group stage runners up go ahead, while winners head home

The quarterfinals have been turned on its head. First Germany beat Portugal and then Turkey beat Croatia.
Portugal have been victims of their own success in the recent tournaments when they have always made the semis. Their overconfidence meant two stupid decisions on the part of their coach Scolari - resting the core of the team against the swiss which lead to a 2-0 loss and showed that if a few players were taken care of the Portuguese were vulnerable and Scolari's mid-tournament announcement that he would leave them.
But I will not discount the improvement shown by germany driven by Schweinsteiger. With their current form and pedigree, the title is not a dream.

Turkey and Croatia match was between 2 similar teams, which croatia lost and turkey showed phenomenal presence of mind in scoring another last minute goal.

So what next - Netherlands V/s Russia will see a close fight and Spain V/s Italy looks slightly loaded in favour of spain unless Luca toni is replaced by an accurate striker or then he discovers his touch

Euro 2008 Quarter Finals, last of the remaining group matches

QuarterFinal 1
Portugal V/s Germany
Portugal have lost their momentum with their second string losing against the Swiss. Germany on the other hand have no momentum at all after their first match and are lucky to be in the quarters.
While in normal circumstances I view a loss of momentum with great alarm, in this case I fancy that Portugal's chances against a totally lacklustre Germany. I don't think Germany's past reputation of getting the most of their limited abilities can save them this time.

QuarterFinal 2
Turkey v/s Crotia
While my money is on Croatia, I think the match will be too close too call.

Euro 2008, Semi Final line up Prediction Portugal, Italy (Germany), Czech and Netherlands

Euro 2008

Group A

I would consider Switzerland to be very unlucky! They were done in by the injury to Alexander Frei, which put him and effectively them out of the tournament. He was very impressive in the short time he was on the field and the foul against him should have landed the Czech player with a Yellow card atleast. But in that match the Swiss faced the impossible task of having to overcome bias from the Italian referee in addition to their limited abilities. But I think if it was not for the former they could have still given the Czech’s a shock. But with the last minute goal by Turkey, they are out of the tournament probably a little earlier than they should have been.

Portugal are clearly one of the best I have seen in the tournament and look dangerous with C Ronaldo in full flow and others like Deco, Carvalho and others doing well.

The Czech team lacks good goal scorers and appear quite mediocre, they will be lucky to make it to the second round and it will depend on their match with turkey. Both the team have been extremely lucky to win over the Swiss, but then have to fight it out amongst themselves to determine who is best amongst the not so good.

Group B

Germany look set to qualify, but it will be a toss between the Poles and the Croats. Germany have also been impressive and can be dangerous as they can win tournaments even when they are not impressive at all.

Group C

The group of death, I think Italy and Netherlands have a good chance of going through. France have been as dull as they were during their first round world cup exit in 2002. Romania retain the right to upset everyone’s calculations.

Group D

Spain and Sweden look to be good, Russia can be a threat to Sweden, but were completely undone by the Spanish forwards.

The Spanish forwards have looked impressive and they along with Portugal and The Netherlands are the most impressive at this stage.

Euro 2008 - Highlight of the week

What is arguably the greatest and most competitive inter-nation tournament in the football world starts on June 7, 2008.
For your schedule and other details visit the official site.
http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/

the matches are at 6 pm CET ie 9:30 IST and 8:45 CET ie 12:15 IST. So the interested ones can actually catch atleast one match per day.

Of course as the Q/F onwards is going to be at 12:15 IST, catching them will be a challenge. But then 2 of the 4 are on weekends and so is the final.

I will post my views in the coming days and want you to post your comments.