Hard to Win, Harder to Predict

The Euro Cup has been just that. Another bad round of predictions by me as I went 3 for 8. Lets examine my losses and I'll try to defend my logic the best I can.

Portugal/Switzerland: When I made this pick, I was under the impression that Portugal would at least give its starters half an hour. But with 8 starters out, Portugal couldn't pull it off. I predicted 1-1 but the hosts gained some pride while Portugal is now well rested.

Czech/Turkey: The Turks pulled off one of the greatest comebacks in Euro Cup history. Croatia and Turkey is easily the worst of the quarterfinal matches. But you can't blame me for picking the Czechs.

Netherlands/Romania: Holland benched one of the best goalies in the tournament... and still won. Romania is a lot like Switzerland in that they only have one good player. Mutu can't do it all, but I expected a better effort.

France/Italy: The slow starters find themselves in the quarter-finals. I was rooting for both these teams to go out but Italy is picking up steam. Franck Ribery is the big loser here as the world will have to wait another 2 years before noticing the soccer phenom.

Russia/Sweden: After beating Greece and almost beating Spain, I thought Sweden was the overall better team. But age caught up with them. Ibrahimovic was not completely healthy for the game and Sweden didn't have a supporting cast. This was a toss up and Russia played better. Good luck vs Holland.

Predictions:

Here we go for the quarters:

Portugal vs Germany - Germany has not looked as dominating as the tourney has progressed. Portugal is well rested and should come out of this one victorious. This will be a rematch of the 3rd place game at the World Cup 2 years ago. You can be sure that the Portuguese haven't forgotten about it. 2-1 (goals from Ronaldo, Nuno Gomes and Ballack).

Croatia vs Turkey - If Turkey wins this game, I will stop my predictions altogether for the Euro Cup. Croatia is perfect so far and even though they haven't looked as strong as some of the other teams, they're facing quite arguably the worst of the remaining teams. 2-0 (goals from Modric).

Netherlands vs Russia - If it wasn't for Turkey, I'd suggest that Russia is the worst team remaining. And they're up against the undisputed favourite right now. Holland's fire power is too good and unless the Netherlands have a Czech-like collapse, they'll move on to face Spain or Italy. 2-0 (goals from Robben and Ruud).

Spain vs Italy - Spain is right there with Holland for the best team remaining. While they didn't coast to a first place finish in Group D, they got some bounces in the last 5 minutes of games. Look for this one to go to penalties. Spain and Italy have both been in this kind of situation before. And history tells us that Spain chokes and Italy somehow pulls it off. 1-1 after 120 minutes (goals from Torres and Toni) and Italy wins on penalties thus getting another shot at Holland.



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