With the QFs behind us, the Editors at Al Bawaba present their picks from the teams that played the quarter final round in the Euro Championships, 2011.
The teams that made it to the semis were the best performers, in a set of less-than-thrilling matches that failed to live up to the Quarter Final expectations. England v. Italy gave us a tense penalty shoot-out to compensate for an undewhelming game. In general the matches level fell short of expectations
In a nutshell, Portugal breezed through against the Czech Republic, who made their job easy, not presenting much of a challenge to the Iberian neighbors. Germany smashed Greece 4-2, Spain and France did not live up to par to give us a decent clash. For the Spaniards, another walk in the park, 2-0, akin to Portugal - Czech.
The toughest tie came between England and Italy in which the Azzurri dominated the game against a set of disappointing English tactics in an unusually defensive game-play. The winning formula of Catenaccio that worked for Chelsea let England's unrealistic expectations down. Italy indisputably were the deserving advancers to the Semifinal, on the back of a gripping penalty shoot-out.
We have selected a pool of best individual performances during this stage of the competition, and present it in the formation 4-5-1
They are, 2 Italians, 4 Germans, 2 English, 2 Spaniards, 1 Portuguese
Who are your bets on for the Semis? Share your Euro Championship 2012 comments here.
