Two quarterfinals, two winners, two losers and one whinner.
Portugal and (surpise, surprise!) Greece made it to the Semifinals. I am sure everybody does know that England lost to the Portuguese due to penalty shootout, no thanks to Beckham. Greece on the other hand surprised the whole world by beating the defending champion France by one goal.
In reference to the Portugal – England game, it is such a shame to see the English falling out of the championship. The English team and the sensational Liverpool player, Micheal Owen played well from the finish to the last. It would be exciting to see England in the latter stage but oh well. And Owen’s goal for England in the game, in my opinion is sizzling hot despite the fact he merely capitalized on a Portuguese’s defensive lapse. His footwork and the way the ball was shot passed the goalie is stunningly elegant. But all is lost, no thanks to Beckham, again.
About France and Greece, before the game started, I said somewhere to a few people, “Is there ever a doubt?”
It turned out, France did another, well, France.
And tomorrow will be the third quarterfinal. It will be between the Netherlands (YEAH!) and Sweden and it will be a close one as both teams seem to be attacking-minded. What is better, both teams have at least an Ajax player. In the de Oranje side, they are Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Johnny Heitinga; the Swede on the other hand has the Italian killer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Dutch of course has tonnes of former Ajax players (van der Sar, Reiziger, van der Meyde, Davids, Kluivert, de Boer, Overmars and Seedorf)
Hup Holland Hup!
And oh, I forgot – one whinner, Italy.
The Netherlands – Latvia and Germany – Czech Republic.