Portugal

Two wide men. Two positions. One frankly awesome display so far. Nani and Quaresma are running the show so far against Switzerland, and proving in the process that they are truly interchangeable wing players. Starting on the right, Nani also completed a whole lot of work on the left, and the right-footed Quaresma - who started on the left - has worked the right wing wonderfully. Just check out the fancy heat maps provided by the boffins at the Castrol Index to show exactly how wide these two fellows play. Talk about hugging the touchlines, especially in Quaresma’s case - providing some quality crosses in the process.

Cristiano isn’t used to losing when it comes to playing for his club, so why should it be any different for him when he pulls on the national strip? Against the Czech Republic he was instrumental in the victory – scoring the second goal and laying on the third – and yet it would be fair to argue he didn’t set the game alight. He wasn’t allowed space to make his trademark runs, there weren’t many tricks and stepovers to speak of, but he made a good fist of making sure his team won. His work rate wasn’t immense, and he visibly spent most of his time on the left side of the field. The heat map from the CPI shows, however, that he actually covered a lot more of the pitch than he was given credit for, probably looking for that perfect angle to make a killer run or pass (see third Portugal goal for details).

Poor Diego Benaglio, Switzerland’s hapless keeper. The line of defenders in front of him managed to restrict their opponents to just three shots on target in their opening two games of the tournament. But they all found the back of his net. He has a 0% saving record of shots on target. Zip, nada, zilch. Cue Switzerland being only the second host nation to bow out of the championships at the knock out stages. When you look at Benaglio’s stats, it’s easy to understand why.

Tom thinks this game will be another mighty Portuguese victory, but with the Swiss playing for pride, they’ll be restricted to a 2-0 win.

Jack concurs - a first for this tournament - and also goes for a 2-0 Portugal win.

The stats are powered by the delightful fellows at http://www.castrolindex.com

Kevin McCarra of the Guardian sums up the Portugal performance against the Czech Republic yesterday as being edged with ‘a tinge of frustration’ – referring to the lack of total dominance shown by one C. Ronaldo. It’s not enough now for him to have ‘dangerous moments’ – he should impose ‘utter devastation’. That said, the CPI stats for the young man show that he was joint fastest man on the pitch at 29.42 km/h a whole km/h faster than in the first game. His heat maps show that in his ‘ineffectual’ first game he covered a lot more of the pitch, but when he applied himself to covering one area, he scored one and arguably set up both of the other goals.

In the Telegraph, Tim Rich reports that former Croatia coach Miroslav Blazevic has been bemoaning the apparent lack of fitness in his former charges. ‘There look to be clear problems with physique,’ he said. The stats back him up, too – in their opening game, Croatia as a team covered 105,830m, an amount that Castrol Performance Index ambassador Arsene Wenger called ‘disappointing’ when asked for his thoughts on the stats from the first few games. Averaging 9620m per man, this work rate must improve if they are to go further in the competition.

Austrian coach Josef Hickersperger knows that tonight’s game is a ‘must win’ but has promised not to throw caution to the wind and play ‘Hollywood football’, according to Lewis Rutledge from Team Talk. There have been many formations tried during the tournament so far, from the basic 4-4-2, through the 4-5-1 employed by the Czechs, to a successful (so far) Portuguese 4-2-3-1. Hickersperger isn’t going to play ‘two strikers and four attacking midfielders behind them’ in pursuit of a much needed victory. The stats don’t show clearly yet which is the most effective formation, but you can be sure a 4-0-6 isn’t the way forward.

veyDer over at OleOle has posted some thoughts before the Austria vs. Poland game this evening, and it seems he’s happy with what he sees. Comparing the speed and distance charts from the two teams’ first matches, he has noted that the Polish run faster and further in every position, even the goalkeepers!

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.

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?