Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
WE’RE down to the business end of the tournament in Denmark as the best Under 21’s that Europe has to offer battle it out to be crowned champions, writes Abu George.
As expected the Spanish team have cruised into the final with comfortable victories against the Czech Republic and Ukraine.
Only England, with a late equaliser from Manchester United’s Danny Welbeck, have troubled them – and even then it was only for the last 10 minutes of the match as the English chased the game.
In a remarkable turnup, the Spanish will meet a fortunate Belarus team, who qualified for the semi-final despite losing two of their three games and finishing with a goal difference of -4! The reason for this is that, in the event of a tie on points, head-to-head results count. Therefore, despite a thumping loss to the Swiss, results between themselves and hosts, Denmark, and Iceland sees the Belarusians through to a match-up that will please themselves and the Spanish.
The other semi-final will be contested by the surprising Swiss, who have punched holes in all opposition defences in recording perfect results in each of their three opening fixtures and are yet to concede a goal.
Their opposition will be a Czech team that looked to be crashing out of the tournament with only minutes of their final fixture against England remaining. However, a fortunate ricochet saw the ball fall perfectly for Jan Chramosta whose adroit left-foot volley effectively sealed the Czech’s passage to the next round.
I now largely expect the semi-finals, to be played tonight, to be a relative formality with the well-organised Swiss likely to meet the superb Spanish, who I expect to go on to win the final on Saturday.
