Euro 2008 QF1 LiveBlog: Germany vs Portugal

QUARTER-FINAL 1	June 19th, 2045 CET, Basel (Switzerland)
Germany 3 VS Portugal 2 Schweinsteiger 22′ Klose 26′ Ballack 61′   Gomes 40′ Postiga 87′

Great game, I really enjoyed that. Germany deserving winners, but it’s a shame to see all that Portuguese talent exit the tourney. Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting.

FULL-TIME That’s it 3-2 to Germany. Germany in the semis, C-Ron to Real Madrid, Scolari to Roman’s yacht.

90+2 Nani crosses, Postiga pushes a German defender but doesn’t get away with it. Only Michael Ballack can get away with it. Although Ballack’s was a bit more subtle.

- just realized there’s been no Ricky Q for Portugal today. I’d say he’s better than Simao.

90+1 Nani shoots over. Again. What a waste.

90′ Four minutes of added time. Should be a good four minutes.

- If I was Big Phil I’d try and sub the entire Portugal XI out and get the Turkey XI in.

87′ Unless…. GOAL!!! Postiga heads home a Nani cross! 3-2 and a few minutes to go.

- Question: Will we see C-Ron crying once Portugal are officially out? We usually do don’t we?

85′ Lehmann gets a wack in the leg from Postiga. So that’s what Scolari was telling Postiga to do.

82′ Fritz on for Schweini. Low/Flick/whoever’s in charge can’t have any complaints about Schweini’s performance tonight. One goal, two assists. Job done.

81′ Big Phil looks pained on the bench. Don’t worry Big Phil, just think about Roman Abramovich and all his lovely money. There, that’s cheered you up hasn’t it Phil. You could buy this whole German team if you wanted to soon, so in a sense you’re the real winner here tonight.

80′ Germany 3-1 up with ten to go and they still send Metzelder and his beard up for the corner. Love this tournament.

78′ Podolski with a great left footed strike, very close. Shot was so good that Pepe moved out of the way.

77′ Deco with a tame shot. All the talk about Portugal lacking an effective striker is on display here. Gomes did OK and all, but they still need a sort of point man.

- Wonder what Mario Gomez is thinking right now? Can’t be particularly happy thoughts.

- Tim Borowski on for TH15.

72′ Familiar pattern: Deco puts [insert Portugal winger, in this case Nani] through out wide, Portugal winger gets to byline but doesn’t have much to cross to.

71′ Scolari giving similarly complicated instructions to Helder Postiga. And bless his little heart, Postiga looks entirely confused.

69′ Gemany looking confident. Lahm gets a crack at goal. David Pleat says Lahm reminds him of Kenny Sansom. Reference for the kids there, eh Pleaty?

68′ Wow, Nani nearly dribbled straight through the entire German team. Tackled eventually though.

67′ C-Ron (now with Portuguese armband) fires absolutely awful free kick over the bar. Three points?

66′ Gomes off, and coming on in his place:

- Interesting. Replay shows Ballack gives Ferreira a little push away before heading home. Not sure how serious something like that is.

64′ Nani getting instructions from Scolari. Not sure what he was saying but it involved his fingers going backwards and forwards.

- Is this over? I’m not sure this is over. Portugal are going to keep attacking so who knows.

- Ricardo came out but didn’t jump. Just sort of flapped both hands forward.

61′ GOAL!!! Ballack heads home from a dejavu Schweini free kick. 3-1.

59′ Klose gets a faceful of Pepe’s pointy shoulder. Yellow for Pepe, pain for Klose. He’s still down actually, looks a bit bad.

56′ Ballack looks angry with the linesman. I wouldn’t want to fight Michael Ballack. Especially if he planned to kick me.

55′ Ricardo shows some footskills. And ITV remind us that he scored a pen against England at Euro 2004. Boo.

53′ C-Ron and Mertesacker rubbing heads after a clash. Looks like they’re trying to do a really hard crossword puzzle. Or maybe Suduko. I hate suduko.

50′ Hitzlsperfer’s famed left foot send the ball high over the bar. Say what you like about TH15, he’s very very good at kicking the ball high and hard.

49′ We have rain in Basel. Seems like it always rains in Basel. Where is Basel? Is it in Seattle?

47′ Ronaldo tripped by Friedrich, and then Friedrich gave him an ankle trample afterwards. I don’t care how much you don’t like C-Ron, that’s not cool. Yellow card for Friedrich. Maybe that’s what Mad Jens told Fredrich to do?

- I wonder what Jogi Loew did at half-time.

45′ We have kick off.

QUICK POLL: - We’re always trying to improve our LiveBlogs here on WCB. And we’ve heard that some people using Internet Explorer browser mighth be having trouble viewing the video of goals we embed. Please take a look at this video of the Bastian Schweinsteiger goal (should be below) and let us know in the poll which browser you’re suing and whether you can or can not see the vid… (cheers)

HALF-TIME Great football so far. And excitement to come in the second half one way or the other.

45′ Ballack shoots near post from the angle and pulls a good save out of Ricardo. Then C-Ron goes up the other end and shoots at the far post from a similar angle. Pulls it wide though.

- So, so glad that the knockouts have continued in the same great attacking vein as the groups. It’s as if the snoozefest that was Euro 2004 never ever happened.

- Was all about Deco. He brought the ball down on the edge of his own box and dribbled up the field, got the ball to Simao, who squared to C-Ron, who’s shot was saved by Lehmann but into the path of Gomes. Game on again.

40′ GOAL 2-1. Nuno bloody Gomes scores!!! No, really.

38′ Ballack with a truly awful dive after Pepe brushed him with his arm. Portugal put it out of play. Sporting of them.

37′ Meireles (who came on for Moutinho) shoots from distance, but not very convincingly.

36′ Mad Jens catches a cross and the crowd cheers. Hope that wasn’t sarcastic. And if it was then they’re cheering the wrong keep. It’s Ricardo who has the vampire like aversion to crosses.

35′ Gomes down in the box but referee stood impassive. I wasn’t convinced either.

Small observation: Deutschland mit Jogi Löw: so-so. Deutschland ohne Löw: sehr gut! Richtig?

- Replay shows Ronaldo doing some poor marking for Klose’s goal.

32′ Decent move from Portugal, C-Ron midair backheel to Simao, back to C-Ron and then a rubbish attempted square pass from the Real Madrid Man Utd player.

31′ Of course, Portugal are just two Mad Jens mistakes from equalizing.

- As a neutral (and I really am) I’m a bit disappointed with 2-0. I hope Germany don’t sit on it too much, because this game could get dull.

- We’ll see what C-Ron and Portugal are made of now.

- There was no way Klose was leaving Euro 2008 with zero goals.

26′ 2-0! Klose heads in after Schweini crosses. Wow. Petit must regret that foul now.

25′ Overhead shot of the pitch makes it look patchy like a chessboard.

24′ Yellow for Petit. Late tackle, but he seemed to back out of it rather than follow through.

23′ More bad news for Portugal, Moutinho looks injured.

22′ GOAL 1-0 Germany. Brilliant brilliant goal. About ten one twos down the line, a low cross from the left from

and Schweini slid in at the near post to knock it home.

20′ Gomes can’t decide whether to head or volley a Bosingwa cross. So he hits it with his left knee cap instead. Damn Portugal need a proper striker.

19′ Gomes with a sneaky through ball for C-Ron. Good tackle from Friedrich though. Wonder if that’s the secret recipe Mad Jens was talking about. “tackle him”, so simple, yet so effective.

17′ Schweini dies Paulo Ferreira and wins a corner, Ballack heads over from the corner. Germany have some big fellas.

14′ Simao shoots from a crossing position. That won’t do Nuno Gomes’ confidence much good will it? Mad Jens catches and holds.

12′ Bosingwa looks a player doesn’t he? Juliano Belletti must be phoning his agent right now.

11′ Metzelder pretending he’s a winger. Even doing the diving and clutching his face routine after Petit made minimal contact with his face.

10′ Good overlap from Bosingwa and a quick cross fired in. That looks like Portugal’s best chance down the right.

8′ Lahm has Simao in his pocket. He’s already tackled him twice, and Simao looks a bit scared to go at him.

ITV commentator (Tyldesly?) doing his best to link things back to English football. eg “Thomas Hitzlsperger, once of Aston Villa”.

3′ Germany with a bit of possession. Great turn from Schweini there, back from suspension.

2′ Interesting. Hansi Flick has been promoted from assistant coach to “coach” according to my television. I know he’s filling in for Jogi today, but I didn’t know an official promotion came with it. Payrise too?

1′ Rolfes is very blonde. He may not be Frings but he does add some much needed stereotypical German-ness to the midfield.

0′ Kickoff. Knockout football is go.

So it’s Simon Rolfe of Levberkusen who has to replace Torsten Frings. Big big shoes to fill Simon. Are you up to it?

Is it bad that Deco was just mumbling the Portuguese national anthem? Didn’t he have to learn the words to get citizenship or anything?

Wait, no. That’s not mud. Just different coloured bits of turf. Presumably because it was relaid. That still doesn’t bode well.

Oh dear. Just got a look at the Basel pitch. Looks muddy. Like a Sunday morning pitch. Perfect for the quarterfinals of a major international tournament, no?

- 10 mins to go time. We’ve got Gary Neville doing punditry on ITV. Rubbish facial hair and heavy Manc accent but he’s been surprisingly good. His co-pundit Andy Townsen just called Ricardo “an accident waiting to happen.”

So, since the first player picture (see below) was a little too easy (Podolski is fit to play by the way) here’s a slightly tougher one:

- 15 to go. Alright Emmerdale’s over. There was a cliffhanger ending, but I’ve no idea what happened to who, so probably best to forget about it. Time for football…

- 25 minutes to kickoff. Just need to get through the last 10 minutes of Emmerdale on ITV. I don’t watch it, but I’m fairly certain it’s shit. A soap opera set on a farm? How’s that ever going to be good?

Lineups:

Portugal: 4-2-3-1 - Ricardo, Pepe, Ferreira, Carvalho, Bosingwa, Simao, Petit, Moutinho, Deco, Ronaldo, Nuno Gomes.

Germany: 4-4-2 - Lehmann, Metzelder, Mertesacker, Lahm, Friedrich, Schweinsteiger, Rolfes, Hitzlsperger, Ballack, Podolski, Klose.

Quick game to pass the time while we’re waiting for kickoff. The following images represent an individual player involved in today’s game. Let me know who it is in the comments.

We’re still waiting on team news.

Here we are then kids, knockout football. Win or go home. The arrogance of C-Ron vs the arrogance of M-Ball.