QUARTER FINAL: Spain 2-0 France

I'm no footballing tactical genius, but France were looking like they were getting back into this in the second half. And then the manager Blanc goes and makes two substitutions, ruining the momentum his team was building, and almost ensuring they drew a blanc in this game.

With France looking on top, surely he should have left things as they were for a little longer, to see if their dominance translated into goals. Yes, the substitutions he made were attacking, but the eleven he had on were looking good together, and looking like scoring. After the changes, it looked like Spain all the way, and so it proved.

Enough has been written about the quality of the Spanish, and that they have an embarrassment of talent. They even started this one without a recognised forward on the pitch, and yet strolled into the semis, as I predicted they would, I might add. Actually, I have added that as you can see.

QUARTER FINAL: Germany 4-2 Greece

Billed as the EuroZone Bailout Bowl by no one except me, the Germans march on to the semi-final, despite resting several key players.

Greece were far more watchable than they have been in the past, but if they'd won this, the German chancellor who was in attendance may well have withdrawn bailout funding.

As it was, Europe wasn't thrown into any more turmoil than it's already in, and my tip to win this thing make the semi-finals where either England or Italy will await.

QUARTER-FINAL: Portugal 1-0 Czech Rep

This game had very little going for it, and was settled by a bouncing header from the best player on the pitch, the ubiquitous Ronaldo, whom people are beginning to refer to as CR7, which sounds more like a postcode to me.

For me, the Russians would have give the Portuguese a better game and a tougher test. The Czech's never really threatened and looked ready to settle for penalties from about the 50th minute.

Take Ronaldo out of Portugal's team, and they'll be pretty average too, and with Spain or France awaiting in the semi-final it's hard to make a case for them progressing.

One of the dullest games of the tournament, but if you're Portuguese that won't bother you in the slightest. You're through to another semi-final, and you have CR7 in your T E A M.

Euro 2012 Quarter Finals. Predicted vs Actual

Here's how I thought the Last 8 would look.

RUSSIA v HOLLAND
GERMANY v POLAND
CROATIA v FRANCE
UKRAINE v SPAIN

Here's how I got on.


RUSSIA v HOLLAND
GERMANY v POLAND
CROATIA v FRANCE
UKRAINE v SPAIN
Even an alien who had never seen a football in his life could have predicted more accurately than that. Embarrassing isn't the word. Humiliating probably is.


For the benefit of that alien, here's the actual quarter-final line up.
CZECH REP v PORTUGAL
GERMANY v GREECE
SPAIN v FRANCE
ENGLAND v ITALY
It really is pointless me predicting who'll make it through from that lot. But that probably won't stop me.

Euro 2012 Quarter Final Predictions

I'm not sure you can get away with saying Dark Horse any more these days, so I won't, but a team to watch has to be RUSSIA. They beat Italy in a tournament warm-up game, in Italy and by 3-0, so deserve to be taken seriously. And I think they will beat HOLLAND in the first quarter final.

POLAND I'm putting into the quarters on the back of a wave and surge of passion and emotion from the home supporters, playing host to a major tournament for the first time in their history. But GERMANY will be too strong for them, and ex-pat Podolksi will almost certainly score against them.

I'm backing CROATIA to be the surprise package of the tournament. I like the look of their squad, on and off paper. Even on a blackboard it'll look pretty strong. FRANCE are on the way back, but they're not the force they were 10-15 years ago, so it's a CROATIA win for me here.

And in the final quarter final (it's awkward, but it's right), the other host nation will take on the holders. And lose, I think. SPAIN are still too strong for most nations, and although UKRAINE can expect vocal backing, and all the pressure to be on their opponents, I think SPAIN will edge it, on penalties, mind.

So that'll leave me with a semi-final line up that looks like this:

RUSSIA v GERMANY
CROATIA v SPAIN

Apologies to supporters of these nations if my usually wildly inaccurate predictions put the mockers on your team.

Euro 2012 Quarter Final Predicted Line Up

My Group Stage predictions leave me with a Quarter Final line up looking something like (actually, looking very much like) this:

RUSSIA v HOLLAND
GERMANY v POLAND
CROATIA v FRANCE
UKRAINE v SPAIN

I don't know why I'm putting so much faith in the home nations, after South Africa and virtually the entire continent of Africa let me down last time around. But that's it, my quarter final line up. I'm not happy there's no England, Ireland, Italy or Brazil for that matter.