14 June 2008

Netherlands VS France

Last night was another craze night, I stayed up til 4.30am to watch all 2 matches played yesterday.

Italy VS Romania that match was not bad, both teams played very well and equal chances but at the end of the day it's a draw. The main story of the game is Buffon of Italy saved the crucial penalty to keep Italy hanging in the game until the last match.





Gianluigi Buffon is one of the best keeper around, his performance outclassed Adrian Mutu's rather weak shot in the penalty. Anyway gotta give both side's keepers credit for their outstanding performances of stopping the goals. Looks like the keepers play a better game than the outfield players, heh.

Anyway the main point of the entire story is the match between the Dutch and the French. It is interesting to see how the Dutch will play after crashing Italy earlier.



It doesn't took very long for the first goal. Kuyt scored with a header from a corner kick just 10 minutes into the game. Nowadays there's more and more early goals in the game which is interesting to keep the game going on for the rest of the match.



The game continued without a goal for almost an hour before the Dutch scores another one.

Van Persie and Robben came up as a substitute, both players combined very well to setup the 2nd goal of the night. A brilliant run and cross by Robben, and a single touch is enough to broke the French goal.



Henry of France soon scored a consolation goal at the 71st minute with just a little flick from a low cross from the right. The game levels at 2-1, and France must do better to get a better result.



The French thought it'll be game on, but they haven't prepare to restart the game which sees Robben struck a superb solo goal from the left wing.



This time the French team is basically shaken up badly, with just less than 20 minutes to go, it's very hard to make a comeback when you're down 3-1 against a very strong team.

The Dutch will have their last laugh, they struck another wonder goal minutes into injury time. Wesley Sneijder receive the pass from Van Persie in the centre, turned around and blast off a right-footed shot which flies high above the French keeper's reach, hit the post and scored. What a nice goal that is.



This is the 2nd time the Dutch trash a world champion. They beat the World Cup 2006 winner Italy 3-0, and now 4-1 against the World Cup 1998 winner.

I must say, that France team without Zidane and Viera, hardly produces any excellent moves. Yea they may have experienced and good players in the team, but they're not really effective in producing the end result. Too much defending I guess? But then their defenders are some of the best in the world, you couldn't deny that Thuram, Gallas and Makelele has their reputation for defending.
Also, Ribery is nowhere a Zidane by any chance, as ZZ is far more productive and effective in the attacking and to wear off the opponent by his skillful tricks. Ribery is more or less an attacking minded left-winger.

Now that the Dutch destroyed 2 world champs, it will be very interesting to see how far they can reach in the final round. I can say that the teams that reached the final 8 are playing attacking-style football, so it will be very interesting to watch then.

This EURO tournament is probably better than WC 2006 and EURO 2004!

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