′ (POR)

Line-ups:

Czech Republic: Cech, Grygera, Ujfalusi (c), Rozehnal, Jankulovski, Galasek, Sionko, Matejovsky, Polak, Plasil, Baros.

Subs: Blazek, Zitka, Pospech, Kadlec, Kovac, Jarolim, Sivok, Skacel, Fenin, Koller, Sverkos, Vlcek

Portugal: Ricardo, Bosingwa, Pepe, Carvalho, Ferreira, Petit, Joao Moutinho, Ronaldo, Deco, Simao, Nuno Gomes (c).

Subs: Santo, Patricio, Alves, Meira, Miguel, Ribeiro, Meireles, Veloso, Almeida, Quaresma, Nani, Postiga.

Portugal is certainly qualified for the next stage. Czech Republic must win against Turkey to enter the quarter finals, but the future game depends on tonight’s result in the match between Switzerland and Turkey.

Hey guys! I know that many of you can’t reach a TV at the time the EURO 2008 matches start. However we can view the  directly on the PC. The are many websites that offer streaming services - pay per view or free - and there are many hotspots around.

Here I will write about free online TV streaming from EURO 2008. The best services are provided by Myp2p. Check the link and go for it. I will explain you how it works. The users must install some software that allows them to connect to the streaming server. Then, you check the page of the game for details. You can find many streaming services in many languages: English, German, Chinese, Italian etc.

The image clarity is not the best, I mean it’s not like TV, but good enough. Another issue that would bother you is the delay. Usually the TV game is 3-5 minutes ahead the online live transmission. However it could pleasure you in the absence of a TV set.

These are the latest headlines from the final tournament Euro 2008:

Aragonés gets it right for overdue win - Sat, 05 Jul 2008
The talent was arguably always there for Spain to lift a major trophy but certain key differences meant Luis Aragonés's shimmering squad took the EURO by storm.

'World's best' bring Madrid to standstill - Mon, 30 Jun 2008
Spain's UEFA EURO 2008™ winners received a heroes' welcome from tens of thousands of supporters as they brought the Henri Delaunay cup back home to Madrid.

Berlin welcome picks up fallen heroes - Mon, 30 Jun 2008
UEFA EURO 2008™ runners-up Germany were welcomed home by more than 300,000 supporters at a colourful ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Xavi emerges as EURO's top man - Mon, 30 Jun 2008
Spain midfielder Xavi Hernández has been named as the Castrol Player of the Tournament for UEFA EURO 2008™ after his stirring displays in the Alpine nations.

Spain dominate Team of the Tournament - Mon, 30 Jun 2008
The UEFA Technical Team has named its UEFA EURO 2008™ Team of the Tournament, with no fewer than nine Spanish players being selected for the final 23.

The A-Z of UEFA EURO 2008™ - Mon, 30 Jun 2008
euro2008.com casts its mind back over the past month: from Arshavin to Zidane via kidney transplants, great Turkish comebacks and naked walks in the park.

UEFA EURO 2008™ in quotes - Mon, 30 Jun 2008
euro2008.com tells the story of three and a half wonderful weeks in Austria and Switzerland in the words of the players and coaches who lived the ride.

UEFA praises the friendly finals - Mon, 30 Jun 2008
UEFA has reiterated its satisfaction that UEFA EURO 2008™ has been such a positive tournament on and off the field with the success of the Respect campaign.

What Europe's papers said - Mon, 30 Jun 2008
Olés rang out across Europe as the UEFA European Championship win by Spain met with universal acclaim among the sports editors of the other finalist nations.

The return of the Turniermannschaft - Mon, 30 Jun 2008
The pre-tournament favourites, Germany did indeed reach the UEFA EURO 2008™ final, but did so in a style more redolent of past pomp than recent achievement.