Five Things We Learned in Swissaustria, June 18th

June 18th, 2008 | by: Daryl | Comments Off

1. Guus Hiddink – believe the hype
The Dutch master is renowned as a walking talking one way ticket to the knockout rounds of any international tournament. And even after losing his first game 4-1, he still pulled it off. Bravo Guus, bravo.

2. Russia runs on AA batteries
Russia didn’t look particularly inspiring without Andrei Arshavin in the first two games (he was suspended.) But plug in the captain, number 10 and power source and you get a performance like tonight, with Arshavin finishing off a great team move for the second goal.

3. Sweden dodged a bullet
Any Swedish fans upset at not taking second place in Group D need only look at the quarterfinal matchups to feel a bit better. Russia’s prize for beating Sweden is a date with the red-hot (orange-hot?) Netherlands.

4. Defending champions are supposed to defend
Terrible tournament for Greece and it finished with another defeat. They took and held the lead against Spain’s second choice XI, until De La Red hit a wonder strike and Guiza was left unmarked to head home the winner.

5. We can throw our calculators away now
The end of group football means no more worrying about head to heads, goal difference, goals scored, qualification record or consonant to vowel ratio. From here on out it’s knockout football. 90 minutes, then another 30 and spot kicks if necessary. Winner goes through, loser goes home. Bring it on.