Russia vs Netherlands: last quarterfinal confirmed

At Stadion Tivoli NEU, Innsbruck, Russia beat Sweden 2-0 and it is the last team that qualified at quarterfinals. Spartak Moscow´s Roman Pavlyuchenko in the 24th minute scored the first goal, while Zenit forward Andrei Arshavin closed the match scoring during the fifth minute of the second half.

The match left some tips:
* Guus Hiddick will face his country team at quarterfinals: Netherlands.
* It is the first time that Russia advances from the first round in a mayor tournament.
* It is the first time in last four important tournaments that Sweden can´t advance. They could reach playoffs during the World Cups 2002 and 2006 and EURO 2004.

In another meeting, Spain defeated Greece 2-1. De la Red and Guiza scored Spanish goals, while Charisteas had opened the match scoring. Greece campaign was the worst performance for a last EURO Champion.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is on fire; Petter Hansson enjoys him... Greece not.

After a poor first half, Sweden beat Greece 2-0 at Salzburg Wals-Siezenheim Stadion, Salzburg, in the second match of the 4th matchday of the EURO 2008.

While Greece never tried to play good football, Sweden wanted a little more during the game. Zlatan Ibrahimovic opened the match score in the 22nd minute of the second half. Zlatan is in a great moment after the championship won with Inter in Serie A and his technique was enough against Greece that always thinks about defending.

The second goal was made by Petter Hansson in a singular occasion.

Lineups:
Greece: Nikopolidis, Seitaridis, Dellas (Amanatidis, 70), Kyrgiakos, Katsouranis, Torosidis, Basinas, Karagounis, Charisteas, Antzas, Gekas (Samaras, 46).

Sweden: Isaksson, Nilsson, Mellberg, Hansson, Alexandersson (Stoor, 74), Svensson, Ljungberg, Ibrahimovic (Elmander, 71), H. Larsson, Andersson, Wilhelmsson (Rosenburg, 78).

Goals: 67 min. Zlatan Ibrahimovic; 73 min. Hansson (SWE).

Yellow Cards: Charisteas, Seitaridis, Torosidis (GRE).

Poor results designed by Poland, Greece and Sweden

On Sunday, worrisome performances showed three of the teams that will be at EURO 2008. Beyond the comfortable victory of the Netherlands, they were not good news about Poland, Greece and Sweden, six days to begin the competition.

In Chorzov, Poland only could tie in a goal against Denmark. Martin Vingaard put in advantage the Danish whereas Jacek Krzynowek put the match 1-1. Maciej Zurawski had missed a penalty kick when Denmark still was winning.

Lineups:
Poland: Boruc, Wasilewski, Jop, Bąk, Wawrzyniak (Golanski 46), Zahorski (Lobodzinski 46), Dudka, Lewandowski, Krzynowek (Gargula 78), Smolarek (Saganowski 77), Żurawski (Guerreiro 46).

Denmark: Thomas Sorensen, Jacobsen, Christensen, Kroldrup, Jorgensen (Rasmusen 46), Rommedahl, Retov (Kristensen 64), Poulsen (Augustinussen 78), Nordstrand (Perez 46), Vingaard (Kvist 68), Bendtner (Dennis Sorensen 90).

Greece did not have a good night either. In Offenbach, Greeks only could tie with Armenia 0-0.

Greece: Nikopolidis, Seitaridis, Kyrgiakos, Dellas (Antzas 46), Spiropoulos (Torosidis 46), Basinas, Katsouranis, Karagounis (Patsatzoglou 46), Charisteas, Salpingidis (Gekas 46), Amanatidis (Samaras 46).

Armenia: Kasparov, Hovsepyan, Arzumanyan, Arakelyan, Voskanian, Hamlet Mkhitaryan (A Minasyan 65), Ghazaryan (Melkonyan 60), Piseli (Hakobyan 54), Pachajyan, Mkrtchyan, Tadevosyan.

But it was Sweden who worse experience realized. A goal of Sergiy Nazarenko lacking seven minutes gave the victory to the Ukraine that didn’t include Andriy Shevchenko in Stockholm.

Sweden: Isaksson (Shaaban 46), Nilsson, Hansson, Mellberg, Alexandersson (Stoor 72), Wilhelmsson, Linderoth (Svensson 56), Kallstrom, Sebastian Larsson (Ljungberg 46), Henrik Larsson, Ibrahimovic (Elmander 56 (Allbäck 76)).

Ukraine: Pyatov, Shevchuk, Rusol (Chygrynskiy 46), Kucher, Yarmash, Nazarenko, Levchenko (Mandzyuk 46), Kravchenko, Gai, Gomenyuk (Gladkiy 66), Seleznev.

Thus, just at the moment that the squads look for confidence, three of them had left a question mark few hours to begin EURO 2008.

Greece surprised by Hungary in the Koeman debut

Greece allowed three goals in 16 minutes and Hungary beat the EURO 2004 champion 3-2 in Budapest. This was the first match with Erwin Koeman in the Hungarian bench and Greeks last match before beginning defense of its continental crown.

Greek Ioannis Amanatidis opened the match in the last occasion of the first half. But Balazs Dzsudzsak, Roland Juhasz and Krisztian Vadocz gave to return the indicator for Hungary that was put 3-1. Nikolaos Lymperopoulos goal wasn´t enough.

The Line-ups:
Hungary: Marton Fulop, Zoltan Szelesi, Vilmos Vanczak, Roland Juhasz, Zsolt Low, Pal Dardai, Krisztian Vadocz, Zoltan Gera (Tamas Koltai, 89), Tamas Hajnal (Peter Orosz, 83), Balazs Dzsudzsak, Szabolcs Huszti.

Greece: Antonios Nikopolidis (Konstantinos Chalkias, 22), Georgios Seitaridis, Traianos Dellas (Christos Patsatzoglou, 67), Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Vassilios Torosidis, Paraskevas Antzas, Angelos Basinas (Nikolaos Lymperopoulos, 67), Konstantinos Katsouranis, Ioannis Amanatidis (Georgios Samaras, 46), Angelos Charisteas, Theofanis Gekas (Stylianos Giannakopoulos, 46).

Greece defeated Cyprus and Otto Rehhagel announced the EURO 2008 squad

In Patras, defending champion Greece got their Euro 2008 preparations off to a good start with a 2-0 friendly victory against Cyprus.

Greece dominated the game in front of 22,000 fans.18-year-old talent Sotiris Ninis was the best player and scored the opening goal in the fifth minute. Kostas Katsouranis scored the second in the 60th minute from a penalty shot.

Coach Otto Rehhagel gave six under-21 players a chance to play as several first team regulars were missing from the squad.

After the match, Rehhagel named the provisional EURO 2008 Squad including 24 players. Six of them are from Panathinaikos and four from Olympiakos. Greece will be playing a friendly match against Hungary in Budapest before training in Germany.

Greece Squad

Goalkeepers: Antonis Nikopolidis (Olympiakos) Costas Chalkias (Aris), Alexandros Tzorvas (OFI)

Defenders: Nikos Spyropoulos (Panathinaikos), Loukas Vintra (Panathinaikos), Giannis Goumas (Panathinaikos), Paraskevas Antzas (Olympiakos), Vassilis Torossidis (Olympiakos), Christos Patsatzoglou (Olympiakos), Traianos Dellas (AEK Athens), Socratis Papastathopoulos (AEK Athens), Giourkas Seitaridis (Atletico Madrid), Sotiris Kyrgiakos (Eintracht Frankfurt).

Midfielders: Angelos Basinas (Mallorca) Georgos Karagounis (Panathinaikos), Alexandros Tziolis (Panathinaikos), Stelios Giannakopoulos (Bolton Wanderers), Costas Katsouranis (Benfica).

Forwards: Angelos Charisteas (Nurnberg), Fanis Gekas (Bayer Leverkusen), Georgos Samaras (Celtic), Dimitris Salpigidis (Panathinaikos), Nikos Liberopoulos (AEK Athens), Ioannis Amanatidis (Eintracht Frankfurt).

Charisteas has good company: Ioannis Amanatidis

Angelos Charisteas is hero in whole Greece. He was one of the Greek footballers who were the EURO 2004 champions. And now he has greater company in the attack: Ioannis Amanatidis.

The Eintracht Frankurt player knows what is to play alone in the attack but this time will act as of second forward, accompanying the footballer Charisteas. Amanatidis is 26 years old; and his aspect and the claw that puts in each match, reminds us of the French rugbier Sebastien Chabal, characteristics that give pleasure to the fanatics.

Taking advantage of his powerful, in the Bundesliga he scored 46 goals, but with the National Squad he scored only twice. In Group D he and all Greece will have to take advantage of each 2-on-1 break that appears in the pitch if they want to reach the quarterfinals. In the last friendly against Portugal they demonstrated that they are to the height of the circumstances.

Luis Aragones admitted: “Raul is one of the best Spanish players in the history"

This afternoon Luis Aragones was in TVE, the most important TV channel in Spain and he answered everything about the EURO 2008. Some of the phrases surprised: “Raul is one of the best Spanish players in the history, but now there is a group and it is difficult that he can come. However, I will take the decision and I will not do it by the pressure of Media”, assumed.

The Spanish coach justified the absence of Raul Gonzalez by the necessity of renovation in the squad after the match against Northern Ireland in Belfast. Also, he talked about the most powerful teams in Europe. About Italy and Germany he said “are better than we are and that’s all”, he said honestly.

Nevertheless he spoke about the evolution that Spain maintains from Germany 2002: “It is a better team, it has improved in defense. We have not obtained anything, but we are going to insist because other teams are worse and have obtained it, like Denmark and Greece".

An authentic Luis Aragones.

September 6th, 2006. Windsor Park, Belfast.
Northern Irland 3- Spain 2: last match of the Spanish National Team with Raul.

Evolution tribute

Four years ago we discussed if Greece was a deserved champion or if its football was too stingy. But for us, the fanatics of football, little it concerns the merits in such important matches. And that was the case of the Greeks fans who travel to Portugal or live all the situations at home on TV.

Via You Tube, we remind a tribute to the defending champion of the EURO, National Team that ten years before had made the absolute debut in World Cups where it lost the three matches receiving 10 goals and scoring none.

Led by Theodoros Zagorakis and Antonios Nikopolidis; and coached by Otto Rehhagel they won the most important tittle in Greek football history.

By all odds

Looking at the EURO 2008 odds in Bet365, Bet-at-home and Partybets, we could pay attention at these points:

- Germany leads the tables, better than Spain, Italy and Portugal.
- A host country (Austria), at a great distance, is the less favorite in the tournament. Is it historic? I am thinking about USA 1994 but I am not sure.
- Italy, The Netherlands and France (shares Group C) are in the Top Six.
- If Italy reaches quarterfinals (knowing The Azzurri, it is very possible) I perceive that they could reach Germany numbers.
- Greece pays 23 Euros per one. Is time to repeat the mistake?