Donetsk plays host to the first semi-final of this 2012 tournament with Portugal set to take on tournament-favourites Spain. Portugal won their quarter-final against the Czech Republic by just the single goal, whilst Spain made it through with a 2-0 victory over France. The winner will go on to play either Germany or Italy in the final. The stakes are high. I think the only head to head stat we need today is that Spain have only beaten Portgual twice in the last 54 years. Could that all be about to change?
Portugal vs Spain (Semi-final)
Published by Christine Blachford on
Come on Spain! We don't want the Portuguese to win!
hey sir :)
but let's hope it's not a walkover.
Spain will pass, pass, pass and not shoot, and Portugal will shoot and miss. Great combo.
:)
Evening all.
SPA: Casillas / Arbeloa, Pique, Ramos, Alba / Alonso, Busquets, Xavi / Silva, Negredo, Iniesta
POR: Ronaldo
I hope Figo and Eusebio are sitting together again for this match. They make a great couple.
Agreed. I want a hard fought match with Spain winning.
Hopefully 2 full midfields won't stifle the game.
I see the knives are out for England then.
Mr C, it's we HAVE a thread for that. ;) #PoorEnglish
>> SPA: Casillas / Arbeloa, Pique, Ramos, Alba / Alonso, Busquets, Xavi / Silva, Negredo, Iniesta
POR: Ronaldo
Haha :)
Alan shearer is an idiot.
It's got nothing to do with the amount of foreigners in the EPL, it's the lack of English people playing abroad!
we gots threads baby!>
(i just do it to annoy the grammar people who hassle me on twitter really)
It doesn't annoy me if you're doing it ironically.
As much as I dislike him, he's been mega in this tournament.
And will probably have another good one tonight.
Not quite Spain-Portugal (actually you probably couldn't get further away from it really), but a good article here about how modern football sucks: http://therealfacup.co.uk/2012/06/27/the-wembley-way/
:)
i type in lower case partly because it's fun and partly because it annoys people. a good test is to see who retweets me, but corrects the casing as they do :)
I would argue his no-show against Germany and 'couldn't hit a barn door' performance against the Danes would show different. He has been very good against the Dutch and the Czechs, but hardly mega.
He's carrying the whole team!
Compared to prev. tournaments.
I think he's realised that to be considered truly world class, he has to do it on the world stage (maybe European will do for the meantime).
Actually the Euros is considered harder than the WC because there's less easy games.
In the spirit of grammatical correctness ...
hehe
"We've come half way to Siberia to see the pride of Iberia" << Linaker!
I can never remember the words to the Spanish national anthem ;)
It never ceases to amaze me how ugly the Portuguese team are!
:) (I get that now)
Ahhh, a UEFA Respect match. This has a 22-man brawl written all over it.
"respect diversity"
you gotta be kidding me, have you seen them dance?
Raul Meireles does look like a hitman who's pretending to be a footballer to get closer to a target.
If you tried to get Gerrard to do that he'd need to follow with his finger and spell out the big words.
Oh dear. At least nobody has any sponsored underpants. Because uefa reckon that's far worse than racism ;)
glad beckham has retired.
Can you imagine Rooney just grunting it.
Just a shame Terry isn't captain. Irony.
Oh snap!
:D
If Ronaldo has started with his hair combed over and flat, does this mean that he's unlikely to change styles at half time?
Spain haven't touched the ball yet. They've lost their magic.
0% possession
Does that touch from Casillas count ? ;)
Arbeloa gives a way a silly free kick. Once a Liverpool player, always a Liverpool player.
If there wasn't that foul, I was expecting POR not to get the ball back until after halftime.
:) :)
holy cow, spain can play.
It shows how uneven the groups were; the semi finalists have come from the Group-of-Death and the Quite-Hard(+Irish)-Group.
Yeah. It does appear that way.
are they not picked at random?
buggered that up.
#blameplatini
One of those SPanish peeps looks just like Alguersuari.
Hi all
Pique
Looks like one driver and sounds like two others
No he looks nothing like nelsinho...
Yes. There are 4 pots: the 2 hosts and 2 favs, then next 4 ranked teams, etc. The groups are given 1 team from each pot.
The 2 groups without a host (ie with SPA & GER in) are clearly going to be the harder.
There's a piqué, a senna and an alonso playing for Spain!
I've never liked the hosts being automatically in Pot 1. Why not simply put them in the pot they would be assigned normally, and assign them to Groups A and D like they were. I would imagine that way you'd get a fairer and more even selection of groups.
Saying that, you would be less likely to get any real groups of deaths.
Or, just add more teams to the whole thing.
Cant wait until 2016...
I don't see why we need to do that. 16 teams is a good format.
It is ridiculous that half the top seed slots go to teams who would have been lucky to qualify
You're clearly not an accountant.
I prefer it like this, but I'm going to be cynical and say money.
So exceptional teams like Lithuania can have their stab at losing 4-0 to Spain.
It will devalue all the Golden Boot stats if players and teams get more matches to do it in.
Yeah yeah yeah. Sorry for being a purist ;)
To be fair, it's only been 16 teams since 1996, and 8 teams before that since 1980?, so its hardly been a great indicator.
what value are the stats really?
*glances at f1 points*
Does that matter? Did anyone care about that when the world cup finals went from 16 to 24 teams?
Fair - was forgetting the progressive increases.
I like stats - they never lie.
Yeah, changing the calendar from 6 to 20 races makes a bit of a difference.
Seb with the 'most poles'?
And 8 points for a win to 25
He will, but everyone knows Clark, Prost, Senna, Schumacher are better drivers.
8 is too few. 16 feels right.
Dude! Lies, damned lies and statistics?
Who said that originally? 3 points for the first person to get it right without looking
The stats (data) never lies, just people's 'interpretation'
I'll go for... Twain.
Benjamin Disraeli.
in f1 they do. how many races did barichello start?
I didn't know, and Googled - nice fact.
You've clearly never seen the official attendance for the Emirates.
Close!
Spot the mathematician
That's because the include all the season tickets as being 'full' regardless.
:P
I thought he was PM?
He was. Gavin is the mathematician
I was confused as to why he'd be saying mathsy stuff, I sort of know what Gavin does.
Ronaldo = cheekycheeky
What kind of maths?
Negredo has 14 in 36 this season. Llorente must wonder what he's done wrong in the Marquis' eyes.
I thought Spain had scored a long ball goal there
Ive done all sorts but my job involves statistical analysis.
I used to write an F1 stats blog but I've been too busy with the incoming baby to keep it up lately: http://f1numbers.wordpress.com/
I think the referee might be on something. And not just the pitch.
Good defensive work by the referee on Nani, timed his whistle to perfection.
you need a column...
You have to wonder how a referee from a smaller footballing nation can be qualified for such a match.
What a great idea
... one side's payroll (oh wait, the Italians are in the other match)
What's the Portuguese for biscotti?
Does it matter where they come from? You've seen Italian/Spanish/English referees messing up in this tournament, why should it matter if they are Turkish.
Fair point. I just have this idea that he may not be experienced enough for some reason.
:)
This will be something Steven might be able to explain- Ferrari's total points in F1 is 5863.27 How?
To be a ref at the Euros, or the WC or even the Champions League/Europa League, I think you need to be selected to an elite panel and be trained by UEFA. Sort of like a way managers need UEFA Pro Licences to get top jobs.
I have no idea how you can get anything less than 0.5. No idea how to get 0.27.
Fernando is Ferrari's Ronaldo
Refs have a whole range of grades and they need to be a top grade ref on UEFA's list to qualify to ref here. It used to be a big handicap to come from a lesser nation but some of these refs are doing 20 or more Champions League and other European games per season
The more you know. Cheers!
I did offer once?
Portugal are doing a far better job against Spain than anyone else so far and far better than I expected. Still can't see Spain losing
This is a weirdly entertaining game. I have no idea who is winning?
I'm not so sure.
I think Mr C just accepted your offer
Sounds like it ;)
oh crap, did you. sorry. i/we (belatedly) accept that offer. when can you start?
;)
Everyone at work except me thinks Germany are going to win this tournament
I'm told I'll be quite busy in August, so I think September.
*hugs*
My dad thinks Spain. I say Germany.
That is unless you fancy changing nappies for me, I can start earlier ;)
Answer: Between 1950 and 1959 the FLap got 1 point. If drivers were tied points were shared equally between drivers who set the same fastest lap time (an extreme example of which happened in the 1954 British Grand Prix where seven drivers set the same fastest lap time, and each received 1/7 of a point)..
0.27 =2/7
as tempting as that is... i'll be too busy watching sport ;)
Hopefully I'll be able to as well while on duty!
7 drivers setting the same lap time is unbelievable. Especially give the variety of cars then. I am still not sure that I believe 3 drivers set identical pole times at Jerez in 97
To what accuracy were the stopwatches though?
In the 50s, they didn't have quite the same degree of accuracy of timing (will now endeavour to find out how)
[ Citation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Formula_One_World_Championship_points_scoring_systems ]
Hang on, hang on
1/7 is about 0.14 not 0.27. Did this happen twice?
I happened a few times (according to the wiki-record books). Hence 0.27 (approx)= 2/7
surprising 1st half.
*raises eyebrow*
it's not necessarily the score, its the fact that Spain aren't walking it...
Negredo has been completely anonymous. Awful selection. GET LLORENTE ON.
yup. playing well, but not well enough.
Has he even played yet in this tournament?
Never seen Spain play long balls like they have. Portugal are working very hard to shut them down and you have to wonder how long they can keep that pace up
Nyet. Waste of a great talent.
Jurgen alert.
I remember italy Spain 2006. I was at home as id got the morning off work to watch it.
*swoons*
I can't believe I'm missing the game tomorrow. I mean, I'm getting a free dinner and saying goodbye to a colleague of 5 years, but still...
Italy vs. Germany.
:)
It's weird seeing jake talk about football.
Jake said Pirlo correctly. *applause*
Very inconsiderate of you colleague to have a dinner during a Euro semi
I want him to talk about Bamzooki again.
My wife just asked who the German 'prettyboy' is - neck-length hair apparently. Any clues?
Klinsmann?
rosberg?
In this tournament :S
:)
Sami Khadeira?
Hummels?
We've got it down to Sami Khadeira or Hummels, but she'll remember properly tomorrow.
It's definitely Paul Breitner. #CommentingFromThe80s
Fantastic player. .great perm
Terrible corner
Cesc
The joy of Cesc.
Spain going for Craig Levein's 4-6-0 again.
Spain have tried no strikers and starting with 10 men it seems. Anything not to use Torres...
Guardiola uses it a lot. This will stop Portugal overloading the midfield to shut Spain down
:)
Looks like they counted / everyone worked in seconds (only).
Never a penalty
Dirty
Great attempt by Alonso
Done it twice before...
That's the football equivalent of winning from 11th on the grid...
Wonder if he will get a chance in the final
Spain need to try the odd diagonal ball over the top because the Portuguese defence is pushing right up and leaving a lot of space behind it
The Death Star is in range.
That was made for him.
The amount he gets built up, you'd think he scores every free-kick.
They should cast that pose in bronze - commentator
They should cast that poseur in bronze - corrected
Fabregas with a centre forward's tackle.
It's worse than with Rooney!
*shocked*
Bert van Marwijk has left the Dutch... http://www.knvb.nl/nieuws/23166/bert-van-marwijk-stopt-als-bondscoach-van-oranje
He barely touched Nani yet he is suggesting he raked his studs down his thigh
Not a great surprise
The Death Star is in range (again).
The ref has decided that POR can have a goal from a freekick, but they keep messing it up.
Wall.
The Death Star has gained 10 yards.
Nobody's given Ronaldo the scrip telling him that he actually scores the free kick - then Spain have to actually play up.
5 minutes till extra time. No chance finishing ET with 22 players on the park
What was being said about tolerance and RESPECT?
THEY'RE TAKING XAVI OFF. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE SPANISH MACHINE??
I think if I was the Spanish manager I would sub the guy standing unmarked wide right. Regardless how much space he has or how good his position no-one will give him the sodding ball
I'm feeling optimstic of this 22-man brawl.
We're the first 75 minutes as bad as the last 10 have been?
Also, why does iOS autocorrect words that aren't wrong?!
First half was very interesting. Second half has kind of bogged down a bit
Passed the wrong way.
Gavin, remember when you said Ronaldo had been mega?...
Ronaldo = bottler
Every time someone goes for the ball in the air and his opponent makes no attempt to go for the ball the ref gives the foul to the fouler
Yes?
In fairness, nobody seems to want to score tonight.
Like I said play in the guy wide right
No-one else has had 3 free kicks in front of goal and hit a spectator with everyone of them
If SPA score they will have cheated us out of extra time (I'm assuming it'll be more open)
Not us best game for sure. But who else have Portugal got?
You have to assume so. Players will be tired and there will in all probability to be fewer of them
He is a great player and has carried his team at times in this tournament
Form is temporary. Class is permanent.
Cliches are like statitistics :)
RT @TommyB89: Pastor MalRonaldo
I am convinced that the winner of euro2012 will come from the other semi final after that.
:)
Still think Spain will win it
I read that as the winner of euro 2012 will come from one of the semi finals.
Forza Azzurri.
The Spanish manager looks like Whitmarsh
GER ftw - not scared to replace the 3 best attackers, and then have no perceptible drop in form (result)
Doesn't bode well for the Spanish pitstops.
Do they need to bring in a Ron-lookalike in order to win this?
Ha!
Alfredo de Stefano?
I love that people here know these old footballers. First John Charles now de Stefano
Sounds like a pasta-dish
Thank The Football Ramble. They know their stuff.
:)
Not even Italian
But born of Italian immigrants, according to Wikipedia. So he's fusion food. ;)
Didn't know that. I thought he was Argentinian but eventually became Spanish
Shot in the face?
I've seen more fouls in 15 minutes of this than you'd find on a chicken farm.
My Argentinian friends surname is Luppi. His wifes is Caviglia. Both have Italian grandparents!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Di_St%C3%A9fano
HOW HAS NOBODY SCORED YET???
'cos the ref's giving a free kick every five seconds?
Is Pedro like: "No! :( Someboday has injured my scoring arm."
I find it very difficult to pick out who Spain are going to pass to. Casillas had players right and left and 99.99% of keepers in the world would go to one of those but he plays it straight up the middle
how?
It's taken 103 minutes, but I think Spain have decided they want to win this.
Is that the red card?
Nope
In a game of possession vs counter-attacking there seems to be no winner.
Not too far away. Spain are zeroing in
That is a save.
I want a laptop with a trackpad that only moves the cursor around. I don't want it to scroll, zoom or whatever else it fancies doing that I have no control over
We have so much rain my TV now only has a sign on it saying no satellite signal
Love to see the Spanish play it out so calmly
Aww, he chipped a nail.
He saw the ref not give it and so just rolled over
Backpass?!
Spain will score in three minutes
#nearlyworked thelasttime
Definitely
I'd have hoofed it.
Barely any contact but rolled 5 times anyway
Should have scored
Christ on a bike!
Would have been 3 minutes 1 second
Ref finally got one of those decisions right
What is it with all these players falling over together? Are they not getting enough cuddles or something?
Peanlties
240 minutes without a goal...
Unbelievable
Ooh, penalties again! :)
Evening folks
A shoot-out that we can watch without cringing ...
I'm putting my house on Ronaldo missing.
Hi
PELANTIES. Steven should predict goals soon.
At some point Ronaldo has changed the direction of his comb-over.
I am hoping he misses more than anything else
6-5 to Spain
#Predictions
SPA 4-3
Portugal 3-1
0-3 Portugal Or 7-6 Spain
Come on Spain!!!
Spain 4-3
We did better than someone! https://twitter.com/Zonal_Marking/status/218090477822545922
A Pelanty Telescope. I approve.
#fistbump
That would be so funny. Ronaldo doing a little chip down the middle and Casillas just standing there collecting it
Those gloves are like baseball mitts!
I saved a penalty like that once. Wiped the smug smile of the strikers face.
Bet they've got sticky palms
Oh dear
:)
Spent too long in England.
Fantastic save.
Alonso was one of the more certain ones
Bugger.
:)
YES!
WOW keepers doing a turn
This could be 0:0 for a long time yet
Nice.
I'm enjoying this.
1-0 Spain.
Wasn't a great penalty but it went in
power
Cheeky.
placement - like the deception
Long run up= better pen.
The relief on Pepes face!
Jaime scores :)
Was really hoping Nani would miss there.
Does anyone wear black football boots anymore?
Oh almost over the bar!
don't be so old fashioned!
The dink
Cheeky.
That is a challenge to Ronaldo surely
Lofts it in.
Blue just looks wrong. Leather shouldn't be blue, ever! :)
Hit the bar
That's gotta be it
Knew he would miss.
I wouldn't mind Fabregas missing if Ronaldo did the same
Come on Cesc!
Spain win
Just, just.
4-3 I'll have that :)
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
(assuming Ron would've scored)
Will & Steven called it
So if GER win, we'll get a match we've not seen yet, if ITA win, repeat of their 1st match - I know what I'd like to see
It was 4-2. I refuse to accept Ronaldo would have scored. I think he would have done the dink and Casillas would have saved it
That would've made his tournament!
I don't care as long as its better today.
Ronaldo should have taken an early penalty but I guess he wanted to be the star that won it for them to get his face all over the TV and papers
That's typical Ronaldo. All glory and no team.
Jaime's happy - @AlguersuariJA: #LaRoja grandissssssimossss
Germany to take the cup but would like to see Italy vs Spain
SPA-ITA; Another stalemate 1-1?
SPA-GER; could be really open, or very closed
Night guys, same time tomorrow.
Goodnight everyone. Enjoy the game tomorrow!
Enjoyed the comments more than the game
Night all.
ahh, i missed more speed sporting? grr.
Will haedping you if there is any speed sporting tomorrow night. Hopefully the game will be sorted before that though