Posts Tagged ‘Cesc Fabregas’

Euro 2012 Semi-Final: Portugal vs Spain – 4 Talking Points

Posted: June 27, 2012 by jameseugene in Euro 2012, Euro 2012 Round-Up
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A highly anticipated match, Portugal squared-off against the European and World Champions Spain in the first semi-final. With what was seen as a tense game by some, boring by others and alright by the rest, the game managed to go to penalties, with Spain winning 4-2 in the end, thus advancing to the finals.

1. Both Sets Of Full-Backs Were Brilliant…

The Real Madrid teammates were involved in a key battle today

A vast array of attacking was exhibited by all four full-backs during the game. Portugal’s two full-backs Coentrao and Pereira provided that extra dimension in attack that Spain found difficult to contain. Combined with Nani and Ronaldo on the flanks, Portugal seemed to be a threat, especially in the 1st half. The 2nd half, however, saw the Spanish full-backs step up to the podium, most notably Sergio Ramos who even outpaced Ronaldo at one point. To praise him further, Ramos had the highest pass completion in the whole match: 89 pass, 76 completed, 85% completion rate, which is slightly more than his teammate Xavi who racked up an impressive 84% completion rate.

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Euro 2012: Spain vs Ireland – Five Talking Points

Posted: June 15, 2012 by jameseugene in Euro 2012, Euro 2012 Round-Up
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Spain’s first game saw a draw between them and Italy, while Ireland were looking to recover from a 3-1 defeat against Croatia. Ireland were left disappointed however, after suffering a 4-0 defeat to the European and World Champions Spain: 2 goals coming from Torres, a calmly taken goal by David Silva and a brilliant strike by the substitute Cesc Fabregas.

1. Torres Silences His Critics

Torres celebrates a goal against Ireland

It was bound to happen. Fernando Torres who has received a lot of criticism for the past 18 months scored not only once, but twice during the match against Ireland. It may be too early to say that he is back, but he is showing promising signs that he is gaining more confidence, not only from his goals but also from his contribution during the game by making passing and getting into threatening positions. Cynics will probably say “it was not against tough opposition”, but if he didn’t score, these same people will say “he couldn’t do it against weak opposition”. There’s no pleasing some critics, be happy for the lad and hope to see similar (or even better) performances from him in the next few games.

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Euro 2012 Round-Up: Day 3

Posted: June 10, 2012 by jameseugene in Euro 2012, Euro 2012 Round-Up
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Matches: Spain vs Italy; Ireland vs Croatia

Today’s two matches saw the four Group C teams pitted against each other. Could have potentially been dubbed the “Group of Debt” if Greece were in instead of Croatia, but alas it is still a solid group that produced two very decent games.

Spain 1-1 Italy

Substitute Di Natale opens the scoring with a calmly taken finish

Spain decides to opt for six midfielders in the game with no strikers, while Italy played a 3-5-2 formation. This game literally had me screaming “SHOOT” at my TV, but it was pretty exciting at the same time.

The first half comprised off a lot of tiki-taka from the Spanish side, but with no end product on numerous occasions. Andres Iniesta was no doubt the most prominent figure for the side in the first half, getting into brilliant scoring positions but didn’t manage to score. The Italians were brilliant in the first half with their 3-5-2 formation, defending excellently but also attacking with some force,  prompting numerous saves from Iker Casillas who was arguably the busier keeper in the first half.

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