Thursday 21st
June 19:45 - Czech Republic versus Portugal
The Czech Republic
should count themselves quite lucky to be going through to the quarter final
stage, and even more so to be topping the group and avoiding Germany. They were
torn apart by Russia in their opening game, and although they managed to beat
Greece and Poland, they never looked entirely convincing doing so. Their big
name players, such as Cech and Rosicky, the latter of whom is now a doubt for
the quarters, have not really turned up so far, something which they will need
to remedy fast if they are to go any further in the tournament. It has been
Petr Jiracek who has been the standout man for them so far, with coach Bilek
quoted as saying he was the 'heart of the team', and with two goals and some
impressive performances it is easy to see why.
After a slow start
losing their first game to Germany, Portugal have really picked up and look to
be in good form going into the quarter finals. A spirited 3-2 victory against a
decent Denmark team will obviously have done wonders for their confidence.
Ronaldo’s poor performance, by his standards, in that game seems to have really
spurred him on and he turned it on against Holland with a man of the match
performance. Portugal are solid at the back with Pepe and Bruno Alves, and Joao
Moutinho in the midfield is having a very good tournament. Ronaldo will
obviously be the key man; if he is on form then Portugal should have enough to
get past what is a pretty average Czech team. A great quote from Chris Mann on
twitter the other day perfectly sums them up for me; “This Portugal team is
very entertaining. It’s a perfect mixture of showy egomaniacs and savage
nutters.”
Predicted result:
Portugal 2-0 Czech Republic
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