12:45pm Thursday 26th June 2008
By Ben Barnett
Everyone is quite rightly raving about Andrei Arshavin at the moment. In two appearances he’s managed to grab the attention of clubs in England and Spain. It is down to him that the Russians face Spain in the semi-finals tonight.
For me, the player of the tournament so far is Lukas Podolski. He’s not had a look-in for Bayern Munich recently but he’s been at the centre of everything good the Germans have done. He’s playing out of position on the left of midfield but you wouldn’t know it. He’s got three goals and created countless others and again set up a goal for Batien Schweinsteiger against Turkey last night.
At the end of another thrilling game in these championships Turkey will be proud of themselves. In the face of dwindling numbers – with only four subs on the bench because of injury or suspension – they took the tournament favourites all the way to the death.
They unsettled one of the competition’s best full backs, Philip Lahm, restrained captain Michael Ballack’s influence on the game and made the most of the German’s weakness, the fraught Jens Lehmann.
All the ‘lesser’ teams have really taken it to their opposition this year – Greece being the exception. So if Russia were to shock Spain and then the Germans it would be a very credible victory and won’t be remembered in the same vein as the bore-your-way-to-being-crowned-champions method sported by the Greeks.
Russian’s bossman, Guus Hiddink, has a remarkable record stretching back to his time as South Korea boss for the 2002 World Cup and it would be fitting to see his skills rewarded with a top prize.
What on earth does he say to his players to get them to play like that? And why didn’t the FA pursue him more vigorously when Sven got the boot? He performs miracles with nobodies! Even though I have a soft-spot for Spain; and the girlfriend for their Romeo right-back Mr Ramos (oh and for goodness sake stop walking around with your shirt off at the half-time whistle), I won’t be disappointed if it’s the Russians who progress to the final.
As it approaches this weekend, I fear I’ll be subjected to the Vienna weather conditions that forced the evacuation of the fanzone and 22,000 fans when the storms rolled in and scuppered our TV pictures. In a poor twist of planning, I’ll be sitting in a tent in a field in the Lake District on final day, so the priority is to find a pub with a big screen. I’m not sure the Lakes is the prime spot for football fever but here goes nothing.
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