Russia vs Spain

the head and the heart goes for Russia

who will then meet Germany in the Final

I'm disappointed that you haven't predicted Spain to win as well. Then you could bump it when one of them wins.

Come on Russia, i really believe they can beat Spain but they will have to defend a lot better than in the group game.

Hard for me to choose as I'll win money if either Spain or Russia win the tourney outright.

I want Spain to win cause of the Liverpool connection - Torres, Alonso, Arbeloa and Reina as well as the fact it is shocking they have not won anything in so so long.

But Russia play some brilliant smart football, plus they have some cracking players some who I've admired for years in Zhirkov and a class act of manager in Hiddink. Plus more money for me

I think the wings will be crucial more the case with Russia where I think Anyokov and Zhirkov will really run riot and while Puyol and Marchena played alright againist Italy. Russia as we all know will be a lot more dynamic in the pace and passing department. Senna will need to be on top form againist Ashravin if he is to do a man marking job on Ashravin. Though assuming if Torres starts, Cesc or Alonso need to play as they'll get the best from him. Him and Villa can really hurt the CB who look decent but nothing more.

I'll go with a 2-1 to Russia as I think Russia will win it as their manager is much more astute and clever plus his players are hitting form at the crucial time.

I am so glad those poor anti footballers from Italy are back home!!!! What a poor kind of shite they are ....

Spain I love you guys! You save the tournement from a HUGE disaster!!!!!

Congrats and make it a beautiful game again against Guus Geluk (Lucky Guus)!

Hopefully the Russians will attack, and since our defence is dodgy and theirs too that should provide us with a lot of entertainment. I hope that both teams will try attack and not be too cautious

The Germans are going to hate for saying this, but this feels like the real final.

25/1 i got on Russia each way, come on Russia !

San Jol wrote:I am so glad those poor anti footballers from Italy are back home!!!! What a poor kind of shite they are ....

Spain I love you guys! You save the tournement from a HUGE disaster!!!!!

Congrats and make it a beautiful game again against Guus Geluk (Lucky Guus)!

At least we were $h!t for four games...and knew we'd end up going out. Unlike you getting all your hopes up You went home a night before us .

San Jol wrote:I am so glad those poor anti footballers from Italy are back home!!!! What a poor kind of shite they are ....

Think about it...

San Jol wrote:Spain I love you guys! You save the tournement from a HUGE disaster!!!!!

Congrats and make it a beautiful game again against Guus Geluk (Lucky Guus)!

They won't.

pierre is that the new signing for liverpool ladies?

There has been a BUST up in the Soviet camp between Arshavin and Hiddink !!

They were playing 'football tennis', Hiddink called a shot played by Arshavin to be out .. Arshavin said it was in, Hiddink stood his ground and won the point, Arshavin was not happy and gave Comrade Hiddink the eyes ...

Shut up rai

Fey wrote:Shut up fey

Desgraciats wrote:

The Germans are going to hate for saying this, but this feels like the real final.

no German will ever hate you for saying that

it's just that

no German will take you and your football knowledge seriously any more

EVER

which is not to say , that you cannot have impeccable taste in food, shoes or movies

horses for courses, says I

think about it

Fey wrote:Shut up rai

Eurottomeister wrote:

Fey wrote:Ottos mother still is a whore

Eurottomeister wrote:

Fey wrote:Shut up rai

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:pierre is that the new signing for liverpool ladies?

She'd certainly add a bit of pace and height to the team.

Alas, I don't think she has the skill required to play against Doncaster Belles and the like.

Eurottomeister wrote:

Desgraciats wrote:

The Germans are going to hate for saying this, but this feels like the real final.

no German will ever hate you for saying that

it's just that

no German will take you and your football knowledge seriously any more

EVER

which is not to say , that you cannot have impeccable taste in food, shoes or movies

horses for courses, says I

think about it

horses?? They are in Vienna

Let's face it.. you lot have played 2 horrible matches and 2 decent ones. You haven't exactly set the world alight. But I guess your chances are very good facing the amputated Turkish team.

how has this happened ?

how has RUssia suddenly become a major football power ?

in the EUro semis now, as well as having won the UEFA Cup with players nobody had ever heard the names of

VERY IMPRESSIVE

Moscow flyers signal arrival of new superpower

With England absent, Euro 2008 has been about the rediscovery of footballing objectivity and the rise of a revelatory Russian team



Simon HattenstoneJune 25, 2008 1:11 AM

If only the European Championship could last forever, I would be one contented couch potato. Three weeks ago, the British media panicked about the tournament lacking a British team, and more specifically England. Who would watch it without Ashley Cole and Peter Crouch to illuminate the world? Even supposedly grown-up papers like, erm, the Guardian, asked us to pick another team (Holland, in the case of our readers) to follow in their absence.

Tune in to the BBC or ITV and you would still think the semi-finals are an all-English affair between Arsenal ("Arsenal's Fábregas wins it for Spain"), Chelsea ("Chelsea's Ballack seals victory for Germany"), Middlesbrough ("Middlesbrough's Tuncay guides Turkey to triumph") and Manchester United ("Russia's Arshavin, who might possibly one day play for Manchester United, single-handedly destroys the Dutch").

But we don't need these pacifiers to stoke our passion. This has been a brilliant tournament for football fans - from Turkey's astonishing comebacks; Holland, Portugal and Spain's first-round flair; the desperate decline of 2006's World Cup finalists, France and Italy; the big-match brio of Michael Ballack; and the emergence of Russia as a new force in world football.

Sure, I've missed those familiar summers of sweaty solidarity, heaving and jostling in the pub, the exhilarating early victories, the fire in our belly eventually doused by inevitable defeat in the quarters on penalties. Or worse.

But this has been more than compensated for by rediscovering footballing objectivity, and the supreme drama of the game itself. By now, if Euro 2008 had gone the way of all things, England (or Scotland, Wales, and the two Irelands - though they have rarely qualified) would be out, and we would have lost interest - too bitter and disenchanted to enjoy the remainder of the tournament.

We would have drunk in our moment of glory and suffered one great belly-aching anti-climax. But this time round there are any number of glorious moments and anti-climaxes to enjoy, as we team-hop from one to another. For me, it has been football viewing on the single transferable vote system - from Portugal to Holland to Spain and now on to Russia.

But in the very best game I didn't care about either of the two teams. Turkey versus Czechs, and the late-night toppling of a 2-0 deficit, was what the Daily Telegraph theatre critic Charles Spencer would doubtless call pure footballing Viagra. Unhampered by pride and prejudice, we can revel in the spectacle of this supreme sporting whodunnit. Can Turkey beat Germany with half a team and Colin Kazim-Richards? Will the sombre mastery of the Dutchman Guus Hiddink be rewarded, and will his face ever crack mid-match? Did he feel like Judas for leading Russia to victory against Holland?

Before this tournament, Russia was my least favourite of the 16 teams. I can't stand Vladimir Putin, I thought England should have been there instead because we trounced them 3-0, and I didn't recognise the names of any of the players despite the fact that we had played them twice.

And now? I am falling in love with them. As with the best dramas, once you get to grips with the plot you find yourself returning to the beginning to fully appreciate the nuances of character and narrative. So it's only now that I understand how far they have come by looking back to how woeful they were in the first game, only now that I realise just how significant the loss of the play-maker Andrei Arshavin was in the first couple of games; only now can I share Roman Pavlyuchenko's joy in his goals having revisited his inept earlier misses.

In the last two games Russia's team play has been outstanding - look at the series of instant passes and Arshavin's sliding shot into the corner of the net against Sweden or Pavlyuchenko's near-post volley against Holland. Russia have been a wonderful discovery for most of us - and, as they have improved, possibly for themselves. There's Denis Kolodin, the defender who looks like Frank Skinner and shoots like Bruce Rioch, Yuri Zhirkov with his audacious volleys and free-kicks, and of course there's Arshavin.

The man who pulls silly faces, has a dirty-joke name and guided Zenit St Petersburg to last season's Russian title is a footballing genius; the only man I've seen on a football pitch who can dribble, pout and chat at the same time.

Forget La Liga and the Premier League, it's about time our sports channels signed a big fat contract with Russia's premier league and beamed pure quality into our lives

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:pierre is that the new signing for liverpool ladies?

So according to you Frank, he is a'girl', so why did a girl captain your club Why a 'girl' outscore many the majority of players in the EPL.

You amuse me Frank, you'd swear Torres raped and pillaged you and your family the way you make your comments.

I was talking to Atletico fan today, season ticket holder infact who hasn't missed a game in 6 years. He had his Atleti jersey on with Torres on the back. Got talking, told me about how he is a member of the supporters club yadadah. Said all Atletico fans were proud of him and hold him in high regard. Man still believe he'll come back to Madrid one day as well.

Mentioned your views and he
Did say there were fans like you who dislike Torres for whatever reasons but you were in the miniority. Nice chap I have to say

Anyways, do any of the Spainish here know if there any fresh injury worries ahead of the game

Ade wrote:

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:pierre is that the new signing for liverpool ladies?

So according to you Frank, he is a'girl', so why did a girl captain your club Why a 'girl' outscore many the majority of players in the EPL.

You amuse me Frank, you'd swear Torres raped and pillaged you and your family the way you make your comments.

I was talking to Atletico fan today, season ticket holder infact who hasn't missed a game in 6 years. He had his Atleti jersey on with Torres on the back. Got talking, told me about how he is a member of the supporters club yadadah. Said all Atletico fans were proud of him and hold him in high regard. Man still believe he'll come back to Madrid one day as well.

Mentioned your views and he
Did say there were fans like you who dislike Torres for whatever reasons but you were in the miniority. Nice chap I have to say

The impression that i got that Atletico fans were very mad that the club let Torres go.allthough i dont know how much was down to actual performances but that he was a symbol who seemed to like the club.

Ade wrote:

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:pierre is that the new signing for liverpool ladies?

So according to you Frank, he is a'girl', so why did a girl captain your club Why a 'girl' outscore many the majority of players in the EPL.

You amuse me Frank, you'd swear Torres raped and pillaged you and your family the way you make your comments.

I was talking to Atletico fan today, season ticket holder infact who hasn't missed a game in 6 years. He had his Atleti jersey on with Torres on the back. Got talking, told me about how he is a member of the supporters club yadadah. Said all Atletico fans were proud of him and hold him in high regard. Man still believe he'll come back to Madrid one day as well.

Mentioned your views and he
Did say there were fans like you who dislike Torres for whatever reasons but you were in the miniority. Nice chap I have to say

Where did you meet this guy?

Ireland.

I bet it was on the interweb, most probably Rawk.

Eurottomeister wrote:how has this happened ?

how has RUssia suddenly become a major football power ?

in the EUro semis now, as well as having won the UEFA Cup with players nobody had ever heard the names of

VERY IMPRESSIVE

They won the UEFA cup in 2005 as well..

So after Portugal were distracted by the Scolari story, will the same happen with Aragones and Fenerbahce announcing officially today that he will coach them for the next 2 years? Or will it be the sudden burst of Arshavin speculation that unsettles Russia.