The ongoing Euro 2008, taking place in Austria and Swirtzland has not been short of suprises. Firstly the German 3-2 Portugal result which many never thought a team with probably the world player of the year (Ronaldo) could lose.Then came the Croatia -v- Turkey game in which Turkey won to proceed to semi-finals on penalties. But probably the biggest shock and my disappointed was the game Holland crushed to Russia in which the grand master Andre Arshavin run the show. Holland promised to be a force to be reckoned with at the start of the tournament but Arshavin and his Russian team-mates proved to us that the Dutch were simply over-rated. He was suspended in the first 2 games at the start of the tournament one of which, Russia lost to Spain 4-1. Tonight, the Russians have the opportunity to reply as they face Spain in the Semi-final game to determine who will face the Germans in the final.
But perhaps the most important person for Russia is their coach, Guus Hiddink. He has proven again that he is a genius who knows how to motivate under-dogs to realise their potential. To take Andre Arshavin to the tournament knowing that he would miss the 1st two games takes some courage and stubbornness. But this is the sort of judgement which separates real football managers from pretenders. High risk decisions are the most rewarding. He won numerous trophies in his native Holland, took South Korea to the Semi finals of the 2002 world cup, then did tremendous job at PSV then took Australia to the 2006 world cup. Australia played brilliantly against Italy but for the cruel penalty with dashed their chances of progressing.
The Germans progressed to the finals last night after seeing off the brave boys of Turkey. Whoever said that Football can be cruel was right. For starters, I did not see German winning this game as they were completely outplayed in every department but they took advantage of 3 Turkish mistakes to circumvert the danger.
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