Portugese Joy
As i predicted,Portugal are through to the Quater-Finals and will now face England on saturday.
But nobody could have predicted what actually took place as there was a flurry of red & yellow cards shown by russian referee Valentin Ivanov.This is where I take a pause and make a public shout to….:
Mr. Collina..please make a comeback and save us from bad refereeing! 
Ok..back to the game
The game itself was settled by Maniche’s first-half strike,but that’s nothing compared to the drama that was about to unfold,first Cristiano Ronaldo had to be substituted after suffering a knock from Khalid Boulahrouz on his thigh.
That left a deep gash on Ronaldo’s thigh and though he tried to continue,he just couldn’t the pain had taken it’s toll on him,but before his 34th minute susbstitution he had already contributed to the portugese cause by darting between Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Wesley Sneijder to seize possession before releasing Deco with an inspired pass.
The Barcelona man quickly crossed low, allowing Pauleta to lay a pass off to Maniche. No longer wanted by Jose Mourinho at Chelsea, the midfielder skipped inside Andre Ooijer and beat Edwin van der Sar with an impressive finish.
Maniche - Man Of The Hour
Holland’s Arjen Robben suffered what i thought was a far worst challenge when Nuno Valente struck him on the shoulder studs first,but referee Ivanov did nothing at all…that in my opinion should have been a red card to Valente and a penalty to Holland.
Than the red cards started to fly out of the ref’s pocket as Costinha,Deco,Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Khalid Boulahrouz received their marching orders.
I would rather like to focus outside of this game a little,why did Van Basten decide not to bring experienced players like Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Patrick Kluivert and Roy Makaay is beyond me,yes i know he’s building a young squad,but he had the opportunity to bring in some experienced players in midfield,i believe the likes of Davids and Seedorf could have made all the difference in this game,i strongly believe Van Basten made a mistake in not bringing them to Germany,and than not even playing Ruud Van Nistelrooy in the whole of 90 minutes against Portugal is another amazing decision!.
Full Review of the Game by Soccernet
In the end Portugal’s team spirit and togetherness brought them through,and they will now face England who will be absolutely smilling as they will face a depleted Portugese side without Costinha,Deco,maybe Ronaldo and also they may miss Figo who head-butted Van Bommel in the game and i expect Fifa to take serious action on this.
Sven Goran will be hoping it would be third time lucky against wily Scolari,as both men have met twice before in the quater-final stage,in 2002 against Brazil and Euro 2004 against portugal.
And if England can’t for some reason get past Portugal than they really really don’t deserve to go futher ahead.
Awwwww…there’s nothing like kissing your gal after a footy match.
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Hear, hear - bring back Collina anytime, I say!