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Euro 2008 - Best of Euro 2008
Eurosport - Sat, 28 Jun 10:02:00 2008
With only one game of
Euro 2008 remaining, Eurosport takes a look at the games, goals, gaffes and girls that have caught the eye.
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Player of the tournament - To be decided
At this stage of proceedings, no player has yet grabbed the competition by the scruff of its neck and bent it to his will.
Wesley Sneijder was the undisputed star of the group stage, conducting the Netherlands to sensational victories over Italy and France, while
Andrei Arshavin sparkled brilliantly before fading completely in Russia's semi-final defeat to Spain.
The tournament's top strikers -
David Villa,
Roman Pavlyuchenko and
Lukas Podolski - have impressed only fleetingly, while Spain's super substitute
Cesc Fabregas is yet to start a meaningful game.
Michael Ballack has led the German charge to the final, ably assisted by goalscoring winger
Bastian Schweinsteiger, but any one of about six or seven players could land the player of the tournament gong with a match-winning performance in the final.
Goal of the tournament - Wesley Sneijder v Italy
There has been a dearth of quality long-range goals in the tournament, with players struggling to get to grips with a ball that's displayed the flyaway qualities of one of those 50p balls you find in motorway service stations.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic's thunderbolt against Greece, Ballack's net-busting free-kick against Austria and Sneijder's stunning coup de grace for the Netherlands in the 4-1 trouncing of France are the obvious exceptions, but there have also been some sublime team goals.
Arshavin's goal in Russia's 2-0 win over Sweden was a fine thing to behold, but it's the Dutch who mastered the art of the counter-attack most effortlessly, and Sneijder's beautifully struck half-volley after a flowing team move in the 3-0 win over Italy was the best of the lot.
Miss of the tournament - Mario Gomez v Austria
19:49 BST, Monday 16 June, Ernst Happel Stadium, Vienna. Germany are playing Austria and need a win to progress to the next round.
With just four minutes on the clock, out-of-form striker Mario Gomez is presented with an open goal by team-mate
Miroslav Klose, but from barely four yards out and with the goal at his mercy he spoons the ball into the air and Austrian defender Gyorgy Garics is able to head it off the line.
Hakan Yakin was guilty of a similarly glaring miss in Switzerland's 2-1 defeat to Turkey, but for the glimpse into a very private hell that Gomez's miss provided, the Stuttgart striker gets the nod.
Game of the tournament - Turkey 3-2 Czech Republic
There have been some tremendous games in the tournament, with the Netherlands' thumping victories over Italy and France catching the eye before they were eliminated in stunning fashion at the quarter-final stage by Russia.
Germany edged a thrilling quarter-final against Portugal 3-2 thanks to some appallingly slack defending from Luis Felipe Scolari's men, but for pure edge-of-the-seat excitement, it has to be Turkey's incredible comeback victory over the Czech Republic in Group A.
Needing to win to go through, Turkey trailed 2-0 with just 15 minutes to play, but after Arda Turan had halved the deficit Nihat Kahveci took advantage of a howler from Petr Cech to level before curling a superb injury-time winner in off the crossbar to send the Turks into the last eight.
Save of the tournament - Gianluigi Buffon v Romania
With nine minutes remaining of the Group C match between Italy and Romania, Azzurri defender
Christian Panucci conceded a penalty that could have knocked the world champions out of the tournament.
Romania captain
Adrian Mutu stepped up and drilled the ball firmly down the centre of the goal but, despite having already dived down to his left, Italy keeper Gianluigi Buffon shot out his right hand to claw the ball away and keep his side in the competition.
Gaffe of the tournament - Petr Cech v Turkey
Turkey goalkeeper
Rustu Recber produced a horrendous flap which enabled Klose to head Germany into a 2-1 lead in the semi-final between the sides, but Cech's error against the Turks - when he let a high right-wing cross squirm out of his grasp and into the path of Nihat - was probably the worst of the tournament, even more so because it was so completely out of character.
Coach of the tournament - Fatih Terim, Turkey
Dutchmen
Marco van Basten and Guus Hiddink oversaw some fine performances from the Netherlands and Russia, but both sides choked when it mattered most.
Croatia coach Slaven Bilic had his side playing some similarly eye-catching stuff, and somehow managed to ally breathless touchline enthusiasm with effortless cool, but for taking a decidedly unfancied Turkey side to the brink of the final - whilst all the while throwing his arms around like an epileptic orang-utan - Fatih Terim is our top boss.
Biggest disappointment - France
How a squad containing the attacking talents of
Thierry Henry,
Franck Ribery,
Karim Benzema and
Nicolas Anelka could exit the tournament with just a single goal to their name is something of a mystery, but in the end they were undone by too many ageing legs and a collective loss of form.
Insipid against Romania, they were then trounced by the Dutch and didn't even look like scoring in the 2-0 defeat to Italy.
Still, every cloud has a silver lining, and in Ribery, Benzema,
Samir Nasri and
Hatem Ben Arfa - not to mention the likely departure of coach
Raymond Domenech - there is hope for the future.
Worst match - France v Romania
Sweden's 2-0 win over Greece in Group D was an absolute stinker, but it did at least boast some goals.
France's goalless draw with Romania, on the other hand, had no redeeming features whatsoever, with the sides registering just one shot on target between them in the whole game, and that a side-footed pea-roller from Benzema that might not have made it into the net even if Romanian goalkeeper Bogdan Lobont hadn't been there to get in the way.
Best WAG - Sarah Brandner
A difficult category to judge, seeing as none of the WAGs have actually
done anything, but a top three of Noemie Lenoir (
Claude Makelele), Sarah Brandner (Bastian Schweinsteiger) and Sylvie Meis (
Rafael van der Vaart) provides plenty of food for thought.
Lenoir and Meis both score highly in the glamour stakes, but for sheer commitment (she turned up to every Germany match, quaffed pints of lager and she's dating a footballer who looks like a pimply adolescent), it has to be Fraulein Brandner (pictured).
Best fans - Netherlands
It's a massive cliche, but once again the Dutch fans illuminated the tournament with their crazy orange-clad antics and unstinting commitment to wacky fancy-dress.
So impressed was the mayor of Berne with the behaviour of the Oranje fans during their group-stage sojourn in the city that he presented the squad with turf from the Stade de Suisse Wankdorf where they had played.
As useless gifts go it's right up there with ornamental animals, but at least they made an impression.
Tom Williams / Eurosport
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