Euro 2008 QF Preview: Germany vs Portugal

I’ll bet these two are surprised to be playing each other so soon. Germany likely expected to win Group B and avoid Portugal at least until the semi-finals, while Portugal must be thinking “what? we won group A! shouldn’t that give us an easier draw?”

HUGE game for Big Phil Scolari. You may have heard/read that he’s the new Chelsea boss as of July 1st, so Euro 2008 is his last chance to win something with Portugal. He won’t be exiting Swissaustria without a fight, but he won’t be fighting Jogi Löw today.

Löw is banished to the stands for this one after his little row with Josef Hickersberger in the Austria game. And, like a bad dad, Löw is banned from having any contact with his players. So presumably the German team will pick itself, and whichever XI get changed and get out on the field first will be the starting lineup.

Actually that’s not true. Löw’s assisrant Hansi Flick will be the man on the touchline making decisions, and dealing with Germany’s problems. Which are:

Worries over goalscoring makeshift leftwinger Lukas Podolski and midfield action man Torsten Frings. Both will be huge misses if unable to play. Speaking of huge misses, I’ll be very surprised if Mario Gomez gets another start.

But apparently German fans don’t need to worry about Cristiano Ronaldo, because Jens Lehmann has it all under control. “At Arsenal we had a recipe for dealing with him and I have told Arne Friedrich [the right-back] what that recipe is.” Will be interesting to see if Lehmann’s recipe nullifies Ronaldo, and if Real Madrid suddenly and mysteriously lose interest in C-Ron and try to sign Mad Jens instead.

The thing about Portugal is that they’re not just C-Ron. There are three flavours of Diet C-Ron to try: Simao, Nani and Ricardo Quaresma, as well as the slight but skillful midfield talents of Deco and João Moutinho, whose confrontation with the bigger Michael Ballack should be an engaging encounter.

Though Portugal slipped against Switzerland when Scolari sent out the reserves, they’ve otherwise looked very solid. Centre backs Pepe and Ricardo Carvalho should be a match for anyone (Gomez has no chance today, does he?) while latest Chelsea right back Boswinga will get up the wing and cause trouble.

Sounds good, so let the quarterfinals commence….

Know who’s going to win? Put a bet on here then.

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