Preview – Portugal vs Turkey, June 7 2008

Turkey will be looking forward to finishing this game without much ado. Their hopes may be high, and they may be confident of proceeding to the next round, but it’s got to be by beating the Czech Republic. This, I expect to be a very lopsided match. Turkey should look at minimizing the goal difference, if you ask me. Turkey is not a bad team. They have got their own style coming into Euro, but there are certain teams which are not capable of getting ‘upset’. Emre should look at monitoring his team in this encounter and learning from the experience. It’s the other matches that they should be thinking of, just to feel confident.

The team from Portugal is among the favourites tipped to win the title, given the in-form players and that they’ve played with each other before. Scolari should be having nightmares thinking about picking the starting eleven. Deco, Gomes, Postiga.. aaah, now how long has it been since I saw them play together? Personally, I do not like the player that Ronaldo is, but I must admit that he’s one of the rarest talents available at the moment. Post-worldcup-rooney-incident, the referees will have a pre-conceived notion about his diving skills, and that should be a matter of concern. Otherwise, here’s someone you can rely on to produce 1 goal every match, at the least. But, even in the extreme cases of players getting carded time and again, no sweat. There are many more playmakers in the lineup! And the defence shall be a Chelsea trio, protecting the goal and making it all the more easy for the star keeper Ricardo. Portugal should be having a warm up match against the fast playing Turkey. Getting past turkey would ensure that Switzerland will no more be a concern.

Unless the stars wish to lie, It’s Portugal on top.

Key Players:

Portugal – You got to name at least 7 of them here

Turkey – Emre (the captain, in case u wonder which of the three), Tuncay, Altintop perhaps?

Prediction:

Turkey should do all it can to minimize the goal difference as every Portugal player will be expecting to showcase his ability to put the ball past the keeper. A 3 GD in favour of Portugal is my prediction.