Spain

Oh – how this blog’s been unbiased since the start, and but for a brief dalliance extolling the virtues of the Netherlands, and a slightly more extended stint claiming that Slaven Bilic was the greatest man to walk the earth since our ancestors crawled from the sea, dragging their underbellies across baking prehistoric sands – we have remained impartial.

All that, however, is about to change as Jack, at least, throws his not inconsiderable weight behind the Russians… Considered tournament also-rans from the very beginning of the show, they have continually confounded expectations – and with Palyuchenko and Arshavin on fine form, this could just be the upset of the tournament thus far.

It’s all looking fairly even thus far on the CPI – so keep an eye on the stats, and Russia….Indulge me!

The scene in the Porterhouse, Covent Garden

OK, so we’ve moved from Paris to London, but here we are in the Porterhouse in Covent Garden for the Russia v Spain semi final, and we promise you live video and photos, plus some interviews (possibly) with the many revellers who are packing this Irish/English place out.

We’ve pitted two of the bloggers who have contributed to our sites in Spain and Russia against each other, challenging them to tell us how their team is going to progress to the final.

First up was Zhenya, who reckons that although his beloved Russian players aren’t (as well known as Spain’s as they are mainly based in the Russian leagues), they have put themselves in the shop window and players like Arshavin can now pick which European giant they want to play for. He dismisses the 4-1 defeat in the group stages, saying Arshavin wasn’t there to make the difference before going on to extol the virtues of several players, including the young goalkeeper Akinfeev.

Miguel from Diarios de Futbol begins his repost by attacking the Russian defence, much like he hopes his countrymen will tonight, saying that in their last game Ignasevich was ‘horrible’. He goes on to question the tactics of Aragones in implying he won’t play Villa, but reckons it is intended to keep the competitive spirit in the camp.

Zhenya comes back saying the main aim of the Russians will be to block Spain’s attacking threat of Villa and Torres (who he kindly points out didn’t have great games in the quarter final). He also points out that this will be a ‘battle of the coaches’, with Hiddink already having got the better of van Basten.

Thanks lads, and we look forward to seeing who is right and who triumphs in tonight’s match.

He’s having the tournament of his life, and Yuri Zhirkov needs to stamp his authority on the game against Spain tonight in order to establish Russia’s dominance. Zhirkov is so far 4^th in the ‘ground covered’ standings (over 47km), has clocked the fastest time of anyone at 31.3km/h and has the most touches per match of any player at an average of 95. Patrolling the left wing with almost military precision, Zhirkov might want to maintain a position slightly closer to the box against Spain, who were mighty on the counter when they destroyed the Russians in their group game. A look at his Castrol Index heat map shows that spending too much of his time nearer the half way line could be costly.

Whoever is the victor in tonight’s game, we’re guaranteed a tremendous number of shots on goal as the two teams top the charts in terms of numbers (if not necessarily accuracy). Racking up an impressive 134 shots between them so far, there are bound to be bagsful tonight as both teams strive to find the back of the net and progress to the final on Sunday.

Hopefully tonight will hold another game like the first semi, which can only be described as a thrills and spills roller coaster ride. I’m gunning for Spain to win 3-1 (I have them in a sweepstake, so I’m naturally biased).

Jack reckons the Russians will triumph 2-1, with Cameron Diaz netting a brace.

Stats provided by Castrolindex.com

Ah – has been an enjoyable day today, and as much as my heart hankers for more football (48 away from Euro 2008 seems an awful long time), it has been nice to enjoy the break somewhat. However, while others slumber – we continue to keep an eye on the news, and have a quick round up of just a few things we thought you may find interesting.

Firstly, as a site who have extolled the virtues of Michael Ballack since the beginning of the tournament, it’s pleasing to see that one of the best footballing managers in the world agrees with us. Step forward Arsene Wenger who has this to say on the industrious playmaker…

“He makes final balls, good passes, he makes the difference in midfield when it’s needed and when you need him to score a header, he’s there as well. So you can’t fault him. I’m happy for him, because he didn’t always get the respect he deserved when he played in Germany. He leads now. He was quiet for a long time. I felt too quiet. He was leading by example but not with his communication.  It looks like in this tournament he is leading by both.”

Love him? Hate him? Remember, you can vote for your player of the tournament on the CPI about now.

In other news, it will come as no surprise that the Spaniards are a little nervous of the Russians this time around. Cesar at World Cup Blog sums it up nicely suggesting “All jokes aside, this Russian squad is quite different from the side Spain disposed of with ease 4-1 just a few weeks ago. They’re quick, they’re aggressive, they have tremendous pace and they believe they can win this” – and with the possibility of missing Marcos Senna for Thursday’s match, we’d suggest that this is going to be a right-royal scramble.

Oh, and our pal The Gaffer has put up an interesting point of discussion over at EPL Talk – is The European Football Championship better than the World Cup? He says “Over the years, the World Cup has become more about the experience and less about the football. There are many reasons for this, but a major one is the over-commercialization of the sport.” – Do you agree? Pop over and join in the argument…

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!