Portugal toast Senhor Ronaldo whilst Germany go on a Bender!
18/06/12 01:54
Footcall 2012 Day 10...
The group of death, Group B, was to be decided this evening and we saw ITV1 and ITV4, I'm sure they put re-runs of Poirot and TOWIE on hold to schedule this. Tournament favourites Germany took on Denmark whilst the Portuguese played the Dutch on t'other side. The Germans set their stall out early as they carved the Danes open led by midfield general, Khedira. And Thomas Mueller had a point blank effort saved early on. But it was one of the stars of World Cup 10, Lukas Podolski powered them into the lead in the 19th minute. Fair play to Denmark they pushed for an equaliser and were rewarded as Krohn-Delhi headed in from 7 yards out. The "As It Stands" league kept popping up to show who was going through as any one of the other three could join the Germans in the Knockouts. In the second half the great Danes had a great shout for a penalty turned down for shirt pulling by Nicklas Bendtner but soon after it went similarly named Lars Bender who covered all of 60 yards to hook up with a loose ball in Denmark's box and passed it neatly in the bottom left corner. The last ten minutes were played out and the Danish dreams dashed. So Germany kick Greece out of the Euro on Monday and Greece kicks Germany out of the Euros on Friday? That's the script, right?
Over in the other match the Netherlands or Portugal needed a result to give themselves a chance of promotion. Holland for once looked moderately sharp and we watched to see if they would play like the class act we know they are. Eleven minutes in and they didn't disappoint, Van der Vaart curling the ball beautifully into the left hand side of the goal, the fans in orange went berserk! The thing about Holland in Euro 2012 is that you never get the impression they will keep hold of their lead, nor in fact do they look that bothered. The game was end to end and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were watching the final 20 minutes not the first and soon enough the Portuguese pressure paid off as Captain Cristiano Ronaldo drew his country level with a lovely goal. This lit the blue touch paper for Portugal and suddenly it looked like a one horse race. The second half was pretty much one way traffic and the start of the show was the scintillating number 7. However Nani scuppered a chance that my Nan could have put away and the Dutch weren't out of it just yet. Ronaldo was the man to put the game to bed as wrong footed half the defence and pinpointed the ball in the left corner, surely there was no way back for Holland now? VdV could have doubled his tally and Cristiano could have made it a hat-trick but both were denied by the uprights. So it finished 2-1 to Portugal which saw them through with Germany to KO stages. Holland, to be frank, were poor and I bet they wished they had Frank (Rijkaard) or maybe they could have adopted David Nalbandian in the team at least they would have a bit more passion in the side!
And so to the Footcall league...
Nathaniel's lead is narrowed as Manoj and Steve Goodwin move up into second. We have a ManOnAMission (Matt Green) bounding up the table with a double three today. We have to trust JT to do the business and those Seagulls won't go away both collecting valuable points. David Frost, Lyn Rennie, Julia Virco, Jack Wakefield and Iain Baker all played a blinder today. Esther Eatwell collected her third three, and the Mackenzie Dream is still alive for Jo. Tim Amos who gave everyone a head start by kicking off with 7 zeros is now up into 43rd! Gavin Day, Leigh Boardman and the coalition of Marshall and Pope are up onto page one of the leaderboard. Tracey Beattie racing up the charts, and Rowlands (Rachel and Nick) picking up very rare red squares. Rick Wilkinson, Dean Smith, (yet another for) Emma Wakefield do well today and finally Richard (Carl you're in my sights) Ellis and Greg (I'm catching you now Alan) Church both managed to get their first correct predictions. I'd like to give credit here to Carol Gerrard who has been unbelievably consistent accumulating 13 admirable points but not one three amongst em, we still have four points to play for so let's see what comes of it.
My special mention goes to Rob (RTS) Smith who scored a perfect six to move into ninth and honours of the day must go to Neil Larkin who was languishing in 138th position with just three points also had back to back reds today to race into 119th! Poor old Neil had a run of 11 straight zeros but must be looking at the league in a completely different light now.
Spain and Italy finish their matches tomorrow.
Dj