Euro 2008 Final: Spain defeats Germany
Euro 2008 is over and Spain have been crowned the Champions of Europe after 44 years. They defeated Germany 1-0 to claim the trophy which I think they deserved more than Germany, not for their football on the night alone but over the entire tournament. Germany have been very inconsistent throughout the championships.
Except Ballack they don't seem to have a world class player. Yet they have reached the finals, which is a remarkable achievement in itself. Spain were breathtaking against the Germans and the centre back duo of Metzelder and Mertesacker did not seem to have an answer for Torres's pace and strength. Spain created chance after chance and they should have probably scored five or six if not for some brilliant goal keeping by Jens Lehmann. He spent the entire night diving left and right.
The only other player who was doing fairly well was Ballack, even though he was missing in the first half. I do feel for Ballack. Going to three finals in a season is a incredible achievement. But losing all three is an even bigger disappointment. Ballack now has played in the Carling Cup, Champions League and Euro 2008 finals and has ended up on the losing side on all the occasions.
The one big thing that the German team lacks right now is outright pace. In the present side only Lahm has good pace while in Spain there is Torres, Silva, Ramos, Villa, Puyol and so on. This caused the Germans counter attack to be ineffective. Casillas had nothing to do all night except saving a few shots from Ballack.
No one will doubt whether Spain have been the worthy winners. They have been the most consistent, scored most goals, have remained undefeated. My Player of the tournament is Marcos Senna. He has been the most consistent player, shielding the defence from attacks and also getting himself into attacks now and then. Maybe if Germany had won it then it would have gone to Ballack.
My team of Euro 2008:
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Euro 2008 Semifinal Roundup
The semi finals of Euro 2008 are over and its Germany and Spain who fight it out in the final this Sunday. Germany overcame Turkey with a dose of their own medicine. A late goal. But Turkey would have to consider themselves very unlucky after having the best chances and possession in the match. With Turkey having only fourteen players available for the match, the Germans looked over confident and relaxed. They didn't press the opponent as much as they should have. They rode their luck and finally with 30 seconds to go before the final whistle Lahm scored the winner. The Turks were broken and you could see it in their faces.
Meanwhile Spain overcame Guus Hiddink's Russia to enter the finals. They deserved it on the night because for some reason or the other Russia were incredibly poor compared to their recent performances. They had one shot on goal all night and that was too off target. Spain on the other hand enjoyed everything, possession, chances and so on. Xavi, Guiza and Silva scored for them.
And on the final, I think that if Germany played like they did against Turkey then they have not got a single chance against a very good attacking side like Spain. But if they manage to raise their game like Ballack does for Chelsea then they have got a good chance. Germany to win the final 2-1 after extra time.
And over at Chelsea FC, there are only a few days remaining before Scolari takes over at Stamford Bridge. I am waiting to see the signings he makes. Will he keep hold of Lampard and Drogba ? Will Deco come on massive wages and fail miserable ?
Will Arshavin come to Chelsea ?
Who is the best player of Euro 2008 so far ? Wesley Sneijder, David Villa, Micheal Ballack, Podolski ? No, none of those. Its Andrei Arshavin, Russia's No. 10. He has played only in two games so far and already he has skyrocketed in terms of popularity. So who is Arshavin ? Why is he linked with all the top clubs in Europe ? For that you just need to look at his last two games for Russia. We were the first ones to be interested in him back when Avram Grant was in charge.
are that we are indeed going to sign him.
Reasons why must we sign him immediately
1. He is a fantastic player.
2. Has lots of pace and trickery which is handful to any defence.
3. Will cost only £10m due to a release clause in his contract.
4. Abramovich wants to bring a fellow countrymen to the club
Reasons why he shouldn't be signed
1. In the same built as Luka Modric so it will be difficult to predict if he can cope with the physical nature of the premier league
2. At 27 already he is not going to get any younger.
3. He is the highest paid player in Russia at nearly £60,000 per week so will expect wages of nearly £100,000 per week which isn't cheap.
4. Doesn't really fit into Scolari's 4-2-3-1 formation.
So do I think Chelsea should sign him ? No, He is good but we don't really need him.
Spain defeat Italy on penalties
Italy are slow starters, but I always felt that they would find form at the right time to defeat Spain. But that wasn't the case yesterday as Italy missed Pirlo and Gattuso due to suspension. It was like Chelsea FC missing both Lampard and Makelele for a important match. It showed throughout the game as Italy were struggling to create and major chances apart from the few scattered ones. If there is going to be any award for the best diving performances then most probably the team would be full of Spanish players and Iniesta would be the captain. Villa tried to outshine him in that department but ended up getting booked for the dive..!! It was a pretty boring match to be honest and there is nothing to write about except the result in which Spain beat Italy 4-2 on penalties to meet Russia in the semi's.
Coming to Russia, it is really surprising the fact that the arrival of one player back to the team can totally change it. That player is Ashravin. He produced a superb display against the Swedes in the group stage and an even better one against the Dutch to beat them 3-1. Nobody expected the Dutch to go out in the Quarterfinals after their superb performances in the group stages.
Turkey again rode the luck to beat Croatia 3-1 on penalties. Croatia looked to have won the game in 119th minute, but Turkey came back for the second time in the tournament to score in the last kick off the match to take it into penalties.
Micheal Ballack is the only Chelsea player left in the tournament and I am going to support Germany from here on in. Surely the Turks must be out of luck and late goals now. So I expect a Germany, Russia final. Yes, I think that Russia will beat Spain.
Ballack's Germany defeat Portugal
Euro 2008 is really heating up. In the first quarterfinal match Germany defeated Portugal 3-2 in a very exciting match. The Germans gained a immediate advantage not when Schweinsteiger scored but when the team line up was announced, because Mario Gomez wasn't playing. So you are now already sure that no one in your team is not going to be there just to add numbers up. I haven't seen a worse player than him in European Championships. So Schweinsteiger came in for him and produced a superb display by scoring one and setting up two. Ballack was controlling the game from the centre as ever and would have surely pleased our new manager, Scolari who was obviously frustrated by Ronaldo. He should know by now that Ronaldo isn't the player who everybody hype up to and that he will probably score wonderful goals against Derby, Reading and so on
He has always gone missing from the big games and yesterday was yet another example. For the definition of a truly great player, one needs to look no further than Ballack, Zidane, Ronadinho in his prime and so on, but for God's sake its definitely not Ronaldo.
Portugal were defending like Derby and it showed when they let a free header to Klose. For statistics, Klose has scored 11 goals in his previous major tournaments including this one and all of them have been HEADERS !!! Anyway ever since Ballack came back from injury back into the Chelsea side and started to play with his heart out, I have become a fan of him and I wanted him to win the title to overcome this season's disappointments. They are certainly back on the right course now.
And in the roundup of other results, Spain defeated Greece 2-1 to send the defending Champions back home in a humiliating way. Russia were the ones who certainly caught every one's eyes. They thrashed Sweden 2-0. Alright, 2-0 doesn't sound like a thrashing scoreline but if you had watched the game then you would know that they could have easily scored 6 or 7 based on the quality of chances they created. Guus Hiddink, the coach of Russia whom we tried to lure to Chelsea FC has kept is record of getting all the teams he has managed past the Group stages of a competition. He did it with the Dutch, then spectacularly took minnows South Korea to semi's or World cup 2002 and Australia to the last 16 in the last world cup.
Quarterfinal Lineup
Germany vs Portugal 3-2
Croatia vs Turkey
Netherlands vs Russia
Spain vs Italy
Italy and Germany qualify
Makelele played in his last international game for the French national side against Italy, a game in which they lost 2-0. Only Makelele started while Anelka and Malouda were on the bench. The French should consider themselves really unlucky for losing the game and eventually losing the game because they had Ribery injured within the opening 10 minutes, had a penalty awarded and red card for defender Eric Abidal. Italy had loads and loads of chances and if Toni had scored with each of his chances then he could have probably scored 15 goals in 3 matches !! How a clinical striker like him miss so many chances is beyond imagination. Goals from Pirlo and De Rossi and a similar win for the Dutch made sure that Italy go through. Just a few days ago had Mutu scored the penalty then it would have been all over by then. But that is football. So Italy meet Spain in the Quarterfinals.
In Group B it was the tournament favourites Germany who went through thanks to a superb free kick from our very own, Micheal Ballack. His stunning 30 yard strike was the moment of the match and it will probably be in the contention for the goal of the tournament. But they could manage only 2nd place in the group, as a result of which they'll face Scolari's Portugal in the Quarterfinals.
So by the end of the Quarterfinals we can see surely two tournaments big guns going out. I predicted before the start of the tournament that it will be a Italy or Germany final. I still think Italy have got what it takes to beat Spain because they create loads of chances, but in regards to Germany though I am sceptical. They struggle to create chances, and even if they do the impressive Gomez is always there to miss from 2 yards out !!!
2008/2009 Season fixtures are out
The fixtures for all the matches for the 2008/2009 season are out and I think that this could be the best possible fixtures that we can get at the start of the season. Nobody wants to play newly promoted teams in the start because they can be a surprise. At the same time things will be a lot easier when you play the competitors who are fighting for the league in the form of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool because there is less pressure.
We open up against FA cup winners Portsmouth which will the first premier league match for our new manager, Scolari. The first match between the 'big four' is against Manchester United on 20th September, 2008. It will be very interesting to see how Scolari starts his first match against a tricky Portsmouth.
Sat 16 Aug - Chelsea v Portsmouth
Sat 23 Aug - Wigan Athletic v Chelsea
Sat 30 Aug - Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur
Sat 13 Sep - Manchester City v Chelsea
Sat 20 Sep - Chelsea v Manchester United
Only the Wigan game looks easy on paper but on the pitch Wigan are equally tough and my prediction is that if we can come out of these matches with 13 out of a possible 15 then we must be in a strong position for the title.
Cech gifts qualification for Turkey
He has not been the same after the skull injury, hasn't he ? It is disappointing to see a Chelsea player, one of the best goalkeepers in the business do a mistake like it and cost his side a quarterfinal place. Usually rock solid in between the sticks, Cech is making errors like this which are costing his team very bad more often. Remember the one against Aston Villa when he let in a very simple goal from a very tame shot from Maloney. Yesterday he went for a cross from Altintop and spilled it right to Nihat. There can be many quoted, but I am not going to point them out. He is a fantastic goalkeeper and will always be one. Hoping that he comes back stonger than ever next season.
He is the first Chelsea player to go out of the tournament. The Czech's lost 3-2 in an incredible match. Even though I don't support the Czech's I felt truly gutted when Nihat scored the winning goal because Cech is such a nice bloke and you wouldn't want bad things happening to such a guy.Portugal lost 2-0 to the Swiss in which only Ferreira played.
Before the Dutch totally outclassed and outplayed the French, defeating them 4-1. Makelele and Malouda played while Anelka came on replacing Malouda. The Dutch have now beaten both the world cup finalists by a three goal margin. Are we looking at a new favourites here ? If they play like this then they are sure to win the tournament quite comfortably. Don't believe me or thinking I am exaggerating too much ? Just watch their matches against the Italians and French I you can get a repeat of it or wait till they play Romania.
Big money transfers in line
This summer could be one of the interesting ones after the summer of 2004 when Roman Abramovich arrived. Scolari's appointment has been followed by the news that there will be a £100 million transfer budget. That is one juicy transfer budget to get at your first season in a European Club. There are a lot of superstars being mentioned at the moment with the top of the list being the wonderful Brazilian, Kaka. Prices mentioned are at around £60m, though I think that no one is worth that kind of amount. Others mentioned are Torres for a cool £50m, Robinho for another £30m, Quaresma for £25m, Frank Ribery for £31m. I know that probably doesn't add to £100m but we aren't going to sign every player we are after, are we ? Maybe one or two will miss out. But one sure arrival can be counted in the form of Deco who can be made available for £10m because of his excellent relationship with Scolari.
Personally I wouldn't like Deco arriving at Stamford Bridge because that would mean the departure of Frank Lampard, for which I'll be truly truly gutted. Lampard has scored 20 goals in around 40 games !! What more do you want from a central midfielder ? He was the top scorer for the club last season.
In my opinion players should be brought to suit the formation and not the other way round. We have the best players for the central midfield position which other clubs can dream of in Ballack, Lampard, Essien, Mikel and even though aging, Makelele. Why do you need to strengthen that position more by buying Kaka and Deco for nearly £70m. Wide positions and strikers are area of concern and my choices of buy would be Ribery, Torres and Villa.
Do you agree with my choices, if you don't then why don't you voice your ideas by posting in the comments.
Croatia stun Germany
Image Courtesy: BBC Sport
Euro 2008 match day reviews continue again after a gap of two days in which I was not able to watch all four matches that happened. The most notable results were that Spain beat Russia 4-1 and Portugal beat Czech Republic 3-1. Co-hosts Switzerland are out of the tournament after a defeat to Turkey. Yesterday Croatia beat tournament favourites Germany 2-1 to produce the first shock of the tournament. They were very very lucky to do so. When the ball deflects of your teammate and hits the post and goes straight to the legs of a opposite number who just taps it in, then you know it is not going to be your day. That's what happened when Olic scored. To be fair Germany weren't good either. It was the same lackadaisical approach like against Poland and they paid the price for it.
Chelsea were reportedly after German striker, Mario Gomez. I really pray that we don't sign him. He was so poor upfront that he could be blamed for the defeat. The game changed immediately after he was substituted for Schweinsteiger. Podolski scored his third goal of the tournament but that was not enough. I didn't mention about our man, Micheal Ballack who was efficient as ever, though I felt that he didn't come into the box too often to produce one of his trademark headers. I also don't understand why a talented forward like Podolski is wasted by starting him in the left wing.
Germany's next game is against Austria. If they win that they would go through. Today it is the 'Group of death' matches with France taking on the Dutch and Italy against Romania.
Scolari appointment confirmed
Our Search for the new managerial candidate is over. Its the current manager of the Portuguese national team, Luiz Felipe Scolari. This information has been confirmed by the Chelsea FC through the official website.
'Chelsea Football Club is delighted to confirm that Luiz Felipe Scolari will be the club's new manager from July 1, 2008.
Felipe has great qualities. He is one of the world's top coaches with a record of success at country and club level, he gets the best out of a talented squad of players and his ambitions and expectations match ours. He was the outstanding choice.
Out of respect for his current role as Head Coach of the Portuguese national team, and to ensure minimum disruption to this work, there will be no further comment from Chelsea FC nor from Felipe about his new role until his employment with us commences.'
Scolari being a Brazilian always plays attacking and attractive football. He is very similar to Jose Mourinho with regards to taking pressure of the players by putting himself in the limelight. All football fans, let alone Chelsea fans will always remember how spectacular Jose was in this matter.
But I do have my reservations upon him. He has never managed a European club before. Even though he has managed clubs, most of them are in the Brazilian leagues where the standard can't be compared to the Premier League. He also has an intense temper and doesn't like media. Will he be able to cope the interferences by owner Abramovich and the media ? Will he be given time unlike Jose Mourinho and Avram Grant ?
Having said that, he is a truly fantastic manager and I would surely love to see him at Chelsea FC.
Euro 2008 Match day 3
France kicked off their campaign with the dullest of dull affairs against Romania with all our players starting. It was so painful to watch that I could have switched off my television and gone off to watch paint dry. Even that could have been more interesting. The whole game had ONE shot on target from both teams. ONE ? What was that all about ? If you look at the players out there on the pitch, Ribery, Benzema you will think that there could be goals in this match. Scoreless draws do happen. But I have certainly seen scoreless draws which are entertaining. Enough said of this match I think. France have no chance to go through if they don't improve.
The only consolation from today's matches was Italy's game against the Dutch in which the latter won 3-0. The way Dutch play is often called 'Total Football' and it was certainly that today. Their movement when they did not have the ball was astonishing. Before the game everyone were not entirely convinced with their defence but today against the World Champions, they have kept a clean sheet !! Sneijder, Van Nistelrooy and Van Bronckhorst scored the goals. Italy are in a precarious situation now having to win their remaining two games to have any chance of qualifying. I had my bets on Italy or Germany winning the tournament and I still believe that Italy will go through.
Euro 2008 Match Day 2
Micheal Ballack's Germany side cruised through to victory on their first match of the tournament with a 2-0 win over Poland with Polish born Podolski scoring both the goals. Though Ballack didn't get on the score sheet, he was influential in the match and only a superb save from the Poland keeper stopped him from doing so. The other
match was Austria against Croatia in which Croatia won thanks to a 3rd minute penalty from the new Tottenham man and once our transfer target, Luka Modric.
Tonight its the big matches from the group of death. Italy take on the Dutch and France are against Romania. For everyone who thought that selling Arjen Robben to Real Madrid was a poor decision after watching their last few games, think again. That's because Robben is injured AGAIN. Italy has defensive concerns ahead of the match with Cannavaro out due to injury and his replacement Panucci also struggling due to injury. Romania has our old boy, Adrian Mutu who has scored 17 goals in the last 20 matches for Romania. Anelka is likely to be on the bench for France while both Makelele and Malouda will start.
Euro 2008 Day 1
On the opening day of the tournament all the Chelsea players emerged victorious, with the Czech's beating the Swiss 1-0 and Portuguese beating the Turks 2-0. Petr Cech was the Man of the Match in their game, proving once again that he is the best keeper in the world by making some excellent saves to help them to victory. All three Portuguese defenders of ours, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Ferreira played in their win.
Today its the mighty Germans who face an injury stricken Poland. Micheal Ballack is the captain and is a sure starter. Germany are the favourites to win this match. The other match is between Austria and Croatia in which there are no Chelsea players taking part.
Euro 2008 Preview
Euro 2008 is here. 22 days of non-stop football. I can't wait. And eight Chelsea players are taking part in it.
- Czech Republic- Petr Cech
- Portugal- Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira and José Bosingwa
- German- Michael Ballack
- France- Claude Makelele, Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka
Italy should be through and so its between the other three. France are absolutely horrible form at the moment with fitness concerns to Henry and Ribery. The Dutch are good as ever going forward but defensively they are horrible. The surprise package could be Romania in my opinion with our former player, Adrian Mutu. So they could spring a surprise. Italy and Romania to go through.
Group D have perennial underachievers Spain, last time winners Greece, Hiddink's Russia and a Larsson inspired Sweden. This group should be between the first three as Swedes are not good this time. Spain and Russia to go through.
Winner: Italy or Germany. Germany are look very good due to the fantastic form of Micheal Ballack. Italy look even stronger with Luca Toni, Del Piero and Buffon in top form. Read More......
Ancelotti deal agreed
In a remarkable turn around, Sky News says that Chelsea have agreed personal terms with the current AC Milan manager, Carlo Ancelotti. The only major thing remaining is reaching a settlement over the amount of compensation to be paid to the Milan Club. This would not be a major stumbling block because when the billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich has decided that he wants something, he gets it. This comes as a huge surprise to me, because only days before Milan released a statement that they won't release Ancelotti, but anything can happen in football.
So, finally after weeks of speculation, its a man with a pedigree of winning the Champions League twice in seven years. Coming from Milan, hope that he doesn't become an another Andrei Shevchenko. To be honest, I don't quite like him. He relies too much on old players and you'll see us buying players who are over 32, unless Roman interferes and changes his policy.
UPDATE: Chelsea and Ancelotti have denied that they have agreed upon a deal and the saga continues.
Get ready for Jose raid
Its official. Jose Mourinho has taken over at Inter Milan on a three year contract. Of course it has nothing to do with Chelsea FC except the small matter of him taking stars like Drogba, Lampard and Essien with him. And possibly Carvalho too. That is the spine of the team that I am talking about. Whenever the spine of a club is ripped out, it is never easy to replace them no matter how much money you've got. I won't mind Drogba going but I can't imagine Lampard and Essien going. Yes, Lampard is 30 but it is always great to have a player like him in the team. He still has two or three left in him at the top. When Essien is not playing in midfield there is always a drive, a muscle, a force that seems to be missing. I hope that Drogba goes and both Lampard and Essien stay.
I don't know what the board are still doing without appointing a new coach. When these players are not sure about who is going to coach them next season, they will for sure look for some safe option like linking back with Jose. They had reportedly asked AC Milan, the permission to speak to their coach, Carlo Ancelotti. The board and the owner are probably thinking that they must not make the same mistake, like their hasty decision in appointing Grant. But this time around they are in the other extreme, taking an age to appoint one. Some decision has to be taken quickly in order to at least get the transfer targets or we'll probably lose them to someone else.
And Euro2008 is starting on 7th June, going all the way to the 29th. I'll be putting up regular updates of Chelsea players performance in the matches that they play.
So be sure to come back and check for updates.