Czech Republic

He scored, he unselfishley made the third - and love him or hate him.. Ronaldo was on song today against worthy opponents Czech Republic. With joint top speed registered in the Portugal side, his heat map below -powered as every by the CPI- shows he dominated the left hand side of the pitch, yet still managed to make waves all over the park - proving why he is rated as one of the best attacking players in Europe.

Congratulations Portugal, and on that showing it looks to me as if both they and the Czech republic should progress easily. The battle is not over though - so do come back for more statistical insight into Turkey and Switzerland in about 45 minutes.

Well - Ronaldo may have scuppered the Czech chances of victory in this game (although we’ll have to wait and see), but he won’t scupper my blog post - and even though the plucky Portugese have made it 2-1, it would take a brave man to bet that this one was all over, especially with Libor Sionko still on the pitch. The Czech’s main threat has come from set-pieces, and down the right flank - which the aforementioned eastern european has made his own. Just take a look at this heat map produced by the CPI to see the effect he’s had on the game.

Oh - and did I mention he was the most industrious player on the pitch? No, well I did now…. He’s been on form upto the tournament, as this piece on the Czech blog shows.

But you know - it’s second blood to the Czech Republic… And as a fascinating 5th day of European football begins, the CPI once again is throwing up statistical analysis like there is no tomorrow. Which is good of it! Deco fumbles and stumbles one in past Cech, who so nearly srabbled it away from the feet of the Portuguese player, and lo - like a bolt from the blue, Sionko wins a corner on the left. Ujfalusi takes and Sionko gets to the ball first and heads home running in towards the near-post across Ricardo. Good poacher’s goal!

Game on indeed - and although the Czechs are looking rather dangerous, and peppering Ricardos goal with a number of promising efforts - I find it hard not to fancy the Portugese to come back and assert their dominance here. Their workrate is well up on their previous game against Turkey, matching the Czechs stride for stride, and a glance at our in-game stats, powered by the CPI, shows how dominant Ronaldo’s lads have been in terms of possession thus far.

Those predictions over at the Portugese blog down look all that bad thus far - hope you got some money on it boys!

One of those games that just gets the mouth watering, the prospect of this evening’s game between the Czechs and the Portuguese brings to mind impressive shooting, fast passing and fancy footwork from both teams.

In Portugal’s 2-0 victory over Turkey, centre-back Pepe proved his worth – and also why Real Madrid shelled out the big money to prise him away from Porto – by knocking one in for his national side. Not only did he make the scoreline uneven, he covered more than his share of ground in defence, made a team-high 41 passes and cleared the ball nine times. Impressive stuff, and it goes to underline his position as one of Europe’s leading defenders.

He may be old (well, relatively at 30), but he sure ain’t slow. Ricardo Carvalho proved on Saturday against the Turks that he is no slouch, and could show Mr. Ronaldo a thing or two about covering the ground swiftly. Notching up an impressive 28.57 km/h top speed, Carvalho outpaced his younger – and quite frankly more nimble-footed team mate – but only just. We’re not saying he’d win a 100m race, but over a short distance he might defeat the mighty Cristiano. Let’s see if he can run rings round the Czech attack tonight.

Jack thinks this one might be a 2-0 Portugal triumph.

Tom is going for a close-fought 2-1 Portuguese victory.

The stats were provided by http://www.castrolindex.com

Over at The Guardian, Barney Ronay has some interesting analysis of Euro 2008, where it is going wrong, and how some teams are getting it so right.

He pays homage to the exciting attacking systems employed by teams such as Germany – Podolski (an attacker) playing on the left wing, but joining in the attack whenever possible – and Portugal – giving Deco a central role, but allowing him to roam freely. The true key though, appears to be the role that the full backs are playing. Bosingwa and Ferreira barrelling forward gave Portugal extra men up front, Lahm for Germany provided crosses from the right and even when Croatia were ‘under the cosh’ against Austria, Pranjic was leading the attack. Feisty stuff from a left-back, and much copied by the successful Dutch, Spanish and (to a certain extent) the French. His theories are supported by the heat maps from the CPI.

There’s plenty of comment on Barney’s article, so why not head over and join in the fray?

For those of us not so hot on our European geography, Google has come up with a novel use of its Maps service. This map has all the stadiums where the games are being played, along with the capital cities of each country involved. So if you’re not quite sure what the capital of the Czech Republic is (Prague for those that didn’t pay attention at school) or even where it is, just click on the flag and you’ll zoom straight in.

Selecting a stadium brings up a whole host of information, including the dates and times of games played there during the tournament. With all the latest news stories loading down the left hand side, this might just be the place to start for those whose European geography might need a little refresher, or those closer to home who are maybe just getting into the swing of the tournament.

Having had a good few minutes to digest the result, and before the next match kicks off, just a quick post to say that the final score belied the stats.

The Swiss had 55% of the possession, and out-shot the Czechs 13-8. The Czechs were the dirtiest side, conceding 21 free kicks to the 18 of the Swiss. The busiest team were the Czechs, covering a total of nearly 3km more than the Swiss team together. This difference was mostly covered by the defence, who were 2km busier than the ‘clock-makers’. Interestingly, the Czech attack covered 7km more than the Swiss players, but they didn’t seem to be enjoying the better chances. The Swiss midfield had 4km over their counterparts, though, so dominated the position and the possession.

With some more detailed stats to follow, watch this space.