So much news to the extent that, I need a seperate post just for Euro 2008 news.
But first on how things are shaping up ahead of the Russia-Spain match. The other semi-final where Germany awaits the winner of this encounter. Nothing to do with team news here. While fans in Russia are flooding Austria's consultate with last-minute visa applications to head to Vienna, Spanish sports newspaper Marca had thousands of supporter vowing on their website that they will shave their heads if Spain wins Euro 2008. Back in Moscow, the Russian capital had slapped alcohol ban on the day Russia is facing Spain. The former world number one tennis player Marat Safin (who has been starting to find his form back recently) hoped his shock Wimbledon win over favourite Novak Djokovic will help inspire his Russian compatriots to victory.
So while UEFA President Michel Platini has mulling a shake-up in terms for the future European Championships (he is thinking about August as he said that is when the footballers are back from their holidays), UEFA will decide on whether to enlarge the UEFA European Championship from 16 to 24 teams which will be taken at a UEFA executive committee meeting in Bordeaux, France at the end of September. About 300 black market tickets had been confiscated from touts by Vienna police during Euro 2008, including 155 before last Sunday's quarter-final between Spain and Italy.
Austrian TV compere Michael Kriess (he was the original person who initiated the idea of the petition of not having the Austrian national team in the tournament given the son of a former Austrian international felt that the team is a disgrace) is claiming the Euro trophy as compensation for having his contract torn up two days before the beginning of the competition. Fans of the Oranje may have already left Switzerland after Marco van Basten's men exited in the quarter-finals to Russia but, there is something positive they left behind. Beer sales were on the up, by 20%.
Euro 2008 thought of the day: Now Vienna is awaiting for the other finalist to face Germany. But who will it be? Normally Guus Hiddink is not being beaten by the same team, twice (one example - after England beat Russia at the Wembley during the group qualifiers, the Moscow match turned the tables in Russia's favour). Spain has did the damage in the opening group stages already...
Mental approach holds key to penalty success (Penalty shoot-outs have become part and parcel of tournament football yet some coaches and players still seem to consider defeat by spot-kicks as no defeat at all. That was certainly the approach of Italy coach Roberto Donadoni after his side lost to Spain in their Euro 2008 quarter-final on Sunday, their fifth major tournament shoot-out defeat.)
Black gold fuels Russian game but future is blurred (Russian football is on the up after decades of slumber, fuelled largely by black gold and raw materials, but there is as yet little sign the foundations of long-term development have been laid. The country has remained faithful to an element of the past as the major clubs who dominated the Soviet era have retained their cachet.)
Hiddink factor should give Spain pause for thought (But with Guus Hiddink in the opposition dug-out, Spain would do well to be on their guard. The Dutchman was, of course, the coach of South Korea when they knocked Spain out of the 2002 World Cup. He also took an unrated Australia to the last 16 of the 2006 World Cup where they were desperately unlucky not to derail Italy and led the Netherlands to the semis of France 1998.)
Footballers set to retire on Lehmann's terms (Jens Lehmann may be playing cagey about his future but for several stalwarts of the international football stage Euro 2008 has been their last call. Lehmann, 38, has said he won't make an immediate decision about his future but for Lilian Thuram and Claude Makelele France's exit in the first round was sufficient for them to end their international careers.)
Arshavin's alma mater revels in Russia star's exploits (The atmosphere is a joyous one along the wide corridors of the Smena football academy in St Petersburg and can be felt from the dressing rooms to the director's own office. "I was never as happy as when we bagged those wins over the Swedish and the Dutch," school director Vassili Kostrovski tells AFP. And with good reason.)
Great train journeys of Euro 2008 (Reuters correspondent Darren Enis, who covered the Swedish national team, on his experiences in Austria and Switzerland)
