Euro 2012 Portugal v Spain Semi-Final

I ken where yer coming from. However, Spain's style of 'it's oor baw' means thatb the opposition have to come up with a trawler style net to try to have a hope o beating them. So, aye, I know what you mean, but their style, be honest, is impeccable. The 82 WC was a classic for entertainment goals and poor defending. Great to watch, though. Would Spain today beat Italy & Brazil of 82? Yup.

 

If Germany get there then they may beat Spain but they won't batter them. Hopefully they don't sit back though and have a go and we can have a proper game.

Anyway best tournament I ever watched was Euro 2000. Awesome tournament. Knock out games just as good as the group games. Stunning finish in the final too.

 

:icon_mrgreen:

 

Spain are not the team they were, they lack a real cutting edge. They don't look like tournament winners to me.

 

Thought the first half was really good, thought the second half would be decent but it turned into Spain trying to score and Portugal trying to stop them.

As for the penalties; the thinking often is to reverse the order (best taker taking the last)hence Ronaldo not getting the chance. Which is the chance you take in doing so.

FourFourTwo ‏@FourFourTwo
Bento: Ronaldo was down to take the fifth #Portugal penalty: "We lost the advantage after the first one"

Still on the penalties, I think a crucial incident was the part when Bruno Alves walked to take the penalty only for Nani to hit it instead. Now making the assumptions with relation to the suggestion above(order of taker), it would appear that Nani may have jumped the order (although this is unclear).

 

See for me, Spain have lost their cutting edge and the excitement that made me so enjoy watching them just a couple of years ago. They are a totally different team, and imo worse for it, without Villa.

They have been affected by their own success, now they don't have to try hard they just pass a team to death for 90 (or 120) minutes then nick a 1-0 or penalties win and call it a day, that for me is plain boring.

I have seen very few intricate little through balls, flicks, and clever tricks from them this tournament because they simply haven't had to be so clever as they were before.

I think it's just the predictability, I know how they're gonna play, and I know how they're opponents are gonna play... almost ruins the spectacle before it's begun.

Llorente must be near suicide sitting on that fecking bench seeing Torres and even Fabregas starting as a striker ahead of him.

 

In euro 2004 he took the 4th pen, in WC 2006 he took the 5th.

So no real shock in taking the 5th and Yeah the manager has confirmed it was his choice the manager picked the order-NOT RONALDO.

 

Yeah I have been thinking the same thing. Negredo was brutal tonight. If was Del Bosque I would play Llorente up front in the final.

 

The first half was good because Portugal did so much work off the ball. Pressing high up the field, stopping them from passing and generally roughing them up.
You could see it when Ramos had that awkward clearance were he fell on the ball and almost handed it. They weren't comfortable in that half. It's the only way you can play against Spain, just it clearly takes a great toll on team performance later on.

Again, I liked Alba who ran himself into the ground. When everyone else was * he was running the entire length of the pitch just to give team mates a second option. Great team player.

 

Both against England too :icon_mrgreen:

 

Aye and both vital

 

The United fan is defending Ronaldo...go figure.

Is it more likely that the manager decided to have CR go 5th or that CR is arrogant and wanted the glory with winning on the 5th PK?

When has Ronaldo ever gone 1st? I can't think off the top of my head. It must be because he decides not to, not the manager.

 

Not the best of games but well done Spain

 

He's too stubborn to do that though, that would almost proving everyone right. If it was me, I'd go with pedro up top

 

You clearly can't read

 

Manager doing it to cover for his best player though.

When has a manager ever decided who takes a penalty?

He wanted the glory knowing the 5th is always the most likely to score the winner, hes not the only one whos ever done it, people do it in most shootouts but this one it was just weird to see because some centre backs went up before him and obviously theres a good chance they would miss, when hes a penalty specialist.

 

IIRC 4 defenders took pens, 2 from each side, maybe they were just confident enough to take them instead of anyone being arrogant.

Also the 5th pen is potentially the one with the most pressure, I'd want a player like Ronaldo taking it.

 

You need to get scores on the board though. No point in leaving your best penalty taker in a position where he may not even take one, as happened in this shoot-out.

 

But youd think if Defenders were going to take them youd send up your best takers first just incase, because with defenders going up to take the first couple theres always the danger you wont even get too the 5th penalty and will know you * up by doing it, just like what happened.

Portugals problem was that 3 certain penalty takers were subbed Almeida, Veloso and Meireles and none of the subs are penalty takers, so they were left with guys who wouldnt normally want to take penalties to take penalties, in that situation youd want your best men up first.

 

Drogba took and scored the final penalty in the Champions League final and he was considered a hero, Ronaldo never had a chance to take one because of the inability of those before him to scored. Ronaldo is the big bad guy in this situation for some reason.

Defenders took penalties before him but what does that really matter? 2 defenders took penalties for Spain and both scored. People are just hating on Ronaldo for no other reason than it is Ronaldo