This picture was taken in (one of the two) the shortest night(s) of this year, the night from 21st to 22nd of june. For me it was one of my 'longest' nights indeed, unfortunately in a location where there was no pulbic viewing possible - the Netherlands played Russia that day.
The day before, that is on friday, Turkey won in a dramatic match against Croatia in the final penalty shoot-out: and again Turkey scored in the last minute as they did in the group phase - this time the equalizer in overtime which secured them the penalty shoot-out. The match wasn't too good however (the best of this day was the place where I watched it, in the Hanappi stadium - the home-stadium of SK Rapid Vienna and to fans as holy as Old Trafford to - well, on a different scale, I admit ...); overall the Croats had more of the game which of course isn't much of a consolation for them. So the first semi final will be Germany against Turkey.
Unfortunately I couldn't watch yesterday's match between the Netherlands and Russia; it seemed to have been a really great one - anyway at least the turtle was very impressed - which went to overtime where finally the Russians prevailed. Although it may sound strange to change sides so quickly (and I concede that it really is strange) I now declare that I am on the side of Russia from now on. They have a great though young team, their greatest fault is that they are inexperienced which was the reason why I thought they'd have no chance against Holland. Well, they prooved me wrong.
The Russians will now play in the semis the winner of the fourth quarter final match: today's game of Spain against Italy. And as usual Italy tried to catenaccio its way through to the semis (hoping for a lucky goal), with Spain doing slightly more for the game: but not even Spain was anywhere near the fast, offensive one-touch short-pass game which especially the Dutch and the Russians played. So tacticts dominated (even if on a high level), and almost inevitably a rather boring match was the result, and a goalless draw after 120 minutes. Spain had a great chance to score in the last minute and prevent the penalty shoot-out, but they didn't make it count and subsequently I thought they'd lose the penalty shoot-out ... BUT: they didn't! Spain won, and finally we have a championship where Italy's catenaccio finally does not succeed.
So Spain versus Russia it is in the second semi final, and the Spanish team will have much more room against Russia than they did against Italy: the outcome of this match is completely open; while the other one, Germany versus Turkey, looks like it will be going one-way for Germany - but one never knows, the Turks seem to be specialists for last-minute goals.
