Euro 2004 Contd...

Had posted a rather strong entry about the quality of football in Euro 2004 a few days back. My oh my....have i been proved wrong...??most definitely yes....!!!the quality of football that the teams have displayed in the quarter-final stages has been quite outstanding to say the least....!!!

eng-portugal : as i had metioned earlier, england were my tournament favourites....but they were made to bite the dust by the hosts portugal by a display of awesome attacking football...england deserved to lose for having played so defensively....especially pulsating was the period during extra time when scolari went all out with about 8 strikers and ericksson played rather defensively. It was sheer luck that england survived to play the penalties...the one goal by rui costa was a demonstration of portugal's power play....the penalties were a separate chapter by themselves....beckham..beckham....3 penalty misses this year.....what more can u say....??reinforces my belief that he is a moderate talent coupled with a lot of media hype and good packaging....very debatable topic though...!!!

the rest of the matches were quite engrossing too...a complacent france losing to minnows greece......sweden and the dutch dishing out anohther pot-boiler....and the surprise package of the tournament, the czechs banishing the danes....

am hoping for a very intriguing end to the tournament....am placing my bets on the hosts.....just for the sheer atacking football they play, they deserve to win....!!