Euro 2008 Semi-Finals Analysis

After a lot of football drama we have witnessed so far, finally have our 4 semi finalists. Germany, Turkey, Russia and Spain, deservingly are the top 4 European sides this year.

Turkey has some kind of magic working for them as they have won all of their games in the last minutes of the match. Turkey were already written off for this tournament but have proven the critics wrong with their excellent display of teamwork and great team spirit. Sanli Tuncay is averaging 10km of running per game, Arda Turan come out of nowhere to score goals and both goalkeepers Volkan and Rustu have made some key saves. Turkey will play against Germany on June 26, 2008.

Germany have re-established themselves as a European football "powerhouse" and have played some amazing football so far. Veteran goalkeeper Jens Lehmann and midfielder Michael Ballack have displayed true leadership on the pitch and youngster Lukas Podolski seems to have regained his scoring form. Germany will be a very hard opponent for Turkey as these two teams have played 17 times with each other and Germany won 11 of those matches, but we have learned in this competition that stats have nothing to do with the final outcome in today's match Spain vs Italy where Spain did not beat Italy in 88 years and yet today walked off as winners.

HEAD TO HEAD

	VS
17	Played	17
11	Won	3
3	Lost	11
3	Drawn	3
40	Goals for	10
10	Goals against	40

Russia, is perhaps the biggest surprise this year in their Euro 2008 run. With the return of Andrei Arshavin, Russia seems unstoppable. Russia is playing gung-ho attacking football with no respect towards opponents, they have clearly proven that in their quarter final clash versus Holland. Goalkeeper, Igor Akinfeev seems very confident on goal, the universal right wing player Aleksandr Anyukov is perfect in defense and offense, Yuri Zhirkov is playing excellent on the left midfield position, Arshavin is phenomenal and Pavlyuchenko is doing what he does best which is scoring goals. Russia will play against Spain in the semi-finals who beat beat Russia in group play 4:1.

Spain is finally playing top football and deservingly have found themselves in the semi-finals. Spain beat Italy today on penalties for the final semi-final spot. Spain just has so many players and I believe Aragones has headaches at time when deciding who to start. David Villa has established himself as the leading scorer at Euro 2008 with 4 goals, goalkeeper Iker Casillas as always is very hard to beat on the goal, Fernando Torres has a strong presence in Spain's attack and Carlos Marchena has displayed wonderful defensive mastery. Spain and Russia will play for the Euro 2008 final spot June 26, 2008.

HEAD TO HEAD