Russia

Now we’re not ones to labour a point on this site (yeah right, what about Jack’s endless Ballack love? - Ed), but it’s coming to something when we have to post our 100th story about defenders pushing forward. In this match, however, the traditional wing backs pushing forward pattern that we have extolled many times just isn’t working for the Dutch. A look at the heat maps from the Castrol Index shows that the Netherlands defence is sticking to what it knows best and working the wings (covering a mighty 19562m between them in the process), but the Russian back line is more…how shall I put this? Random. In distance (only 13434m for these four chaps) and direction - just look at it…what a mess! Let’s see who can get a grip in the second half. I think the more organised Dutch will break down the erratic Russian back line.

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Days after conquering the group of death with a mighty sweep of their orange fists, The Netherlands are coming up against a new foe, this time in the form of Gus Hiddink’s rejuvenated Russia - who since they were thrashed in the first game of the tournament by flamboyant Spain, have been lookingly steadily better and better as the tournament has progressed. Bookies have this penned in for a clear Dutch win - but will the old curse of ‘throwing it all away’ come back to haunt Netherlands… Sure everything looks good at the moment, with squad unity seemingly at a high… But what do the stats say?

Well - things look good for the Russians in terms of work-rate, and of the eight teams left in the competition, Russia (as a whole) have covered the most ground after the group stages. Coupled with that, three Russians occupy the individual top 10 in terms of industry (CPI table below), with midfielder Sergei Semak topping the chart. Congratulatons sir!

However, it is going to take all their energy and stamina to hold the Netherlands at bay, and it is also worth of noting that of the final 8 teams, it is Russia who conceded the most shots on target during the group stages, a massive 22, and this is likely to get Van Basten’s red hot strikers champing at the bit!

Tom thinks 3-1 Holland. Jack agrees wholeheartedly! And for more information, take a look at this irreverant preview over on ’scuffed balls’.

Yes, in time for the final of Euro 2008, you could be wearing this wonderfully neutral shirt (unless Russia make it, or Germany, in which case you’ll be wearing the right colour). All you need to do is answer an insanely easy question and there could be one winging its way direct to your door. High quality cotton, this plain white tee is bordered with emerald green trim. With a wonderful Castrol logo on the left breast, this exclusive shirt will leave you the envy of all your friends. Their faces will literally be the same colour as the edging. Maybe.

The Castrol Index is running a Player of the Tournament competition, where you could win tickets to the Final of Euro 2008, simply by picking your favourite player so far. Handily, we’re assured that the winner will be chosen in advance of the final match, so you could find yourself sitting in Vienna come Sunday 29^th, watching the best teams thrash it out for glory.

So why not head over there and vote for your favourite, then drop us an email telling us who you voted for, and you could win two competitions for the price of one! Entries close Wednesday 25th June.

A well deserved victory for Russia who weren’t content to sit back on their two goals and attacked right through to fulltime on 93 minutes. In fact they finished the game with 56% of the possession against Sweden’s 44% and had almost twice as many shots on Isaksson’s goal with 22 attempts against Sweden’s 13 and three times as many corners with 12.

It was essentially a tale of both team’s star players. Russia’s Andrei Anshavin got his goal on 50 mins and the Castrol Index shows he didn’t stop running - covering over 1800 metres more than Sweden’s golden boy Ibrahimovic who ran just 8651 metres and who barely got a sniff of the target all night.

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With Andrei Arshavin making his first start after a two match ban, the Russians have had the better of the first half with 55% of the possession to Sweden’s 45%. Inspite of Russia’s one goal lead Sweden have began to get into the game inspite of being the oldest team in the tournament against the legs of the young Russian side.

A quick look at the amount of work done by the Russian defence when compared to their Swedish counterpoarts soon tells us that Russia are pressing and probing down the right, and the defence as a whole is striving to support whenever possible. In fact, if you compare the two heat maps from the Castrol Index, Sweden simply look like a skinnier version of their opponents - Russia Lite if you will.

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OK, OK, we may have been a little hasty in labelling Zlatan Ibrahimovic as the laziest player to grace the Euro 2008 stage after the first game, but if ever we needed proof that every squad is reading these pages, he’s it. After a truly woeful first match against Greece in terms of work rate and a slating by us, Ibrahimovic bucked his ideas up against Spain, and until he was taken off at half time covered most of the opposition’s half of the field according to the Castrol Index heat map below. Well done for paying attention to us, Zlatan, now go out there and score a hatful (Fantasy Football is a great motivator at Euro 2008 Statistics Towers!)

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Proof once again that it isn’t just the eyes of Europe that are glued (well, kind of, unless it’s Greece vs. Russia, which we watched out of politeness) to the current tournament being played out in Austria and Switzerland, we bring you news and opinion this fine morning from around the world.

Du Guodong, the editor of China View, brings us news that Leo Beenhakker has refused to step down as national coach of Poland following his team’s frankly lacklustre performance at Euro 2008. His extended contract saw his job safe until 2010, but that was signed before the tournament, and rumours abound that he might be receiving a Polish equivalent of a P45 before long.

The blog of The World Game, Australian-based sports show, reports that Italian coach Donadoni is expecting the Netherlands to do the Azzurri a favour and defeat Romania tonight, allowing his side to go through. They report that Donadoni has said if he was to put himself in a Dutch player’s boots, he wouldn’t want to be asked to lose against Romania, just to prevent Italy or France going through, going as far as to say he would be ‘humiliated’.

Sulmaan Ahmad, from Goal.com, holds a different view however. He reckons that Donadoni is going to make ‘wholesale changes’ to his side tonight, which could gift the French an easy ride through to the next round. This replay of the World Cup final revolves around the result in the other game, but literally any outcome is still possible, including a penalty shootout. Sulmaan thinks the ‘bragging rights’ for this one are too big to see a dull 0-0 played out, so roll on the goalfest!

Read the small print! 2010! 10, I said!