Italy

Well, it started out politely with applause for the national anthems, yet two hours later had descended into singing in the streets. How did this happen? I give you the magic forumla of football + alcohol = frenzied excitement. You can probably throw into that the drama of penalties - and penalty saves - and it gives you the result that I witnessed last night in the Les Halles area of Paris. Previously extremely demure young ladies became fervent fans the closer the game got to its denouement. Every corner was screamed for, every free kick given against their team booed. The Frog and Rosbif (Paris’s first and best English pub, according to the marketing) was rammed, and the crowd was split roughly 50:50. No hint of any animosity between the two sets of fans, but lots of light-hearted banter (as far as my limited knowledge of both languages goes) and singing. But eventually it was the Spanish contingent who spilled (poured themselves?) out into the dark streets to continue their revellry into the night. Here’s how happy they were just after the match:

Happy faces, waved flags, plenty of booze…the perfect fooballing evening

A victory for football… The Italians, despite being a side full of superbly talented individuals seemed to be playing all-out for a goalless full-time, and penalties, and did it ever come back to bite them - with Di Natale scuffing a weak fourth penalty into Casillas’ arms to hand the Semi-Final to Aragones and his lads. OK, so the football at the most part wasn’t pretty, but just take a look at David Silva and his heat-map (from the CPI) below as an example to see how hard the Spanish worked.

I was hoping for updates of screaming Italians and Spanish supporters live from ‘Gay Paris’ from our roving reporter Tom, but apparently someone spilt beer all over his laptop - and as such he has gone missing. Still, I imagine he is somewhere, leaping from fountain to bar with Spanish scarf around his head, considering a nationality change. Cracking excitement, despite the football - and here’s hoping for an exciting pair of Semi Finals.

Who’s going to win? I don’t know, but one thing is for sure… Don’t ask Luis Aragones!

I’m begging to be proven wrong in the second half - but as it stands, this tepid performance between two giants of the international scene has been one of the worst halves of football thus far in the tournament, with Spain playing some nice football and the Italians stifling the play all night. However, Toni has looked like he’s keen up the other end, and if Spain continue to press who knows what will happen.

“They’re the team who are trying to score the goals are Spain” I hear the northern tones of Alan Shearer ring in my ears… and it’s difficult to deny that the geordie favourite is right. Take a look at the statistics, taken from the CPI, below - shots 10:1 in favour of the Red Fury, and hark at the Azzurri who have had just 43% of possession over all.

The phingy label blog were all excited about this game…  How wrong they were - for now at least.

…from the Frog and Rosbif pub in the heart of lovely, sunny Paris.

We thought that we should bring a bit of European culture to our English pages, so we drew straws, and here I am in Paris, Meant to be live-blogging the France Quarter Final. As we all know, things didn’t quite go as expected for Les Bleus, so the Frog and Rosbif (Paris’s premier English pub) gets our custom this evening. Hopefully some Italians and Spaniards will wander in and make the place jump, but it’s already pretty lively.

Look for more in a bit, but fo now I’ll pass over to ‘Short Straw’ Jack.

The last of the quarter finals sees Italy, who scraped through to the Euro 2008 quarter-finals with just three goals, all of them arising from set-piece manoeuvres, take on Spain - the team who started so well in destroying Russia - but who perhaps haven’t looked quite so convincing ever since…

OK - so the ‘Red Fury’ rested a number of players in the 3rd game against tournament losers Greece and still maaged to snatch a last minute win, but one imagines that the World Champions are made of sterner stuff than they have displayed thus far, and it’s time fo pre-tournament hero Luca Toni to score isn’t it…? Surely..? Maybe..?

For you see, taking a look back at the statistics, it becomes clear that there is a curious sense of déjà vu after he suffered a similar fate in World Cup 2006. Then, as the table below (provided by the CPI) shows, he had scored more than 30 goals for Fiorentina, (the first man to break through that barrier in Serie A since the 1950s), yet failed to score in the group stages for the eventual World Champions. His two goals in WC2006 did come in the quarter-finals, however, so perhaps he will finally make his mark against Spain on Sunday evening.

Only time will tell - but my money is on Toni finally bagging one!

Bringing a lens to the game we know and love as soccer - well, football - Soccerlens brings its readers the very, very latest from the wonderful world of the round ball. Mixing reporting and fact in a cauldron of opinion, the pages also features many, many lovely ladies. But that’s not the only reason to visit this well-informed, useful and oft-times amusing site.

We collared Ahmed, head honcho of the site, and asked him few probing questions (yes, we’ll admit it, Jack was just after the source of his lady-pics)

Who is going to win Euro 2008?

Portugal - although the way the tournament is going, they could be out by Thursday night (Ed – we asked these yesterday…he wasn’t to know…)

Which is your favourite football kit of Euro 2008?

Italy’s home shirt, hands down. Classy team, classy shirt, they’ve fallen on hard times recently but hopefully they can do something now that they’re through to the quarters.

Where do you find all your photos of the Euro 2008 hotties that feature in your posts?

Well, what I can tell you is that with the Euro warming up and getting to the knockout stage, you’ll see some really nice Euro-08 themed collections in this week and the next.

Tom thinks Ronaldo is sleeker than a panther, and faster than the eagle. Basically,he loves him, but Jack thinks he won’t do much at all in Euro 2008 - who’s right?

To be honest he reminds me more of a swift and deadly snake (with the appropriate personality traits as well) and I think Tom’s spot on - as long as Portugal are at the Euros, Ronaldo will be leading them from the front and will have an impact on each and every game. (Ed – see comment above)

Why should people make sure that soccerlens.com is top of their blogroll at all times!

Apart from the babes? Well, some of the content we put out - the interviews, our transfer pages (which feature all transfers from the top European leagues, in one easy-to-access page) and our opinion columns - you won’t find anywhere else.

Today’s featured site is EPL Talk, based across the pond but very much focussed on the Premier League ins and outs. The big boss, and our pal, aptly monikered The Gaffer, was good enough to take some tickets off our hands and was able to witness first-hand the awesome power of the Netherlands as they destroyed the Italians 3-0 in their opening match.

We took the nice man to one side and had a few quiet words with him, to gain an insight into who he thinks will win the tournament and find out why Archie Gemmill is better than Pele.

Who is going to taste the glory of Euro 2008 final victory?
It has to be the Dutch. Holland has the most passionate fans. Plus they’re the most clinical in front of goal. Their two goals scored from counter attacks against Italy were mindblowing. And they have the strength on the bench if any of their star players get injured

Which is your favourite goal of all time? And could you think of anywhere better to watch it than the Slainte Irish Pub?
Of all time? It has to be Archie Gemmill’s mazy run for Scotland against Holland in the 1978 World Cup. Instead of watching it a pub, I would have loved to have been on the terraces for that one with the Tartan Army in Argentina. Although if I remember correctly, that tournament was freezing cold, so no kilts for me. Besides, I’m Welsh.

Who has been your player of the tournament thus far?
This is a bit cheeky, but my favorite player has been the one that I picked to excel at this tournament before Euro 2008 began and that’s Wesley Sneijder. His goals against Italy and France were two of the best of the tournament. Plus his delivery of passes and throughballs for Holland this tournament have been simply incredible.

Tom thinks Ronaldo is the best player in the tournament, whilst Jack thinks he has been a let down thus far? Who’s right?
Ronaldo still seems like he’s adjusting to his different role on the pitch for Portugal, so as a result, we haven’t seen the best of him yet. For Man United, he continually switches from wing to wing, but he doesn’t have that same freedom for Portugal.

Why should people make sure that www.epltalk.com is top of their blogroll at all times?

It’s the only blog that focuses exclusively on the Premier League. For the month of June, we’ve added Euro 2008 coverage, but for the remainder of the year we bring readers the news and analysis regarding the Premiership. The twist is that we also write about TV, radio and internet coverage of the Premier League, which you can’t anywhere else.