Euro 2008 as it is unfolding...

And we are into the knockout phase of the Euro 2008. The initial round saw the elimination of both hosts, the formal World Champion France and the defending Champs Greece. Portugal, Croatia, Netherlands and Spain marched into the quarterfinals as group leaders while Turkey, Germany, Italy and Russia advanced being the runners up in their respective groups.

The first quarterfinal was played between Portugaland Germany.The odds were against Germany and Portugal started off as favourites. The sympathies of non Germans were with Portugal as well but Germany did perform well and defeated the Portugal 3-2. Bastian Schweinsteiger, Miroslav Klose and Michael Ballack scored one each to see them through
to Semis.

The second quarter final was sensational, played between Croatia and Turkey. Croatia was all settled to book their place against Germany when Ivan Klasnic headed the cross in to goal in the 119th minute. No body would have fancies Turkey chances at that time, however as they have did in the last couple of games, they rebounced and Semih Sentürk scored the equalizer in the stoppage time and it was left to penalty shoot outs. The last minute goal shattered the dreams of Croatia and their body langauge suggested that they were down with confidence. They fired two shots wide of goal post and the other was saved by Rüstü to make it 3-1 in favour of Turkey.

The third quarterfinal was between Holland and Russia. The city of Basel was overcrowded with around 80,000 orange shirts, few days back the Bern was hosting the 80,000+ Dutch fans (the population of Bern is around 120,00). Holland, who bulldozed all opponents to make it into the knockout stage was stunned by goal from Roman Pavlyuchenko in the 56 min but thanks to Ruud van Nistelrooy , Dutchs were able to equalize in the 86 min which led to extra time for the second consecutive time. The Russia again took the lead in the 113 min when Torbinski converted a cross from Arshavin and the lead was further increased by one goal in the 117th min to make it 3-1. The Dutch hopes were dying as they struggle to score the goal(s) and their hopes could not see light of day. Despite excellent performance it was said end for Dutch who lost 1-3 and Russia marched past them to semis. We are already getting a pattern, teams starting off well are going out, Portugal, Croatia and now Holland-all leaders eliminated, will Spain be the next in the same league as well?, let see tomorrow.

Not really, Spain continued its journey towards the destination by edging out Italy 4-2 on penatly shoot out after 0-0 in allocated time.

The first semi final was between Germany and Turkey, Turkey was playing without its first choice playing eleven but they put on great show and gave some scary momments to Germany, specially when they scored the equalizer in the late 80 to remind the Germany that they are still in but Germany was able to score another goal in the dying momments to make it 3-2 in their favour and marched in to the final.

The second semi final proved to be a walk in the park for the Spain, they outclassed Russia 3-0 and confirmed their seat in Euro 2008 FINAL.

THE FINAL was thrilling, Spain remian unbeaten through out and outclassed Germany to win their 2nd UEFA title after 1964, the score was 1-0.