Love him or Hate him, but Slavan Bilic, that rockstar of a coach of the Croatian national team sure has them playing some good football. And in lue of their goalkeepers suspension, and a few lingering injuries, the Croats are big favorites to ensure a rematch with the Germans in the semi-final. Bilic is still holding firm to his prediction that Luca Modric will be the player of the tournament before its all said and done. That might not seem so far fetched now, with the way the things have shaped up, but not so fast my friend.
Turkey are coming off 2 incredible come from behind victories. They might have gotten a bit fortunate, but they are the obvious team that the gods have chosen to shine on this tournament. So there are two ways we can look at this. We can say, "Well, its only a matter of time before their luck runs out." or "They are this year's Greece." I'm inclined to go with the latter. Who wouldn't want to see another heartstopping comeback from the rightful Cyprian owners. Plus those warmups are so badass, (you know, the turquoise ones) who wouldn't want to see those again?
So far the Croatian backline has held up alright, but I just think they are on their last legs and going to crumble in a matter of time. I look for Adra Turan to be the difference and I'm taking Turkey in an upset special 3-2.
Feel free to toss your predictions out for the other 2 games, especially Italy Spain, I'm still undecided.
3 comments:
Couple thoughts on Italy Spain:
When we look at recent form the edge would seem to go to the Spaniards. They have looked impressive dating back to qualifying and gained many supporters. They seemed to get over the hump against Sweden (with an ugly but nonetheless 3 pt victory indicating the feasbilitiy of less than aesthetic win). That being said flaws have been exposed.
The Italians on the other hand have come back from the dead and I was truly impressed with their play against France. I think Deyan was a fool to claim that Buffon was definitely not the best keeper in the world, who would you rather have in net (besides me), Castillas? Gotta factor in ability to control his defenders in this and Castillas doesnt do it as well. The huge drawback for picking Italy in this match is the absence of Pirlo and Gattuso. If the Gods favor Sam we'll get a nice dose of Aquilani. Toni makes everyone nervous but the law of averages would have one go in off his nose or something sooner or later. Any sort of angle you take wouldnt be wrong on this one. I'll hedge my bets and revert to my earlier pick and take Italy 2-1 or possibly in shootout although I'll be cheering for Spain to pull it out. If their midfield can control the flow it would take a serioius effort from Toni to finish one of those long balls to steal a goal, but then again he'll be going against three defenders max because Sergio Ramos will be nowhere in sight. Should be great.
First of all, about Croatia-Turkey, I think if the croatians play like they have been doing the other three games they won't have too many problems with Turkey. Nihat is the only top player from the kebab-eaters and Croatia has a better team spirit in my opinion. We will see in some minutes.
About Spain VS Italy, me and all the spaniards are scared as hell! we have always this bad luck in quaterfinals, we play against the last wold champions, I see Tony way more superior to our defense, etc. It is true that Pirlo is an important player in this team, but italians are like Real, they are winners, and Spanish team wil lbe scared and have a lot of presure. I think we should score at least twice before the mid time if we want to win the game. If we are 0-0 at min. 70 or we have to play penalties we are so gonna fuck it up.
Sorry for the errors in my English! Cheer for Spain!
i'm so angry right now
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