Wales vs Portugal
..aka Bale vs Ronaldo. It will be a delight watching these two Real Madrid teammates trying to get their teams to the Euro final. While Ronaldo's Euro campaign has been more subdued, yes even disappointing, Bale has had plenty of shining moments wearing the National colors.
Portugal is clearly the favorite. Ranked #8 before the Euro Portugal has really not shown anything to justify its 'one of the favorites' status. I have seen every game from Portugal and I cannot give you one game where I can say "this team played really good". The 3-3 tie against Hungary was the closest to a good game but was more a result of Hungary's offensive style off football and a decent team would have easily disposed of Hungary as Belgium has shown in the R16s. Portugal's livelyhood will rely on Sanchez who may or may not be 18 years old (in case anybody missed that age controversy) feeding the ball to a largely ineffective and lazy Ronaldo. The teams other Superstar, Pepe, has had more highlights rolling on the ground, bitching and moaning and clawing opponents rather than through play. It is a sign of this year's quality (or lack thereof) of the Portugal team that he is still considered one of the best on this team. But he might be out for the semi.
Note: Portugal has yet to win a game in regulation (90 minutes) at Euro.
Wales, the new kid on the block, have huge problems going into this game
- one player had to cancel his own wedding: Joe Ledley had his wedding planed for Saturday
- Chris Gunter cannot attend his brothers wedding which also threw his parents into troubled waters. They decided to attend the game rather than go to their other son's wedding
But these type of problems just add to the likability factor of this year's Wales team
And it describes Wales perfectly. They didn't expect anything out of Euro considering they were competing with England and Russia in group play. And even if they would have advanced who would have thought they go all the way to the Semis. For a lot of fans and experts a surprise I gave Wales more credit from the get-go. I had the pleasure of watching a couple of their games in the last couple years (one was the Qualifier against Belgium) and I really thought that they could make some noise. Wales plays as a collective with a strong defense yet with enough offensive power to score more than just one goal. (Note: Wales had the most goals scored in group play)
One of the reasons I was sold early on Wales was Bale. Bale is a Superstar I think Beckham was not. Bale is a Superstar Messi is not, Neymar is not, Ronaldo is not, Rooney is not. All these players mentioned have had great success on club level but never were the ones lifting their National team to the top spot. It is one thing playing great on the side of other international superstars but when you play with players who are not on that level you have to, as a superstar, get down and dirty and rally the team around you. You become a leader not just remain a diva. Bale integrated himself well into the Welsh team and the team itself rallies around him.
One of the concerns I had was 'what if Wales has to play from behind'? Prior to the quarters they were down only once but that was vs England in the 92 min and the game was over. Great teams respond to a deficit. They had the chance against Belgium (0-1 after 13 minutes) and they responded extremely well.
Right now, of the remaining 4 teams Wales is the most compact and should make it to the finals.....and it is the 12th year after all!!!!!!!!
(1992 Denmark; 2004 Greece; 2016 Wales?)