Editorials

After the great display of football provided by Germany and, to a lesser extent Portugal, on the previous evening I was looking forward to the game between the two ‘underdogs’ Turkey and Croatia.What the two teams actually served up was a few minutes of excitement and not much else other than whole hearted effort.The first […]

Day thirteen of the Euros saw the first of the knockout round matches when the tournament gets really exciting. There is no way back after defeat in the quarter-finals. I should know. I’m English!!As it turned out the game proved to be the last of Felipe Scolari’s reign in charge of Portugal. He has taken […]

Day twelve of the Euro 2008 tournament saw the already group winners Spain beat the already eliminated Greece 2-1. Sweden and Russia battled it out for the other quarter-final place with Sweden only needing a draw. They never looked like getting the point they needed and a good Russian side won 2-0.Russia started well and […]

Prior to the games on day eleven of Euro 2008 in the ‘group of death’ I thought I would look up the possible outcomes so that I would know who would qualify whatever happened in the two exciting games I was about to watch. The situation was interesting to say the least and I thought […]

Day ten of Euro 2008 saw Germany take on Austria needing a point to qualify and Croatia, already group winners and through to face Turkey in the quarter-finals, take on Poland.The group was delicately balanced with any of the three other teams able to join Croatia, but with Germany being hot favourites as they needed […]

Despite all the expectations, preparations, and organization, a team’s future in the tournament can come down to a split second decision (or lack thereof) from the man with the whistle – the referee. In the 2006 World Cup we saw an appallingly uneven referee performance, where many of the officials were determined to steal the […]

Day nine of Euro 2008 provided us with everything you could want from two football matches. Great goals, shocks, wonderful come backs, sendings off and totally absorbing, entertaining and thrilling football.I never thought I would write the above phrase about games between the Czech Republic and Turkey and another between Portugal reserves and Switzerland, but […]

Lightning doesn’t strike twice and that was proved on Saturday night when European champions Greece were bundled out of Euro 2008 in the group stage as the wait goes on for a side to successfully defend the title. Otto Rehhagel’s men stormed to victory in Portugal in 2004 and had the football betting industry scratching […]

Day eight of the Euro 2008 tournament saw Spain beat Sweden 2-1 and defending champions Greece go out of the tournament losing 1-0 to Russia. In the early game Spain took the lead after fourteen minutes when Silva chipped the ball into the Sweden area and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres opened his Euro 2008 account at […]

The seventh day of Euro 2008 produced two games of the highest quality. The games were a joy to watch and gave a perfect example of why we call football, ‘the beautiful game’.The first game saw Italy fighting for survival in the competition after their comprehensive defeat at the hands of the Dutch. They knew […]