Much to the surprise of most people, Spain defeated favorites Germany by the one single goal early this morning. In all honesty nobody expected them to loose and I am sure there are many fans that are in mourning (Sorry Gallivanter). Not having won a major title in many a year, the spanyards looked promising early in the competition but nobody really expected the mighty Germans to loose to them. Alas, we have a winner.

It actually saddens me that Germany defeated Turkey early this morning. I have been known at times to be a German fan, especially when the Oranje are defeated, but this EURO something inside me wanted to support the Underdogs, and the Turks were underdogs in every definition I could think off. It was trilling that they scored the first goal at the 22nd minute via U?ur Boral, and then Germany scored two goals, the first by Schweinsteiger in the 26th and then Klose at 79. It looked like a German victory, but in true style, Turkey managed to equalize via Semih ?entürk on the 86th. If they could only hold out longer the game would have gone into extra time, but alas, the Germans scored the winning goal via Lahm. Its interesting to note that Ballack has been under performing lately. Anyways, it was a good run Turkey, I am proud of you!

And then there were 4. As I predicted, Spain defeat Italy in penalty shoot-outs. Its not the best way to advance, but advance the Russians have, leaving the Italians where they belong, out of the SemiFinals, hehe. I do think though besides the German fans in Malaysia, most Malaysians are out of teams to support, as I don’t have any friends who support Turkey or Russian. I do have the odd one or two friends who are Spanish fans, but they are few. I am now at 20-10 prediction wise. It gets harder now, only 3 games left to predict. The Germans have always been my second team, only when the Dutch are not playing, but I don’t really want to support them this EURO. I am for the underdogs this year, and so I am saying it will be a Turkey Vs Russia Finals. Lets just wait and see.

Oh no! I totally did not expect that! I wanted the Oranje to win this euro! sigh, now I can’t wear any of my many Oranje jerseys for at least 2 years. Sigh. What happend to Total Football? I think the Russians showed how much they really want to win this, and it looks like they may go all the way. Sigh, the EURO journey seems so empty now.

Last night I had a change of heart and I thought the Turks might win, though I didn’t think it was through penalties, but I didn’t update my predictions either as I thought that was just wishful thinking, but lo and behold, they didn’t play half bad, and managed to bring the end of the game to 1-1 from an early deficit. When it comes to Penalty shootouts, its really anybodies game, and well, its now Germany vs Turkey for the Semi’s.