EUFA
EURO 2012
THE
KNOCK OUT
Earlier in Part 1 of this
series, we discussed the group stage of the EURO 2012. It is high time we
discussed the knockout rounds, kicking off with the quarter finals and later
having a touchdown on the finals.
To this end, the
quarter finals signified one thing, the tournament was fast getting rounded off
with much more excitement imminent all the way to the final.
QUARTER
FINAL 1 (Czech Republic VS Portugal)
With the quarter finals
kicking off on Thursday, 21 June, there was more excitement in the waiting. The
first quarter finals had both Group A and B rejuvenated sides; Czech Republic
and Portugal muscling out their continued presence in the tourney for an
extended stay and qualification for the semis.
But what separated both
sides was the lone goal by Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, extending the stay of
Portugal and sending Czech Republic packing out of Poland-Ukraine 2012.
QUARTER
FINAL 2 (Germany VS Greece)
The second day of
quarter finals had high flyers Germany breezing through Greece by 4 goals to 2.
This huge victory being the fifteenth straight competitive victory by the
Germans further added credence to making the Germans a force to reckon with
which however lasted the whistle to round off this match.
QUARTER
FINAL 3 (Spain VS France)
With two goals from
Xabi Alonso in his 100th International cap, the third quarter finals had world
number 1, Spain sailing through over France to her third straight competitive
semi finals, with the third straight competition triumph in sight.
QUARTER FINAL 4 (England VS Italy)
The
poor run of England at winning penalty shoot-outs continued in the match
against Italy which after 90 minutes and the added 30 minutes of extra time,
had the deadlock not broken.
England
which had both Ashley’s (Young and Cole) losing their penalties ended up losing
the match 4 – 2 to Italy in the penalty shoot out which ended their good
performance in the tourney and since new boss, Roy Hodgson took over the helm
of affairs of the three lions as coach.
SEMI FINALS
With
Portugal, Germany, Spain and Italy scaling the quarter finals, the competitions
only got the battle for the trophy more interesting with all four teams highly
placed in the world of International football.
SEMI FINAL 1 (Portugal VS Spain)
The
first semi Finals was the match between neighbours, Spain and Portugal. The
match, a tight fixture, had Portugal crashing out of the tournament through the
penalty shoot out having had both Portugal and Spain sharing the spoils with
the match being goalless.
With
the decider penalty by Francesc Fabregasn which earned Spain a ticket to the
final, Spain were edging closer to making history in three folds.
SEMI FINAL 2 (Germany VS Italy)
The squaring up of
Italy and Germany to muscle their way to the finals was a fascinating fixture,
attracting the best of excitement. With the stable and intimidating form of
Germany, winning 15 competitive matches prior to the Italy game as against that
of Italy with an inconsistent form, the Germans were widely given an upper hand
to make it to the finals. An example in this regard are some words I found very
interesting on Saturday Punch (Nigeria), June 30, 2012.
These words with the
title; How Germany broke my heart are as thus…
“…Before the Euro 2012
semi-final match between Germany and Italy, I had tipped the Germans to win. My
prediction was based on the quality of the game that I expected them to play.
Among all the teams
that competed in Euro 2012, the Germans touched my heart the most. They proved
that they had prepared very well before coming to the championship. In their
match against Greece, I thought they would panic after the latter equalized.
But it was as if nothing had happened and they went on to win the match
convincingly. But against Mario Balotelli and Italy, the centre could not hold
for them. They broke my heart, but the fun continues with the finalists…”
Reading the above got
me thrilled because it had me reminiscing my expectations from the Germans but
guess it was not meant to be as Mario Balotelli’s first half brace saw Italy
through to the finals. However, Mesut Özil’s penalty in the dying minutes of
the match could not save the Germans from biding goodbye to the finals.
THE TROPHY SHOWDOWN
As the tournament
progressed conceivably, the second twist in my opinion was the absence of the
group of death members (Group B) in the final. But with
their absence not taking away the awaited excitement of the final, the two
finalists ushered in a déjà vu pairing of Group C on match day 1 of the Group
C matches which had Italy and Spain settling for a draw.
But like in any
competition, the finals is nothing compared to earlier matches and in its own
way produces the best of performance from either or both sides far above the
level played in the preceding stages of the competition. This however was the
turnaround in the favour of Spain whom thumped Italy by four dazing goals that
got the Italians unable to save the situation.
The 2012 finals was a
remarkable one with the new records set by the Spaniards among which are;
1. Spain is the first team to win
consecutively in two editions, the European Championship.
2. Spain is the first team to have a
treble of triumphs, becoming the first European team to win
international tournaments in a roll; i.e. the Euro 2008, FIFA World Cup 2010 and now the UEFA Euro 2012.
3. Undefeated in the UEFA Euro
Champiosnhip for 29 games, a run according to ESPNsoccernet.com
, stretches back to June 2004
In addition, Casillas
and Spain striker Fernando Torres also made their own histories. Torres became
the first man to score in two European Championship finals, and Casillas played
in his record 100th victory in international soccer. A flashback to the former
is the 2008 final against Germany which had the lone goal by Fernando Torres
being enough to grant the Spaniards their third European title.
With the triumph of
Spain, the Spaniards are getting their dominance of international football
continued at another level that would not be easy to cut shut as their
international performance is a replica of club performance with regards to Barcelona
and Real Madrid.
Below are the Spanish players celebrating their EURO 2012 victory
REFERENCES
“Final Match Report” ESPNsoccernet
1 July 2012. 2 July 2012
“FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking” fifa.com 6 June 2012. 6 June 2012 <http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/index.html>
“Final tournament – Group stage” uefa.com 22 July 2012
Spain wins again, beating Italy 4-0 at Euro 2012” philstar.com 2
July 2012. 4 July 2012 < http://www.philstar.com/sportsarticle.aspx?publicationsubcategoryid=200&articleid=823274>
“UEFA Euro 2012” Wikipedia.com 29 June 2012 <en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2012>
“How Germany broke my heart” The Punch 30
June 2012: 59
No comments:
Post a Comment
Kindly post your comments, as I anticipate getting back to you on your findings, opinions and suggestion with regards to what you just read.
Thank you.