Premier League - Eurowatch: Semi-finals

Eurosport - Mon, 30 Jun 10:05:00 2008

Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas was the star Premier League performer in Spain's convincing 3-0 Euro 2008 semi-final victory over Russia.

FOOTBALL 2008 Euro 2008 Russia-Spain Cesc Fabregas Xabi Alonso David Silva - 0

Russia 0-3 Spain

Luis Aragones's side had been unable to break Russia down in the early stages of the game, but the introduction of Fabregas for the injured David Villa 10 minutes before half-time gave them a new attacking impetus.

Fabregas's measured passing in advanced positions enabled Spain to pin Russia back in the second half, and he provided the assists for the second and third goals, setting up Dani Guiza with a delightful clipped pass into the penalty area before finding David Silva with a perfectly weighted ball from the left.

Aragones was effusive in his praise of the former Barcelona trainee after the game, and hinted that he could be in line for only his second start of the tournament in the final.

Liverpool's Fernando Torres has endured a frustrating tournament so far, largely used as a foil for Villa rather than being the frontman he is for his club, and he was unable to make the most of the handful of half-chances that fell his way against Russia.

Torres's clubmate Xabi Alonso was introduced with just over 20 minutes to go, but despite his characteristically intelligent use of the ball, he is unlikely to dislodge Villarreal midfielder Marcos Senna for the final.

Russia, as everybody knows, have no English-based players in their squad, but Andrei Arshavin can expect no shortage of Premier League suitors despite a very disappointing performance in the semi-final.

Germany 3-2 Turkey

Chelsea's Michael Ballack was the only Premier League player in Germany's semi-final win over Turkey, not that you would have noticed.

Ballack, like so many of his German team-mates, was off the pace from the start. Having played such a crucial role in the quarter-final victory over Portugal, against Turkey he was noticeable by his absence.

The German captain did not even muster a shot on goal in the entire game, and it was left to the unlikely figure of Philipp Lahm to produce the moment of magic that finally turned the tie in the Germans' favour.

Former Aston Villa man Thomas Hitzlsperger produced the pass that set up the winning goal, and he also saw two left-footed efforts in the second period narrowly miss the target.

Jens Lehmann, who finished last season with Arsenal but who will begin the next with Stuttgart, had an unexpectedly busy night in the German goal.

He was called into action after just eight minutes to repel Hamit Altintop, but the assurance that has characterised his performances in the tournament so far was lacking thereafter, and he could, and perhaps should, have done better with both Turkish goals.

With Emre Belozoglu of Newcastle injured and Middlesbrough striker Tuncay Sanli suspended, Turkey's only player with any Premier League connections was Colin Kazim-Richards, formerly of Bury, Brighton and Sheffield United, but currently plying his trade for Fenerbahce.

The man now known as Kazim Kazim put in a superb performance, posing a constant threat with his powerful running down the right flank and giving German left-back Lahm more problems than he has faced in this tournament and the last World Cup combined.

Tom Williams / Eurosport

Comment 6 - 25 of 25

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  1. i think fab is a best player in endland

    From waleddy2008, on Fri 27 Jun 2:42PM

  2. wow, john terry is a bigger choker than i thought. not only did he blow the champions league final for chelsea, but apparently (according to Yaw B), his missed penalty has also cost germany the european championship. if he hits that, ballack wins a final, and germany would have a chance on sunday, but with this new bit of information, i recommend we all skip the match and organize a cricket match in the park! what with all those spaniards with championship pedigree! xavi, iniesta & puyol all won a UCL two years ago, and when you combine that with non-starter xabi alonso's liverpool trophy, how can they lose? where do people come up with this stuff. is it ballack's fault they lost in 2002 to brazil? i know he didn't play, shouldn't that have helped?

    From master shake, on Fri 27 Jun 2:13PM

  3. Cesc is a great player.huhuhu..

    From Acon, on Fri 27 Jun 1:00PM

  4. Fabulous Fab our wonder boy Gunner for life. Lets Go Spain.

    From daniel s, on Fri 27 Jun 12:05PM

  5. Sorry Deutschland fans, you are going home empty-handed...Wanna know why?? Your captain's never won a final n he's not breaking that trend in the final!!!!

    From Yaw B, on Fri 27 Jun 11:14AM

  6. Please roman abramovich land : puyol ,eto'o , senna , and schneider in the prem ligue please tks

    From alexkabibi, on Fri 27 Jun 10:35AM

  7. cancer

    From LEE C, on Fri 27 Jun 10:20AM

  8. salam , qasim7uk , i'm a muslim my self and i find what u said in the post rediculous , let's stop mixing things up , football is a sport what does the religion have to do with it ? total non-sense with all my due respect , thing is volkan pushed clearly koller whether he pushed him hard or not wouldnt make any difference as in football that's a non-sporting agressive act and it's severly penalised so that red card was absolutely justified and volkan's behaviour was useless doing such a mistake in the extra time could have cost them the match , and then coming to BECAUSE TURKEY IS A MUSLIM COUNTRY , plz stop being rediculous as u sound exactly like SOME blacks they screw u , then if u say anything they go : IS IT BECAUSE I IS BLACK ,plz don't get religion in here lads , salam aleykom wa rahmato allahi wa barakatoh (may peace , mercy and bounty of god be upon you )

    From saif man, on Fri 27 Jun 10:15AM

  9. what the F man BPL stands for Barclay Premiere League, whats Belgian P League . Do they even have a national Football team, never heard of them.

    From Aj@y O, on Thu 26 Jun 7:59PM

  10. HAHAHAHAHHAAHHHA i hate germans DIE! You may be luckily good at football but how many wars have you won? you shouldnt be aloud to compete in any competetion its disgraceful.

    From manu0862, on Thu 26 Jun 6:56PM

  11. Germany definitely were not the same side that faced Portugal, they had most of the possession but they let alot of attacks come through. They might have gotten lucky, but in the end they scraped it out, just like Turkey did the whole tournament. Turkey did play well, and you have to credit them with that, but in the end Germany came out and now they're in the finals!

    From Christian, on Thu 26 Jun 4:27PM

  12. "Unless there's a Belgian Premier League, "

    Er, a LITERAL Belgian Premier League of course. I'm well aware of the Belgian First Division / Jupiler League.

    From Aldo 14, on Thu 26 Jun 4:17PM

  13. "Headline of this article says that only one BPL player present"

    Unless there's a Belgian Premier League, you've just used an acronym for something which doesn't exist.

    From Aldo 14, on Thu 26 Jun 4:15PM

  14. The mark of a good side is when they play poor but still win. Well done Germany!

    From hb904460, on Thu 26 Jun 12:49PM

  15. the Germans where very lucky, the looked so relived at the final whistle. turkey where by far the better team playing the better system and with all there best players out. Germany look like an average team like england, there nothing special but they have great team spirit and there not there worst enemy like england but i don't think Germany will win.

    From mark, on Thu 26 Jun 12:37PM

  16. qasim7uk - what a @#$% !

    From hemming2301, on Thu 26 Jun 12:32PM

  17. Chelsea's Michael Ballack was the only Premier League performer in Germany's semi-final win over Turkey, not that you would have noticed.

    Headline of this article says that only one BPL player present, but the fact is soon it will be none after that stupid rule of max. foreign players is applied. I guess most of us have to start following other leagues like la-liga or series A, and soon BPL will R.I.P.

    From Aj@y O, on Thu 26 Jun 12:32PM

  18. Ballack is a great player. He is the captain of a very strong team which can win even on a not so good day. Volkan was banned not because he is a muslim but because he behaved like a drunk teenager.

    From borlerer, on Thu 26 Jun 12:03PM

  19. qasim7uk u suck

    From bencornelius23, on Thu 26 Jun 11:57AM

  20. what a @#$% "quasim"....go on and crie... the better team win.. and it was germany...because they have the better players like.. ballack!!! lahm or frings

    From Bina, on Thu 26 Jun 11:55AM
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