Portugal

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.

It’s not how much of the ball you have, it’s how well you work with it a great footballing philosopher (possibly) once said – and tonight’s eye-opening clash between Portugal and Germany has proven such an adage. Look how Portugal grafted, ploughing forward, blasting in shot after shot from range – but it’s not the numbers that count eh? 

OK – so they may have had 22 shots to Germany’s 11 - 5 more corners than their tri-scoring opponents, but as our half-time post suggested. Germany have just been that much more clinical! Even the late surge couldn’t snare that victory! Now I was tempted to just show the statistics from the game, but far more exciting is the (in my eyes) at least – courtesy of the CPI, here’s a heat map of the most influential player of the tournament thus far.

Yup, you can’t get away from him – Michael Ballack - step forward, and run the hell around the whole pitch whilst dominating the midfield all night. Congratulations sir! Oh, and for a full report of tonight’s game, have a look at 101greatgoals.com.

This looked, after 25 minutes, like it could be an absolute walkover. Germany were ruthless, clinical in their finishing, tireless in the running, awesome all over the pitch. Then Portugal woke up and started to fire on all cylinders. Deco, Simao, Ronaldo and Gomes providing exquisite touches all over the field, and eventually combining to ensure Nuno could fire one home from 7 yards. But which form of attack is going to prevail? A look at the Castrol Index heat maps shows that the German attack has been covering more area of the pitch (but only 228m in total), and fairly biased towards the left, whereas the Portuguese have been fairly central and concentrated. Which tactic will come good? Only time will tell…

Stats powered by Castrolindex.com

The Castrol Index has released some fascinating figures prior to the Quarter Final stage of Euro 2008, covering every possibility of penalty taking and saving as the grim prospect of cagey matches played to draw looms ever nearer.

The old adage of ‘just whack it down the middle’ might not cut as much mustard amongst the actual players as many commentators think, and to prove them wrong, here’s some rather attractive stats:

Hitting it straight and true seems only to be favoured 11.9% of the time, with spot-kickers favouring the bottom corners. The next image, however, shows that maybe they should have opted for a different approach.

It seems that the ‘down the middle’ option isn’t the best way after all, as presumably keepers diving left or right can still make the save with their legs. Bottom corners (the most popular for takers) also seems to be a safe bet. Trying to lift the ball above a diving keeper has the best pay off in terms of finding the back of the net, but whilst the reward may be high, the risk of missing the target also looms large.

If Portugal wins a spot kick in their Quarter Final with Germany, the figures show that the best option for Ronaldo (the most likely to step up and take the penalty) would be to go to Lehmann’s right. He seems particularly susceptible in this area, but as the majority of Ronaldo’s penalty success in the last two years has been precisely here, the German stopper might pre-empt him and go this way. When Ronaldo tried to change tactics against Barcelona in the Champions League however, and attempt a high risk, high reward kick, he missed the target.

In fact, looking at all the figures, the over arching message is that a penalty taker (especially Ronaldo against Lehmann) should categorically NOT fire it straight down the middle.

Once again, statistics triumph over the long-held ‘wisdom’ of the bloke in the pub. Take that, bloke in the pub.

Stats powered by Castrolindex.com

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.

Much has been written on these pages about the superiority, speed and stamina of Michael Ballack and his unfailing knack of outrunning all his team mates and usually every other bloke on the pitch. But one man does not make a team, and his centre-mid partner in crime Torsten Frings deserves a mention here too. Between them they have provided a solid foundation from which the front line can push on, safe in the knowledge that should they lose the ball, the Frings/Ballack back up will secure it again. The Castrol Index shows that the German team has, in fact, spent 56% of their time on the ball in midfield, the most of any team so far. Frings has made the most passes of any German player (187), proving himself as the hub of all the team’s moves, and he’s won 11 of his tackles – the second highest in the tournament. A look at his heat map in the game against Austria last time out confirms that he is an out and out centre midfielder, no question. Whether he’ll be able to deal with the pacy Portuguese tonight is another matter though.

*UPDATE* Having checked with my colleagues on our German sister site, it seems that Frings is a fitness doubt. He has a fractured rib but is still keen to play, and coach Oliver Bierhoff is going to wait until the last minute until he makes his decision as to whether to play him or not.

Should Portugal manage to weave their way past Frings and Ballack and elude the back four, they have another obstacle to overcome before finding the back of the net. Jens Lehmann has stopped 85% of the shots he has faced, and despite a blooper against Croatia has been rock solid as the last line. At 38, this is his last big tournament, so he might be pulling out all the stops (pun *definitely* intended) to go out with a bang. In the opposite goal, Ricardo has only prevented two thirds of the shots on his goal from crossing the line, so the Germans must be confident of getting at least one.

Tom thinks this might end level, forcing extra time and the dreaded penalties.

Jack suggests that the mighty Germans will crush flimsy Portugal 2-0.

Stats powered by Castrolindex.com

The Swiss attack, 15 minutes from time, has come up trumps with 2 goals against the much-fancied Portugal, and from the heat map evidence they really, really deserved it for their efforts. Just see how much busier they appear and the ground they have covered. But the Castrol Index throws up a conundrum - the Swiss attack covered 8788m in the 75 minutes, Portugal 9188m. The Portuguese attack was more concentrated, so which was the more successful? The scoreline suggests the Swiss, but stats can be misleading. On this occasion, however, they’re not. Effort expended chasing down lost causes paid dividends, and the Portguese knew they were qualified, so didn’t bother.