Spanish Armada!

Russia was supposed to have mounted a better challenge against Spain when they met two days ago. Alas… that was not to true! With Arshavin as in-the-hole striker/forward… the Spanish defense was supposed to be tested by him and Palvuchenko but the Spanish defense stood strong. Arshavin was a no show.. completely marked out of the game.. I hardly heard his name being mentioned by the commentators… so that shows how much he really got the ball. And when he did, he wasted whatever chance came to him.

Spain were delightful going forward. David Villa injured himself in the first half. I thought that was gonna be bad… but the introduction of Cesc Fabregas caused alot of chaos for the Russians. His brilliant passing and movement… tormented the opposition defenders. My man-of-the-match. Torres was left up front on his own… had a couple of good chances but failed to nail the coffin. His role is somewhat different from what I see… he seems to carry the ball to either wings… not playing his normal central role as what he does for Liverpool.

The 5-man Spanish midfield were delightful. Xavi, Iniesta, Silva, Fabregas and Senna were so composed… so skillful. They toyed with the Russians. Quick succession of passing just caught the Russians out.

Needless to say, the 3-0 scoreline is impressive, especially against a renewed charged up Russian team.

Germany on the other hand were quite lucky to get through the finals. The Turks were unlucky this time but I felt they were the better team. They should have won.

I have a funny feeling that Germany will somehow or rather play really badly against Spain in the coming finals… but will just nick it to win the game. That how the Germans would do it and that’s how they’ve been playing all this Euro.

Players to watch in the finals:

Germany: Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Ballack, Klose

Spain: Fabregas, Silva, Xavi, Torres