Every tournament in memory, Spain have roared in with big reputations and expectations only to slink out in disappointment. Just last World Cup they opened with a 4-0 victory before failing.
They may well end this tournament in disappointment as well but much as they started off the last tournament they were in before falling, Spain unleashed a potent offensive attack on the Russians before finishing with an impressive 4-1 victory.
David Villa scored a hat trick virtually assuring that what was already certain to be an expensive outlay for somebody is just about to get even more expensive as he is shopped around by his Spanish professional team, Valencia, to various Premiership teams, notably, Chelsea.
What we witnessed, like the night before in the Dutch thrashing of the Italians was a potent counter-attack,a sort of football fast break that caught the opposition's defence flat footed and resulted in big, glorious scores.
The truth is, whilst they may think they impressed, this was not as dominating as the scoreline suggests and the Russians had plenty of opportunities early on to even the score before it finally got out of hand.
Sweden Oust Defending Euro Champs
En drömöppning.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic hadn't scored for Sweden in over 16 internationals but when he finally did last night after a few sharp challenges, it was enough to see the Swedes past a feeble offense of Greece -
The defending Euro champs Greece were unimpressive clearly hoping that by holding back, making a tight defence and neglecting their offence, perhaps much like Romania, they might continue their improbably reign over Europe.
No such luck. Sweden's firt goal was quickly followed by a second after a major keeping gaffe and before they knew it the Greeks were not only out of the match, but quite probably out of the tournament. They will certainly have to beat the Russians and then an improbable result against Spain.
RANKINGS: With every team in the tournament now having had the chance to show their wares, it's time to have a look at the most impressive of those teams, the early favourites after one game:
1. Portugal
2 Germany
3. Holland
4. Spain
5. Sweden
6. Czech Republic
7. Croatia
8. Romania
9 Switzerland
10 Austria
Wednesday's games: Portugal v Czech Republic - one of these two teams will likely be shown to be less than dazzling. The Czechs are probably too old to match the spark of the Portugese. Switzerland v Turkey whilst all the talk is about the Swiss missing their captain, they appear to have become more resolute. I predict a Swiss victory outright here meaning they will likely have to beat Portugal to advance. Too bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment