As the minutes wound down in regulation time of the Italy-Spain quarter-final, a fear crept into the hearts of most neutral observers: Good God, this match is not going to end. It didn’t need a goal, it needed a mercy killing. But as Spain discovered in its difficult — and difficult to watch — 4-2 penalty kick shootout win in the quarter-finals of Euro 2008, trying to get past an Italian team committed to a defensive scheme is like playing in ski boots filled with linguini carbonara. The pace slows. Every passing lane seems clogged, and there are more defenders in the penalty area than pawns on a chess board.
Italy wasn’t the only quarter final contestant to try to destroy its opponent’s tactical advantage, merely the only unsuccessful one. Russia, Germany and, again in spectacular fashion, Turkey, provided delicious upsets of Holland (1-3 after extra time), Portugal (2-3) and Croatia (1-1 after extra time, 3-1 on penalties) to disrupt a tournament that had already been set alight by Turkey’s last gasp heroics against Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
Gritty, dogged Italy advanced to the quarters by somehow avoiding a loss to Romania and beating a French team that is fading faster than its own side. Against high-scoring Spain, and lacking its midfield virtuoso Andrea Pirlo, Italy opted for its classic catennacio defense, and Spain suffered the consequences. Italy’s interest in attack was episodic, and with the helpless Luca Toni leading its offense, Italy registered its first corner kick 40 minutes into the game.
This was grim stuff indeed. The flowing Spanish football that had destroyed Russia, undid Sweden and overcame Greece with its second team was the last thing Italy needed to see. So the Italians shunted the Spanish to the outside and shut down anything coming up the middle. They so frustrated the normally dynamic Andrés Iniesta that he was pulled in the 59th minute along with his running mate Xavi Hernández. Yet it was Italy who got closest on the hour, when Spain keeper Iker Casillas made a left footed save on substitute Mauro Camoranesi after a goal mouth scramble.
After a feckless overtime, the two teams squared off for penalties, and Spanish keeper Iker Casillas made great stops on Daniele De Rossi and Antonio Di Natale to claim the victory. “To be honest I think we deserved it,” noted Casillas. To be honest, Iker, we didn’t deserve to have to watch this mess.
The rest of the semi-final draw belongs to the underdogs. The Russians pulled off the upset of the tournament — which is saying something given Turkey’s incredible win over Croatia — by beating the Dutch at their own game in a stunning 3-1 win in extra time. “What the boys did in their commitment, what they did to outplay tactically, physically the Dutch team. It’s almost a miracle,” said Russian coach, the Dutchman “Lucky” Guus Hiddink. What the Russians did is learn and adapt in the course of a long tournament. In their first game, against Spain, the Russian back line played too far up the field and got torched by the Spanish front of Fernando Torres and David Villa. They weren’t going to make that mistake against the speedy Dutch, and kept two defenders deep, never allowing the Netherlands to stretch the game as they had done so successfully.
More importantly, the Russians believed they could attack too, particularly against a team with a one-striker system as the Dutch employ. The Russians are not plodders. It’s a team of whippets: thin, very fit and athletic. Against Greece, left wing fullback Yuri Zhirkov repeatedly attacked up the flank and poured cross after cross toward the tall striker Roman Pavlyuchenko.
Against Holland, Pavlyuchenko had help in the baby faced striker Andrei Arshavin, who gave the Dutch defense all they could handle. Pavlyuchenko was the first to a cross by Sergei Semak in the 56th minute, and it looked a certainty that the Russians could make the goal stand up, despite the addition of Robin van Persie and Ibrahim Afellay to the game for Holland, Arjen Robben being unavailable. Finally, Ruud van Nistelrooy converted a free kick with a far-post header to level the game in the 86th minute. Yet the Russians held together and then took charge in overtime. “The most important thing is our movement,” noted Pavlyuchenko. “Hiddink said that if we kept going, the Dutch would be worn out sooner or later. I have no idea where our energy came from. We were very good going forward — the attack was supported not by one, but by three or four people.” That continued in the overtime, when Russian sub Dmitri Torbinski, a wisp of a man who had tortured the Greeks in the previous game, squeezed Arshavin’s cross in at the far post in the 112th minute. Arshavin nailed the Dutch coffin shut with a deflected goal four minutes later.
Germany faced a similar situation as the Russians had. Portugal had won its first two games in style, and possessed both the magic of Cristiano Ronaldo and a host of stylish players like Deco and Joao Moutinho. Germany was not about to trade scoring chances with that offense and opted for a much more basic approach. The Germans simply knocked over Ronaldo & Co. whenever they could — they outfouled the Portuguese 8-3 in the first half. Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari had feared Germany’s size, since it’s a team that averages 1.849m (6.06 ft.). Yet it wasn’t size that put Portugal in the hole, it was the speed of Bastian Schweinsteiger. Playing wide on the right, Schweini made a terrific diagonal run across the field to meet Lukas Podolski’s cross at the near post at 22 minutes, with Portugal’s Paulo Ferreira unable to match his pace. It was a staggering shot across the Portuguese bow, and completely unexpected.
Then it was time for Schweini and Germany to play what U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller calls “Monsters in the Box.” It works this way: Germany wins a free kick and then Schweinsteiger whips the ball into the area where any number of German players attack it. For Germany’s second goal, it was Miroslav Klose, not the biggest German at a mere 1.82 m tall, but he could have been no taller than a garden gnome and scored as he was completely unmarked, putting Portugal in a hole from which it never recovered. Ronaldo was still to be heard from, but Germany never figured to contain him for an entire game. Sure enough, in the 40th minute he came screaming down the left channel and fired a shot that Jens Lehmann could only parry, and Nuno Gomes was there to scored Portugal’s first after snatching the rebound.
But the German scheme to bottle and bump Ronaldo would hold up, unlike Portugal’s dead ball defense. If there’s one thing Greece’s championship run taught us, it’s that every dead ball situation is a potential match winner. And having already allowed a goal on a set piece you’d think Portugal’s D would rise up. Nope. In the 61st minute German captain Michael Ballack, having conveniently shoved his marker out of the way, was there to meet another free kick for a 3-1 lead. A frantic Portuguese comeback would yield a goal from Helder Postiga in the 87th minute, but the Germans held on.
That puts Germany in line to meet Turkey in the semis. Ordinary, that would be a good thing, given the fundamentals of the two teams, but Turkey, like its great rival Greece in 2004, is having a magical ride in Euro2008. Having played the Croats to a standstill for 118 minutes, and thrilling minutes at that, the Turks seemed finished when Ivica Olic — who’d earlier blown a wide-open chanced from yards away — caught Turkish keeper Recber Rustu off his line and lobbed a pass to Ivan Klasnic for a free header and a goal at 119 minutes. But nothing seems to motivate the Turks more than getting behind, as they demonstrated in clawback wins against both Switzerland and, sensationally, the Czech Republic. The Croats had barely pulled themselves off of their victory pile when Semih Senturk somehow responded at 121:46 (the latest ever goal in the tournament’s history) with an unstoppable smash off a long kick from Rustu that somehow ended up on his foot. It’s a wonder that volatile Turkish coach Fatih Terhim’s head didn’t explode. The Croats, unnerved, were a disaster in the penalty kicks, with the normally cool Luka Modric missing the target in the first kick. They would miss 3 of 4 kicks, which isn’t easy.
In their upcoming semifinal game against Germany on Wednesday, the Turks have a numbers problem. Emre Aşık, Arda Turan and Tuncay Şanli are suspended. Its two other Emres, Belozoglu and Göngör, are injured and hero striker Nihat Kahveci, who shattered the Czechs earlier with an injury-time goal, is already home with a thigh problem. There were 14 players available at a recent training session. No problem, says Rustu. “Turkey’s never-give-up attitude shouldn’t be forgotten.” Maybe Germany should just let Turkey score first. It just might get them off their game.
The Russians, that other surprise package, pretty much know what’s in store in their semifinal against Spain since the Iberians thumped them 4-1 in the opening group game. This is not the same naïve bunch that gambled so recklessly in that contest. Look for them to attack early and defend deep and take their chances against a very talented Spanish side. And be thankful that they won’t play like Italy.