Headlines

300 million tuned in to watch last night´s Euro final - that´s exactly 299,999,999 more people than watched Jay Z´s set at Glastonbury.

I´m sure Beyonce Knowles enjoyed it as much as all those Spanish fans who partied long into the night (and Liverpool´s fat cat American owners who can stick an extra 10 million quid on Fernando Torres´s head after he scored the deciding goal).

As Spain headed into the final most punters fancied them strongly on account of the great footy they had played throughout. But I wasn´t so sure, I had a feeling Luis Aragones´s slender side were going to get bullied off the park.

My mate Dave had been down at pitch level working as a cameraman for …

continue reading

Sometimes, a man has to have some principles and stand up for what he believes in. And now that time has come for me to defiantly shake my fist in support of the much-maligned German football team. I can’t take it anymore, and something has to be done.

If I hear one more football TV pundit mutter about ‘lucky Germany’ or ‘you can never write off the Germans’ or ‘Germany haven’t played well but they keep winning’, I swear I’ll put my feet and fists through my 30inch flat screen and batter it into a pulp of wires. It’s a load of rubbish. The reason you can’t write off the Germans is that they’re a good team. Not lucky, just good. …

continue reading

 Woah, Spain have set up what´s gonna be some final against Germany on Sunday with a classy 3-0 spanking of Russia in Vienna.

Luis Aragones´s men were absolutely superb, especially Liverpool´s Fernando Torres and Arsenal´s Cesc Fabregas. And what about all-action man Sergi Ramos? He must have run the length of a marathon down that right flank for the Spanish cause.

The Beat´s tip to score the first goal - David Villa - suffered the cruel fate of a pulling a leg muscle on 30 minutes and we´re told he´ll now miss the final. Fiddlesticks.

It didn´t matter because Russia never got going and produced little of the form that saw them beat Holland in the last eight. Their highly rated playmaker Andrei …

continue reading

Trust the cruel, cruel Germans to ruin the Turkish fairytale and the business dreams of the bloke at the end of my road who runs a kebab house.

Germany 3, Turkey 2.

The boys from the Bosphorus lit up Euro 2008 with those last gasp goals that kept their passionate fans believing in the impossible throughout what had been an incredible run to the semis.

How ironic though that a country famous for its kebabs should have its tournament slaughtered by a man called Lahm. Phillip Lahm’s last-minute winner sent Germany into the Euro 2008 final and sparked great gnashing of teeth across the old Ottoman Empire.

That´s got us at the Beat thinking. Those Spaniards have been giving bulls a rough …

continue reading

Turkey have already gone further in Euro 2008 than anyone expected, but they’ll need their biggest miracle yet to get past the Germans and reach their first ever major tournament final.

That’s not being disrespectful to the Turks. Have you seen the list of players who, either injured or suspended, will miss the semi-final? It’s bleedin’ huge!

Star striker Nihat is injured, as is captain Emre, Servet Cetin, Tumer Metin and Emre Gungor. Emre Asik, Tuncay – the Middlesbrough player – Arda Turan and first choice goalie Volkan Demirel are all suspended. It’s got so bad that Turkey are down to 12 fit outfield players, and their coach, Fatih Terim, is considering using third-choice goalkeeper Tolga Zengin as an emergency striker!

“He could …

continue reading

In a tense match that ended 0-0 after extra time and took us through the tension of a penalty shoot out it was fitting that the hero of the hour should be a keeper.

Still only 27 it seems like Real Madrid custodian Iker Casillas has been around for donkey´s years - not surprising when you recall he appeared for Real in the 2000 Champions League final, four days after his 19th birthday.

"Saint Iker", as they worship him in Spain, played a blinder and his club beat Valencia 3-0. He played another blinder against Italy in last night´s Euro 2008 quarters to put his country in with a genuine chance of claiming its first silverware since the Conquistadors returned from El …

continue reading

So, now we know the quarter-final line-up for Euro 2008, and there’s no time to take a breather. It’s straight into the action tonight with a mouth-watering cracker. The first of the four quarter-finals takes place in Basel, and it’s a beauty and the beast showdown between Portugal and Germany.

Portugal provide the beauty. A free-flowing, attacking side blessed with the world’s best player, Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese can also call on Deco, Ricardo Quaresma, Nuno Gomes and Simao. They have pace and creativity and flair in abundance, and strolled through their group, winning their first two games before putting out a weakened side and losing a meaningless final match against Switzerland.

In the other corner is the beast. Germany, that most …

continue reading

Spain face their toughest Euro 2008 examination to date on Sunday as Luis Aragones´s side take on Lazarus men Italy. Written off after a 3-0 thrashing against Holland and a poor 1-1 draw with Romania, the Azzurri came roaring back with a comfortable 2-0 win over woeful France to book their place in the quarter-finals.

Opponents Spain are in irresistible form having seen off Russia, Sweden and Greece but the big questions on most punters´s minds will be whether the perennial tournament chokers are going to live up to their dubious reputation? Have they peaked too soon?

Our feeling is that Spain won´t bottle it, but they are running into an improving Italian side jam-packed with big tournament experience. In the big …

continue reading

Oh, enough of the weeping and the wailing and the shrugging of the shoulders, France. Get over it. You were rubbish, and you deserved to go out of Euro 2008 as early as possible. Now, how to get yourselves out of this mess, and revert back into being a decent football team again?

Here’s an idea – ditch the oldies. Players like Lilian Thuram and Claude Makelele should have been dumped from the side a couple of years ago, after the last World Cup. Makelele has even quit the national team twice and been talked into making comebacks! Well, no more. These two – fine players though they’ve been over the years – no longer have the sharpness for top-class international …

continue reading

Remember our lovely little blog about the virtuous Austrian and German topless women’s footy teams? Well inspired by yesterday’s little morale boosting story we thought we’d get on the blower to Angelique and commission her to a spot of skills action. As you saw from her abilities last week, she knows how to handle a ball or two.

So once again we present the glorious goddess that is Angelique doing her thing with a football, but for now Angelique takes a break from soccer AND her bra.

If that hasn’t inspired you to place a wager or two on the football, then we don’t know what will. Check out Bodog’s Euro 2008 odds.

continue reading