Diary of a Euros: Day Eleven

It was the turn of group C which is the group that’s not quite as hard as group B. It meant that yet again another top notch team was heading out of the competition, would it be Croatia or Italy? Or could the football gods conspire to create a bizarre sequence of events to eliminate Spain? I was certainly hoping so. Also going home, were Ireland.

Spain versus Croatia

Spain aren’t always great to watch, but it’s not their fault. Against Italy they suffered from not having a natural focal point and when Torres came on, the game became more interesting, especially as Torres always seems to be involved in some kind of drama, either missing chances or if it’s against Ireland, scoring them. The thing is, everyone knows how Spain are going to play so they set up accordingly. You can’t really do anything about it, you can’t change the game and no coach is so wonky in his brain box as to attempt to open up the game, attack them full on and see what happens.

Croatia dropped a striker and played an extra midfield player. Standard practise against Spain. When a team does this it usually makes for a less entertaining game. This time it was Nikita Jelavic who was sacrificed in honour of Spain’s midfield. Croatia adopted the standard anti-Spain approach, sat deep, became hard to break down and looked to hit on the break. Spain did what they do and passed the ball around a lot, often the passes were simple, sometimes they were extravagantly awesome, but the game lacked tempo because Croatia weren’t pressing the ball and if that happens you’re kind of relying on Spain playing well to make a game of it and for the most part, they didn’t play that well at all.

Sometimes in a game you get a chance you know you have to take. I believe in chances, international football is all about chances because you might only get one. Against Spain, Croatia got a really good chance and when they didn’t take it, I felt that was it for them. It fell to Ivan Rakitic who is not a great header of the football. It was superbly crafted by Luka Modric, who with movement and poise that would fit right in to the Spanish midfield ghosted passed players before delivering a cross with the outside of his right foot perfectly onto the head of Ivan Rakitic, who headed it straight at Iker Casillas. Poo poo bum poo bum is a good summation of my feelings at the time.

The game continued and eventually Croatia knew they would have to go and try and win it. Spain had taken off Torres and brought on the pace of Jesus Navas who had Spain’s chance. The thing is, when Spain make a chance, it’s usually a really good one, it might take them 90 minutes of seemingly pointless passing waffle that appears to be going nowhere, but sooner or later they will click and create something and so it was here. Fabregas played a beautiful clipped pass, lofted like a wedge for the run of Inieta who looked like he could have been offside, he controlled it with what looked like it could have been handball and squared it to Navas who looked like he couldn’t miss, because he was a yard from goal with nobody anywhere near him. He smashed it in and Spain had won the game.

Italy versus Ireland

Apparently Ireland were hoping to restore some pride in this game. I think that’s unfair, as it suggests they should be ashamed of their previous performances, which I don’t think is true. Ireland are shit. They’ve done well to qualify. Then they got put in a group with three good teams. No shame there if you ask me, just shitness. Saying they had pride to play for is almost another way of saying you don’t believe that this Irish team are really that shit, but you’d be wrong, because they are and Italy knew that if they beat them they had a great chance to progress to the knock-out rounds.

Italy did beat them. Of course they did. It wasn’t a close game, Ireland could have lost by more. The most disappointing thing about Ireland is in each game they’ve just sat there, worked hard and waited to be beaten. At no stage have they really caused any of the team’s they’ve faced serious problems, except for a brief spell against Croatia where they scored and an even briefer spell against Italy where they didn’t. They weren’t helped by leaking early goals in their first two games and perhaps if they had held out for longer they would have had more success, but they never really looked like doing that or going anywhere. The magic that seemed to surround previous Ireland team’s just didn’t seem to be there this time, which probably has a lot to do with the fact that Keith Andrews got to start for them in midfield. In my opinion Keith Andrews is like a very shit version of Gareth Barry, who is far from being a good starting point.

The Italians sadly dropped their 3-5-2 and went with a far more conventional 4-4-2. At one point, with Italy winning 1-0 and Croatia holding Spain at 0-0 Italy were going to top the group. This gave me great pleasure in daring to dream that England might avoid Spain in the unlikely event we don’t mess it up against Ukraine. Much like Germany, Spain were a kick away from going out of the competition, despite dominating most of their games, but it didn’t happen. Italy are an intriguing prospect, I’m not sure how they’ll line up for their next game, which makes them the polar opposite to Spain. The biggest worry will be an injury to Giorgio Chiellini, who limped off and didn’t look at all happy.

Mario Balotelli came on and scored a lovely goal and then celebrated like an angry mad man as only he can. My love for Balotelli grows each time I see him play. He’s a character, he’s unpredictable and he’s prone to do something stupid at basically any moment. I’m amazed that after his Jekyll and Hyde display against Spain he started again against  Croatia. I wasn’t surprised to see him dropped for Di Natale for this game, Di Natale is entirely sensible, reliable, works hard for the team, has great movement and scored a good goal against Spain. The thing is, when Super Mario came on he scored a ridiculously good goal and that’s why he’s in the squad, because he can do that, at any moment, he’s worth the risk. He then tried to celebrated and let everyone know he was the man and should never be a sub, but was unfortunately restrained from doing so by his team-mates. I would very much enjoy it if he scored against the French and produced a classic Mario message on his under-shirt.

Day Eleven, football heaven (Well not really, but it rhymes with eleven, it was more of a decent day)

Ireland are going home but we knew that already. By only losing 2-0 to Italy they managed to avoid having the worst record ever by a team in the finals of a European Championship, by 1 goal, so congratulations to them for that. Croatia are out which has upset me a bit. It looked likely when the draw was made, but now having seen Denmark and Netherlands already eliminated and being greeted by the prospect of having to watch Greece play again, it really does go to show just how bad the seeding and the resulting draw it produced were. It has made for some exciting group games but to try and claim that Greece and the Czech Republic are among the best eight teams in the competition is laughable, so I fully expect at least one of them to win their first knock-out game.

Highlight of the day: Keith Andrews getting sent off. It was hilarious. Already on a yellow, a second yellow for dissent was never going to go down well. The ref had been irritating the Irish players all game and it’s no surprise that someone got sent off and that the player in question was Andrews. To be fair that ref (Turkey’s Cüneyt Çakır) is an inept little toad, but Andrews reaction to being dismissed, angrily booting a ball away, will most likely result in an extended ban from UEFA, which is probably a good thing for Ireland as it can only serve to increase the likelihood of Wes Hoolahan finally getting a game for them.

Diary of a Euros: Day Se7en

Day seven was always going to be about Spain versus the Irish fans, who could the media fall over backwards to praise more? There was also Italy and Croatia, in a game that promised to deliver the unexpected, but if the unexpected is expected then is it really unexpected? Yes.

Croatia versus Italy

Italy have this way of dominating games without really doing anything. They have by far the most interesting tactical set up of any team in the competition and they use it largely to good effect. Mostly this seems to involve allowing Pirlo to do whatever he wants, which I imagine isn’t a bad tactical idea as right now he’s playing pretty much at the top of his game. His free-kick was lovely. It was the first direct free-kick scored in the European Championship finals since 2004, in reality there aren’t that many direct free-kicks scored, which is perhaps why they are so hard to score FIFA.

This game was split, like most, into two halves. Expect that the teams seemed to decide they would have a half each. Italy took the first half and won it 1-0, Croatia took the second and did the same, so a draw was probably a fair result. Croatia’s half came about when Bilic seemed to adopt the idea of his Italian counter-part Prandelli and set the team up around Modric, moving him forward into a “free” role allowed them to attack to far better effect.

There were lots of people on twitter making comparisons between Pirlo and Modric, at half time when Pirlo had run the show the vote was in for the Italian, but by the end of the game there wasn’t nearly as much outrage that Modric might in fact also be quite a good player. They are not entirely similar players but if I was forced to choose and I would opt for Pirlo.

Croatia’s goal came from a horrible misjudgement from Giorgio Chiellini, who got caught under the ball missing his header in school boy fashion. I’m not entirely sure about the workings of the universe but having said how good a player he was in a previous blog after Italy’s draw against Spain, I reckon it was probably the reason that directly caused him to miss the ball, such is the power of internet blogging.

Spain versus Ireland

Spain against the Irish fans was the game of the day. Obviously on the pitch there was no contest, with Spain dominating Ireland in the way that a Yokozuna would dominate an infant child in a wrestling match. They basically sat on them and stopped them breathing and then picked them up and with expert technique slapped them about until it was almost painful to watch, thankfully they pushed past the painful to watch stage and kept going until it became funny again.

The Irish fans are great, they sing and they cheer and they support the team and have a great time. Which does beg the question, isn’t that what all fans do? I suppose that would be like saying the fact that Spain pass the ball and score goals is nothing special as that’s what all teams are supposed to do. So fair play to the Irish fans, when in the face of their truly awful team they were able to put a brave face on it and sing their hearts out which was great to hear.

Before the finals Ireland hadn’t lost in quite a while. 14 games unbeaten since they lost to Uruguay in March 2011. Trapattoni said that he thought fear had got to the team in a way that it hadn’t in qualifying, certainly the pressure of a major tournament took its toll but the team looked tired in both body and mind, they were simply out of ideas about how to cope with Spain. This is probably the end of this generation of Ireland players and it certainly looks like the team could do with a makeover, perhaps this could finally be the chance for Wes Hoolahan.

As far as the game went Spain kept the ball, made loads of chances, scored four goals, all of which were of impressive quality. Torres took his goals well and could well be “back”. When you see Spain put on a show like this it does make me wonder why nobody predicted them to win in our predictions blog. I guess we’re all hoping for a change, but on this evidence Spain look like they are here to break the record and win a third successive major tournament.

What’s in the box? It’s the end of Day Se7en

Spain send Ireland home. Italy and Croatia leave it till the last game. Would you rather be in Italy’s position knowing that you have to beat Ireland, or Croatia’s knowing that you will probably need a point against Spain unless the already despatched Irish can do you a favour? I think Italy will do enough to get through, but I don’t imagine they’ll make it easy on themselves.

Highlight of the day: Andrea Pirlo’s free-kick, as good as Spain’s goals were, there is something special about a bit of dead ball magic and I genuinely celebrated when it went in.

Diary of a Euros: Day Three

I was salivating at the prospect of watching Spain take on Italy. I must have looked like a man that hadn’t eaten for a week stood at the front of the line for the burgers at a BBQ. Group C isn’t quite the group of death but it’s got lots to offer and the biggest match of the tournament so far saw Italy take on the current holders Spain. In the other game the Irish got their campaign off and running against Croatia.

Spain versus Italy

Isn’t it nice when there’s a tactical surprise, but why settle for one when you can have two? Spain lined up with six midfield players, with Cesc Fabregas the nominal forward playing as a false nine. Apparently the Spanish are so good that picking an out and out goal scorer is cheating. Italy, perhaps in an effort to combat this, went with a 3-5-2 formation with Daniel Di Rossi in the sweeper role, which he seemed to take too like a natural. Both teams looked excellent and made their own systems work for them.

The Spanish have so many world class players, but Andres Iniesta always finds a way to impress me just that little bit more than everyone else. He’s so lively, he’s so inventive and unpredictable, he glides around on his toes nipping in here and out there, with and without the ball it’s fantastic to watch.

Andrea Pirlo is certainly a world class player that Italy have in their ranks and his contribution to the game was equally impressive. He dictates the tempo of a game, all his passes are clever, he rarely if ever gives the ball away and at any moment he has the ability to unleash a killer pass or deadly shot.

The game was sumptuous. Skill and technique were everywhere but not just in possession. Giorgio Chiellini in one of the best defenders in the world and consistently put in strong tackles with excellent timing. Then just when you’re lured into thinking you might have a chance two fantastic goalkeepers, Iker Casillas and Gianluigi Buffon were on hand to deny the opportunity.

Both goals were breathtakingly good in there execution. Pirlo stroad forward, beating a player, opening up space, before releasing Antonio Di Natale who converted the chance just like I would have done were I controlling him on FIFA, with real finesse. Not to be outdone Spain pulled a goal back soon afterwards, a clever run and pass from Iniesta found David Silva who produced a delightful little chopped through ball which found the run of Fabregas who swept it home with his left foot.

Fernando Torres did come on, which was a surprise given the strong nature of Spain’s bench and he managed to miss some chances and generally remind everyone that he’s not in a particularly good vein of form, based on that display expect to see Fernando Llorente next time.

Still Torres aside it was a great game, great to watch, great players, great teams, great.

Ireland versus Croatia

Ireland’s plan is always to keep it tight, they lasted two minutes. This game promised to be a match of technical ability against work-rate and good old fashioned direct football, perhaps similar to how England versus France will be. I for one hope England don’t go the same way as Ireland, as their plan to keep it tight simply didn’t work. The reason? They defended terribly.

Kevin Doyle got praise from Jim Beglin for his work rate, but this is a striker who in recent years consistently doesn’t score goals. Then you look at Stephan Ward and think, how are this team at the finals? They both suffered relegation with Wolves. Richard Dunne didn’t have the best season for Villa, the same is true for John O’Shea at Sunderland and the highlight of Sean St. Ledger’s season was probably scoring against Norwich in the F.A cup. It may be harsh but on that evidence the idea of Ireland being hard to beat looks very far-fetched. Even Shay Given had a bit of a mare, poor for the first goal and headed the third into his own net.

Still, their record is decent and every team can have an off day, perhaps they were overcome by nerves or simply didn’t get the luck. They certainly should have had a penalty when Robbie Keane was felled and if that’s tucked away for 3-2 then who knows? Trouble is they now have to play Spain then Italy, so their chances look slim, they’ll be hoping that at the very least they can restore some pride and look a bit harder to beat in their next two games.

As for Croatia, they knocked it around nicely and they’ve got a couple of front men who can find the net. They’ll ask a few questions of the Spanish and the Italians and as ever Modric was impressive in the middle of the park completely running the game.

Day Three or not Day Three

Good day’s football very much enjoyed. Ireland will be hugely disappointed but what better way to get over it than to look forward to your team getting an absolute humping from Spain and Italy. Even a bit of familiar rain wasn’t enough to help the Irish out.

Mario Balotelli made no real contribution to the game today expect to get booked. He also missed a fantastic chance and showed a phenomenal bit of skill to trap the ball at one point. History won’t say much about his role in today’s game, but having watched it he’s worth mentioning simply because he’s so brilliantly entertaining, sadly I fear we might not see much more of him during the tournament.

Highlight of the day: ITV’s pundit panel for the Spain Italy game was superb. Roberto Martinez loves talking. He loves talking about football, about tactics, about players, his enthusiasm is infections and enjoyable. Patrick Vieira isn’t afraid to offer an opinion and Gordon Strachan was lively, insightful and entertaining, kudos ITV, take note BBC.