Well, well, well. Turkey through to the Semih’s!
June 21, 2008 – 5:08 pm
A fairly dire 118 minutes turned out to be the prelude for a fascinating last 2 minutes where somehow, yet again Turkey came back from the dead to knock out “Dark Horses” Croatia. Before the match I was hoping that both teams would go out there and show us the incisive attacking football they can play. Most of the match particularly the first 90 minutes saw two teams afraid of failure, realising that there was a great chance to get to a semi final (something that would of been a good enough achievement for either side) they froze, making the football nervous, tense and rigid.
The Croatia goal was well worked, combined with some eccentric goalkeeping from Rustu. Klasnic netting for the second time in these soccer tournaments, nodding a Modric cross home. You could see Slavan Bilic on the sidelines shouting at his defenders gesturing that there wasn’t long to go and that they should maintain their concentration. Although the Turkish side had more of the possession they hadnt really created many chances and with a minute to go on the clock I was pleased that the Croats would be progressing to play Germany for the second time.
Fatih Terim must of built a really strong team spirit within the camp as Turkey just don’t seem to know when they are beaten and for the third time in the tournament came back to rescue the game. This time even more unbelieveable than the Czech Republic match. In the 122nd minute Rakitic has possession for the Croatians. Instead of kicking the ball out or towards the corner flag he tries a nice pass through and Petric is caught offside. The resulting free kick is hammered up the pitch by Rustu, the ball is headed in the area and is smashed in by the incoming Semih. A great finish, the Turkish fans are delirious and so it goes on to penalties.
We know what happened from here on in. (to be honest I don’t really want to talk about it as Croatia were my pick for the tournament!) and so Turkey go through to play Germany in the first Semi final. 50% of my guesses so far correct. Not too bad, not too good…
The Russia vs Holland match tonight should be a great game but I hope we don’t end up with a match like last night where the teams are too afraid to play attacking football and defend as much as they can. With these two teams however I’m not too sure how confident they are at the back and attacking could well be their best forms of defense. However much I like the Russians I think this might be a game too far for them, they may of impressed in the Sweden match but Van Nistelrooy, Sneider and Van Persie are a bit more of a threat than Larsson, Ibrahimovic and Elmander.
Italy and Spain? Could be the best of the lot and I predict a particularly feisty affair from these two. With no love lost between the sides dubbed as “Artists” vs “Destroyers” (it obviously isn’t quite as strong as this considering the likes of Cassano, Pirlo and Senna, Puyol.) But one things for sure the strikers will have to be sharp to beat either keeper with Buffon and Casillas being the top 2 in the world by a fair distance. Hopefully a certain Mr Toni will of had a bit of shooting practice this week… Expect the pundits to back Spain but be left with egg on their faces with an Italy win.
Prediction:
Holland vs Italy in the other Semi Final.
