THE OLD BLACK HORSE VS THE NEW BLACK HORSE.

The old black horse i mentioned above is Croatia and the new black horse is referring to Turkey. They fighting spirits against the Czech has once again proved to the world that anything is possible to happend in football.The two sides have met on three prior occasions, with Turkey having never emerged as the victors.
The first encounter between the sides was back in 1996 when Croatia edged Turkey 1-0 in Nottingham in the European Championships in England: the last two Turkey-Croatia meetings, both friendlies, have ended in draws. First of all the two teams drew 1-1 in Sendai in the Kirin Cup of 1997 - which was won by Japan - before they met again in 2004 in Zagreb for a thrilling 2-2 contest. So, what will be the score tonight? a Draw or an easy win from either side?

FORM GUIDE06 Feb Netherlands (h) Friendly L 3-0
26 Mar Scotland (h) Friendly D 1-1
24 May Moldova (h) Friendly W 1-0
31 May Hungary (a) Friendly D 1-1
08 Jun Austria (a) Euro 2008 W 1-0
12 Jun Germany (n) Euro 2008 W 2-1
16 Jun Poland (n) Euro 2008 W1-0

Croatia

Turkey26 Mar Belarus (a) Friendly D 2-2
20 May Slovakia (n) Friendly W 1-0
25 May Uruguay (n) Friendly L 3-2
29 May Finland (n) Friendly W 2-0
07 Jun Portugal (n) Euro 2008 L 2-0
11 Jun Switzerland (n) Euro 2008 W 2-1
15 Jun Czech Republic (n) Euro 2008 W 3-2

Team Line up

Croatia

Probable Line Up: Peltikosa; Corluka, Robert Kovac, Simunic, Pranjic, Srna, Modric, Niko Kovac, Rakitic, Kranjcar, Olic/Petric.

Turkey

Probable line up: Rustu Recber; Hamit Altintop, Emre Asik, Gokhan Zan, Hakan Balta; Topal, Arda, Tumer, Tuncay; Nihat, Erding.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Croatia - Ivica Olic

Ivica Olic has been quietly proving himself on the international stage. Although he’s well over the 50 cap mark by now he’s arguably not received the recognition that he should have, but a fine goal against Germany has helped to change that. According to a study, he is the fastest player at Euro 2008 so far. Whether he can play in tonight match is still unknown as he is suffer with a injury in his last match.

My Prediction

Ok, let be more straight forward for tonight match between the 2. My predicted score for this is CROATIA 3-1 TURKEY because the answer is simple. I want to see Croatia playing against Germany in the Semi Final, the re-match between the 2 (If possible) is what make me excited.

Popularity: 3%

Ronaldo Vs Ballack night!

Portugal have made it to the last eight in their last four major finals tournaments. In the last World Cup they made it as far as the semi final only to fall at the hands of France. They then lost the rather meaningless 3rd place play-off to Germany. But can Portugal make it all the way this time in Euro 2008?can they beat Germany which under the lead of on form Michael Ballack.Beside, this could be Scolari’s last game in charge should the Portuguese lose as he is taking on the Chelsea challenge in the next season.

On the other hand, their oppornent tonight -Germany, were one of the clear favourites to lift the trophy for a fourth time. But the German faced a lot of problems in this competition.Problem from the defence and Problem from up front which have caused them a lot of criticism. Mario Gomez is more like a shadow player than a key players in the field. I don’t really know he is exist while watching Germany played the first 3 games.

Team Line Up

PORTUGAL

Possible Starting Line-Up: Ricardo, Bosingwa, Pepe, Carvalho, Ferreira, Petit, Simao, Deco, Moutinho, Ronaldo, Gomes

GERMANY

Possible Starting Line-Up: Lehmann, Friedrich, Metzelder, Mertesacker, Lahm, Frings, Ballack, Schweinsteiger, Podolski, Gomez, Klose

PLAYER TO WATCH

Portugal - Christiano Ronaldo

“Dear God, can i lead my team into the Semi Final tonight?”

Germany - Michael Ballack

“I will never again to become No.2″

MY PREDCITION

As i can see, this game is the battle between both team Midfields leader Ronaldo and Ballack. Who will win tonight will depends how this two perform. Both players are very well known to each other as they meet not only once in the premier league and champon league games this season while representing their club to fight for the club honours. No doubt that Ronaldo has beaten Ballack from Chelsea twice to help man utd to secure the Premier league and champian league trophy but i believed tonight is the perfect time and match to get his revenge against Ronaldo. My final choice will go for Germany although i’m a fans of Ronaldo.

Portugal 1-2 Germany or Portugal 0-1 Germany

Popularity: 5%

Who’s with the Chicken tonight?

Hello to all Chickensay buddies. Thank you for visiting us again and i would like to say sorry for not posting the match prediction for yesterday Group C match due to virus infection on my computer. Back to business, after qualifying for the quarter finals at the weekend, Luis Aragonés is keen to give his shadow players a chance to prove themselves in the tournament.it would appear to be a very useful exercise for those players that have not appeared much.

For Greece, this final game should have been one that meant something because they came into the tournament with such high hopes after winning the even four years ago in Portugal but unfortunately, their fairy tale didn’t continue. Beside, three players has just annouced of retirement from international football recently which is Angelos Basinas, Antonis Nikopolidis and Paraskevas Antzas. They all decided to step back from the national team and to help the country focus on the World Cup and to bring in young hopefuls.

RECENT FORM

14/06 N Russia        0-1
10/06 N Sweden        0-2
01/06 N Armenia       0-0
24/05 H Hungary       2-3
19/05 A Cyprus        2-0
26/03 N Portugal      2-1

Greece

Spain

14/06 N Sweden        2-1
10/06 N Russia        4-1
04/06 H United States 1-0
31/05 H Peru          2-1
26/03 H Italy         1-0
06/02 H France        1-0

Probable Starting Line up

Greece (4-3-2-1)

Nikopolidis-Seitaridis,Kyrgiakos,Dellas,Torosidis-Katsouranis,Basinas,Patsatzoglou-Charisteas,Amanatidis-Liperopoulus

Spain (4-4-2)

Reina, Arbeloa, Navarro, Juanito, Albiol, Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, De la Red, Fàbregas, Sergio García, Güiza.

Player to Watch

Cesc Fabregas

MY PREDICTION

The Greeks is going out to fight for their national pride and will try to give a tough test to Spain’s new look defence. Whether the Spanish perform like they have been depends on how well the second starting line-up. The Spanish Coach will not satisfy with a draw or lose in the team final match again the Greeks.The Greeks in the other hand have nothing to lose and will play with their very best to enjoy their last match in Euro 2008 and they do also hope that the last match will be a great farewell present to 3 greeks players that will retired from international football after this game. Sad to say, my choice is still against the Greeks as i don’t enjoy the way their play very much. Although the Spanish is without some key players but the shadow players is out there will prove they are capable to win this game.

Prediction Score : Greece 2-3 Spain or Greece 1-2 Spain

BONUS FOR YOU GUYS WHILE WAITING FOR THE MATCH TO START

More to come if my prediction went right………ha! 

FINAL SCORE GREECE 1-2 SPAIN

BINGO

AS I PROMISED, EXTRA BONUS FOR YOU GUYS TO CHEERS

SEXY FOOTBALLER EVER, WITHOUT THEM, THE WORLD OF FOOTBALL IS “EMPTY”..ha!

Popularity: 37%

The ‘Swede” Candy!

Sweetest things

Sweden only needing a point to guaranteed their place in the last eight while Russian need to win in order become the group top 2 to qualify. An impressive record from the Swedes is that they haven’t failed to qualify from a tournament’s opening stage in the last three attempts, their previous first round exit coming at Euro 2000 in Belgium and the Netherlands. But can the yellow boys do it again this year in Austria- Switzerland? Do not forget that the Swedes midfield has been ruin by injury both before the tournament and during. Beside, whether Ibrahimovic will start in the match is still a doubt. You can see how important he is to the team from the last 2 games played. On the other hand, their opponent –The Russian side managed qualification against all the odds when they eliminated England last year, and it would be fitting if they were to pull off the same here.

Head to Head

Based on history record, the two sides have met on three occasions since the dissolution of the USSR. 1994 World Cup finals match - saw Sweden run out 3-1 winners. A friendly four years later ended in a 1-0 home win, and a further four years elapsed before the most recent encounter, a 1-1 draw in Moscow.

Team Line up

Russia

Probable Line-up: Akinfeev; Anyukov, Kolodin, Ignashevich, Zhirkov; Torbinsky, Semak, Zyrianov, Saenko; Arshavin, Pavlyuchenko.

Sweden

Probable Starting XI: Isaksson; Stoor, Mellberg, Hansson, Nilsson; Elmander, Svensson, Andersson, Ljungberg; Larsson, Rosenberg.

Player to Watch

Sweden - Henrik Larsson Again!

Tonight, it’s almost certainly a final game to Hendrik Larsson in the yellow shirt if Sweden loses to Russia and fails to qualify to the next round. As such the 36-year-old forward will need to use every degree of his experience to prevent his team from losing.

MY PREDICTION

Russian side have injuries and fitness problems to deal with and it definitely do not have the 1^st 11 key players to play in tonight match and so do Sweden. I more concern on Sweden team aging problem as I believed they are going to play safe tonight, can they managed to deny Russian attack in the 90 minutes? I think so……

Russia 1-1 Sweden

Popularity: 4%

  ” We will Roar tonight”

FORM GUIDE

Poland

2007-08 Results
22 Aug Russia (a) Friendly D 2-2
08 Sep Portugal (a) Euro Qual D 2-2
12 Sep Finland (a) Euro Qual D 0-0
13 Oct Kazakhstan (h) Euro Qual W 3-1
17 Oct Hungary (h) Friendly L 0-1
17 Nov Belgium (h) Euro Qual W 2-0
21 Nov Serbia (a) Euro Qual D 2-2
15 Dec Bosnia-Herzegovina Friendly W 1-0
06 Feb Czech Rep (h) Friendly W 2-0
27 Feb Estonia (h) Friendly W 2-0
26 Mar USA (h) Friendly L 0-3
26 May Macedonia (a) Friendly D 1-1
27 May Albania (a) Friendly W 1-0
01 Jun Denmark (h) Friendly D 1-1
08 Jun Germany (n) Euro 2008 L 0-2
12 Jun Austria (a) Euro 2008 D 1-1

Croatia

2007-08 Results                               
22 Aug Bosnia-Herzegovina (a) Friendly W 5-3
08 Sep Estonia (h) Euro Qual W 2-0
12 Sep Andorra (a) Euro Qual W 6-0
13 Oct Israel (h) Euro Qual W 1-0
17 Oct Slovakia (h) Friendly W 3-0
17 Nov Macedonia (a) Euro Qual L 0-2
21 Nov England (a) Euro Qual W 3-2
06 Feb Netherlands (h) Friendly L 0-3
26 Mar Scotland (h) Friendly D 1-1
24 May Moldova (h) Friendly W 1-0
31 May Hungary (a) Friendly D 1-1
08 Jun Austria (a) Euro 2008 W 1-0
12 Jun Germany(n) Euro 2008 W 2-1

Croatia Again?

With Croatia already into the quarter-finals as winners of Group B,their manager Slaven Bilic can afford to rest players in today match against Poland. The focus of this game is therefore whether Poland can qualify.
For Poland to achieve that, they will not only have to beat Croatia but also hope that Germany do not beat Austria in the group’s other game. What they need is that Austria beat Germany while they overcome Croatia by a bigger winning margin than Austria achieve against the Germans. That means Poland must win by at least a two-goal margin. Possible? For me, it is possible, if you can decide a team to join you in the last eight, which one would you prefer with Germany, Austria and Poland to Choose from. I bet Slaven Bilic will not choose Germany to join them.Ha!

Head-To-HeadThe two sides have met each other four times previously - but never in a competitive match. Croatia won the first two friendlies, then came a draw and, in the fourth meeting, a Poland victory.  That was a warm-up friendly for the 2006  World Cup just over two years ago, Poland winning 1-0 in Wolfsburg thanks to a goal by Ebi Smolarek.

Poland Line up:

Boruc, Wasilewski, Jop, Bak, Zewlakow, Dudka, Lewandowski, Krzynowek, Roger , Saganowski, Smolarek.

Squad/Last Starting XI: Pletikosa, Corluka, Robert Kovac, Simunic, Pranjic, Srna , Modric, Nico Kovac, Rakitic, Kranjcar , Olic.

Player to Watch:

No Comments.

MY PREDICTION

After Deep Consideration, Poland will be my final Choice. No pain no Gain.

Popularity: 1%