Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
A TOURNAMENT full of intrigue and incision with passing to please the purists will be devoid of its most colourful and vociferous fans after first Ireland and then Sweden and Holland were sent home.
While not the only team to have accumulated, in Eurovision parlance, ‘null point’, from their first two games, other results in the group meant that the Irish were the first to tumble. A 4-0 thumping by a revitalised Spain and, specifically Fernando Torres, has led to former Irish favourite Roy Keane feeling the need to call for all 11 players to be replaced!
This fails to reflect the difficulty of the group. Their only realistic chance was to gain a result in their opener against Croatia although a combination of poor fortune and an early setback, repeated against Spain, meant the Irish would always find it difficult.
The Irish did well to reach the finals and have some exciting young players on which to build for the 2014 World Cup campaign.
Next came the Swedes whose players and coach would benefit from glancing up at their supporters, glum but gracious in defeat against England.
First up came their captain, Zlatan Ibrahimovic who found it necessary to break away from his side’s goal celebrations to gloat over England ’keeper, Joe Hart, before using the press conference after the match to bemoan the fact that his side had ‘been on top’ after 60 minutes and, therefore, deserved to win being the ‘better team’.
Swedish coach, Erik Hamren, weighed in claiming that the English players ‘could have played for the rest of their lives without scoring again’.
If only the quality of their football matched their ability to whine, recognising the final half hour in the match has relevance …
The next to fall were the colourful Dutch whose fans were ironically forced to cheer their fiercest opponents in the hope that they would overcome the valiant Danes.
While the Germans held up their end, the Dutch forgot to do their own job being overturned by the brilliant Christiano Ronaldo who went some way to banishing the criticism that he fails to produce his best form in national colours.
Forced to seek a victory, Bert van Marwijk finally sent out the side his critics had been demanding, boosting the attack with Klaas-Jan Huntelaar with captain van Bommel being replaced by the playmaker Van der Vaart. However, an ineffective performance from a team that will struggle to shed a tag of a collective of individual egos meant the Portuguese consigned the Oranje to their third consecutive defeat in a row for the first time since 1905.
Portugal now meet a Czech Republic side still struggling to work out how they topped the group after being on the receiving end of the heaviest defeat in the opening round of matches, losing 4-1 to Russia.
In a group that rewarded organisation and pragmatism above flair and ingenuity, Greece were the other surprise package, not only defeating Russia 1-0, but also moving ahead of them in the table on the basis of their superior head-to-head record.
Personally, I believe that the group stages should be decided on goal difference and goals scored rather than the head-to-head, as I consider this to be a better reflection of the overall merits of a team’s performance.
However, it is Greece that proceeds and will face the all-conquering Germans who will not be as profligate in the quarter-final.
