The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2012, is now 20 days old – we are at the first of two semi-finals and anything can happen! I will be writing a daily blog article with the salient features of all the games. Please send us your thoughts and comments on the form below. – Filip v d Plas-
SPAIN - PORTUGAL – game decided with penalties after 120 minutes of play time – Spain advance
Spain has progressed to the final of the Euro 2012 by beating Portugal in an entertaining game which ended with the shoot-out lottery, which Spain duly won.
Did Spain deserve to win? Yes. Did Portugal deserve to lose – No.
I have said it before on this blog – Football can be the cruelest of sports and it was this evening in Donetsk.
Spain were the better side during perhaps the 1st half and certainly in extra-time, while Portugal were better in the 2nd half. In overtime Portugal seemed to be just clinging on in spite of fresh legs provided by Pedro and Navas.
Once again, Ronaldo seemed absent during important times in this big game for Portugal.
Many critics say that ‘if he actually played through a tackle instead of dropping instantly at the slightest contact (and holding up his arms up to the ref) he’d have more of an impact’.
Perhaps there is some truth to this – but that is just the way it is and no one is perfect. I think Ronaldo worked hard this evening and certainly deserves an 8 out 10 for effort, while a lot less obviously for accuracy, or lack-thereof.
Spain had only 4 really dangerous shots on goal in 120 minutes -not much for the ‘un-stoppable passing machine’ which they truly are. However ball possession only means something if it creates scoring opportunities and it mostly did not.
Spain’s very best chance came late in the 100th minute when Arbeloa overlapping with Navas passed to him and his shot from just beyond the right-hand corner of the six-yard box was saved brilliantly by Portugal’s excellent goalie Rui Pedro Patricio.
Both Portugal and Spain play similar styles of football and the Germany [I am assuming -?- they will go through and not Italy ] Spain game will see many more goals.
Read Paul Doyle’s minute-by-minute report writing in the UK Guardian wherein he said -” And Ronaldo didn’t even get to take a kick (for presumably he was designated to take the glorious fifth).” -http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jun/27/euro-2012-portugal-spain-live-mbm
Read Kicker.de about the the up-coming match – Italy/Germany -http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/em/startseite/570997/artikel_montolivo_wir-haben-keine-angst.html
and about the Spain – Portugal game – http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/em/startseite/europameisterschaft/2012/5/1122686/spielbericht_portugal_spanien-932.html
Portugal was – Patricio,Joao Pereira , Pepe ,Bruno Alves , Fabio Coentrao,Joao Moutinho , Miguel Veloso , Raul Meireles – Nani , Ronaldo, and Hugo Almeida
Starting Spanish team was – Casillas, Arbeloa , Piqué , Sergio Ramos , Jordi Alba, Xavi,Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Silva , Gösta Iniesta and Alvaro Negredo
What did you think of the Refereeing at the EURO 2012? Please let us know and vote for or against what you thought about the REF – http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/06/19/euro-2012-best-and-worst-wurst-referees-at-euro-2012-poll-by-contributor-ota-berlin-constituency-blog-contributor-mr-filip-van-der-plas/
Best place I have found to watch EURO 2012 in Berlin is at the PRATER beer garten on http://www.pratergarten.de/d/ on Kastanienallee 7 – 9 in Prenzlauer Berg. Very close to the OTA-Berlin Serviced Apartments buildings at Metzer Strasse and Schoenhauser Allee.
This blog is brought to you by …..OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog’ is part of OTA-Berlin ‘……the intelligent Apartment-Alternative to Hotels in Berlin’. The views of the article are those of the writer Mr Filip v d Plas and not necessarily those of OTA-Berlin.
EURO 2012 – Daily Report – DAY 20 – First semi-final match decided – SPAIN get past PORTUGAL with shoot-out ‘lottery’ Spain prevail after penalties – by contributor OTA-Berlin Constituency Blog contributor Mr Filip van der Plas from OTA Berlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany License. If you use this article or parts of it, please refer to http://www.ota-berlin.de.
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