Euro 2008 (include all discussions)

tonight the russia vs netherlands match will be held
you have to wait another night just to watch some bold guys fight to get 1 gorgeous princess

I really felt for Crotia last night as I think they're a great team that was very unfortunate. Most of the players are young though, so they have a bright future.

As for Turkey they are simply unbelievable. I have never seen a team do what they have in this tournament and the fact is they're in the semis but have only lead in matches for a total of around 2-3 minutes

For me, Turkey has the profile of a team going to the final and ... losing in final !! lol

they will lose for the majority of the final, and then win !!!! they have a great team fighting spirit, and that is important.
tonight let's see if guus can do the impossible again… … i hope he does, but am hesitant to it myself.

now lets face the facts... what are chances for Turkey reaching the finals?

they lost to Portugal who lost to Germany...

and won over Czech(by a mistake from Cech tbh, otherwise the outcome would have changed,imo) and the Swiss...

now the goal they scored last night was good, but also because the Croats thought they have already won...

and I also think if (for example) Croatia scored in the 112 mins and then Turkey scored the equalizer on the 114 mins,the Croatian players would have done better on the penalties(still my opinion)

The fact is turkey could make goal(s) in important situation at (very) little time. One you loose your concentration in a second than BOOM!!! They make it the draw level. Another sleeping, BOOM, they win the match! No wonder many websites call Tukey as The King of Comeback!

And dont forget, they beat Cratia (the team who defeted Germany) with some Turkey players were banned. It's totally deserved win for Turkey.

I am glad Löw really respects Turkey and admits Turkey is a very good team. The German players should keep their concentration to the game till the end of the game. Dont let a goal like the second of Portugal happen in which the germans were sleeping at that time.

F.you Rossetti and yours 2 min of extra time in EXTRA TIME's! After Klasnic goal Bilic asked for sub! And it was a FK and ref didnt give him a sub...idiot. Its not Inter playing you monkey!!

Congrats to Turkey, they played bravely but we'll be back, starting from beating England on 10.09.2008 in Zagerb.

Fantastic tournament. Romania and Russia have impressed me.

Tonight we will see Holland and Russia. Russia are well organized and well at moving the ball out of the areas. Holland are playing modern fast paced football with zero risk at the back containing their offensive rays of sunshine up front.

I'll guarantee a good match.

My bet:

2 - 0 to Holland

2 mins were added, but if you see the goal scored by Croatia - you'll notice that the celebrations took a solid minute, if not more (most likely). so he had all the rights to add those minutes... the turkish goal was done 1 min after the extra-time - and their celebrations lasted a minute too.
if Slaven Bilic wanted to sub, then that too would've taken about 20s, giving the game even more chance and reason to be prolonged. then apart from these incidents, there were other events which chipped in to the added time.
Turkey might not play an awesome football, but they put their heart to it, and take advantage of your mistakes/moments of low concentration - so Germany should watch out, esp. with Lehmann in goal . on top of that they had half their team out, so that adds to the phenomenon. Croatia didnt play a great game either, and i'd say that Turkey deserved to win the match. As Sacchi has said, the best team always wins on penalties. Those who are stronger mentally will score, and this depends on the match results/events.

i'm not taking anything away from Croatia, who did a great Euro - beating Germany etc. It's a young team, and they have a bright future... they will be great in the WC2010 i believe - and hopefully this will be at the expense of England !

The goal of the substitute is to kill the rithm, take 30 sec to calm down CB's and to insert one more CB. Then they can prolong for another 30 sec! But if you ask for a sub and it is a FK the sub needs to be given!! Im also not taking anything away from Turkey, I sad I congratuate them, they are real fighters.

But 2010 in in 2010 and this is now and Rossetti did it wrong. The sub would mean much, coaches and palyers know such things. Im sure people in here know it also.

Yesterday in Crpatia it was an incredible day, there was not a single person not verying our shirt, bus drivers, people working in offices...well, Im proud of this young team.

And Knezevic went to Juve who will now replace Robert Kovac as CD. So the team is ok. One more player will leave, the captain Niko Kovac ( played in Bayern, Lverkusen...), real leader. His place will be taken by Vukojevic, young DM that went to Dynamo Kyev, but in this Euro had the biggest ammount of meters runned: more then 12km agaist poland.

Now we, as sportsmans, need to enjoy the rest of Euro. So people, enjoy.

EDIT:

Also, Scolari said something that showes how cruel football is: I dont take anything away from Germans, they played great and deserved a win. But Ballack made a foul on Ferreira and we lost 3:2... Its true, a foul is a foul. Refs cant see everything, that is why thig game is like a roulette, you need a bit of luck now and then.

Originally Posted by mrki

Congrats to Turkey, they played bravely but we'll be back, starting from beating England on 10.09.2008 in Zagerb.

Only if you have a lucky bounce of the pitch again!

To bad for Croatia, they were getting better as the tournament progressed but couldn't quite see the game out against Turkey. Might have been different if Eduardo had been playing and Croatia had a proper striker up front.

However i'm not sad to see them go as they were getting more & more arrogant as the games wore on, especially from their coach. Not to cause trouble, but had England said they were much better than the teams they were facing, had our coach said we have the best players in the world at certain positions, had our fans been loud, drunk and rowdy (one of the BBC commentators is Croatian and travelled with the fans and they acted just like the English do) then i'm sure there would have been uproar from certain people in here and from some media.

I'm not trying to bash them while they're down, they played better than England and all the other teams who didn't qualify for the initial tournament and the teams who didn't escape the group phase, but it seems it's ok for them to be arrogant and not suffer the same treatment England would had they behaved in the same way. What gets me is the double standards of it all.

Just an observation.

I think the ref saw the push on Ferriera.. but really, he continued the play, its his fault, and it really wasnt a hard push...

IMO, Rosetti added the time, because face it, Croatian players took their time celebrating(like many others have mentioned above), dunno about the sub tho, didnt see any player waiting to come on?

and Croatian players should only blame themselves for not going into half-time with a lead
they dominated ball possession in the 90 mins.


@Holland - Russia: I think Holland will come out 3+-1 winners, they have great attackers and they are also very good at the counter

Thought Croatia were the better side and created enough chances to win the match. The Turks showed great heart and spirit throughout and yet again claw themselves back into a match which seemed lost. Unbelievable stuff from them so far this tournament.

Feel bad for Bilic and felt sad to see that Croatian player crying at the end, he was really crying his eyes out and Bilic was trying to console him but there wasn't much he could do. Penalties are a cruel way to end the game but it has to be done.

pavlyuchenko !!!!!
russia-oranje : 1-0 !!!!
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and so far deserved, i'd say.

Its strange. Russia is the team who is using Holland's usually tactic!

Deserved goal, indeed!