90' (+1): GGGGOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLL GERMANY!!!! DEUSCHLAND!!!!! Lahm

82': The brilliant Semih Senturk gives Turkey another miracle. He got to the ball before Lehmann and put it in for another equalizer.... 2-2 now...  Turkey is not dead yet!

76': Oh fuck... not again!!!! Can I have another beer then?

74':

If Germany win the Euro Metzelder will receive a life supply of Gilette Mach 3 to get rid of that awful beard he's been carrying

70': I believe this match is still up for grabs. Either team can score a second goal and win the whole thing but the closer it gets to the end of the match the more dangerous Turkey is... We've all seen that movie right?

68': And after a second cross German'y's defense finally cleared the ball from the box

67': Cleared partially

67': Boral gets a corner for Tukey...

65': Friedrich tried a cross from the right.... Too hard. it crossed the box and nobody got a touch of it

64': Apparently nothing changed ... the score is st\ill 1-1

58': The explanation is: The power went down in Basel... Well... Let's wait...

57': And fucking ESPN just lost its satelite signal... so I'm not watching anything anymore

57': Bad kick by Ballack... it hit the bottom of the wall... What a wasted opportunity...

56': Lame

56': Danger Danger Danger for the Turkish goalkeeper

56': Foul from behind on Ballack. There should be  YELLOW  for Altintop

54': The second half started just as if it's a Formula 1 race. These players are running 300km per hour at least

54': Here comes German in counter attack... no... it was cleared... they got the ball back... and Hitzpelger (or whatever his name is spelled) shot over the bar...

52': Now a yellow card for Semih Senturk

51': Oh yeah... The replay shows it WAS a penalty...

51': Huge kerfufle around me. The German fans go wild with the s0-non-called penalty for them. Was it? Wasn't it? I couldn't tell for sure

49': So Frings is in for Rolfes. They will try a better method to staple his head I guess

Half Time: The Free Beer was excellent... I even got a picture with a pretty girl to prove but it's on my phone. I'll upload it later

45' (+2): There we go... let me run now!!! Free Beer Free Beer Free Beer Free Beer Free Beer

45': C'mon ref... Blow the whistle... I want my free beer

44':

Frings is coming in for Germany...  who left?

39': Rolfes used his eyebrow to open a cut in Akman's head... they'are both bleeding... And Akman;s got his head stappled in the pitch... hahahaha... Look at the size of that stappler... That's for big heads

39': Blood Blood Blood.... show me the blood!!!!

37': Boral with a powerful shot when everyone expected a cross... Lehmann's couldn't hold it and bounces it back to the middle of the box... nobody got a good touch on it... Germany is saved for now

37':

Free kick for turkey ...

35': Free

35': Oh yeah, you heard me right: FREE BEER + BEAUTIFUL WOMEN ...

35': I'm only cheering for Germany because there will be free beer here at the Goethe Institut during half time. And there a lot of pretty German women here.

33': Oh Lukas!!!!! Where did you shoot that one... Crazy Polski

32':

Turkey's impetuosity has to be admired. I really respect them much more now. They didn't step on the pitch tonight to play defensevly

30':

Cleared

29': A header for Turkey ends in Lehmann's hands... a now a corner for Gemrany

26': After showin his white arse to the world Schweinsteiger scores the equalizer and I didn't even finished explaining Turkey's goal...  Oh, what the hell!!!!! It's 1-1. That's all you need to know

26':

Ok, let me explain better the whole kerfuffle!!! (while I look away from Schweineys white butt)

A guy from Turkey set the ball with his chest: then Altintop crossed the ball and Kazim-Kazim hit the crossbar again...

SHIT!!! GOOOOAAAAALLLLL for Germany!!!! Schweiney....

21': Boral scores for Turkey after the great set up play by the attack

20': They just showed Joachim Low and he looked like a little kid who lost his parents in a shopping mall. I think he can't believe what's been going on.

17': And nothing came out from that corner... Rustu punched the ball out

17': Germany movesup and gets a corner after the Turkish guy kicks the ball to the last row of the stands

16': Harsh tackle by Boral on Klose. Free kick for Germany... That was easy for Rustu

14': The German fans here at the Goethe Institut are screaming, kicking and almost having a heart attack. Just to let them know I'll only perform CPR in beautiful German women

14':

HIT THE CROSSBAR!!!!! What the Fuck!!!! Turkey is playing very aggressive. Very solid and much better than Germany 

10': Turkey is not shy at all. The 5 men in the middle rotate well and confuse the German defense.

8':

Lahm almost made Turkey job easier now.

6': Rustu's uniform is also very bright yellow. Both goalkeepers look like gigantic lemons

5': The first dangerous play comes from Turkey. the cross from the left was cleared by Schweiney

4': Lehmann's shirt is incredibly blinding. That might help distract the Turks

2': Turkey is playing with 5 men in midfield trying to avoid Ballack's passes.

1': Ballack wanted the throw in but Turkey already won this first dispute

Before Kick Off:

Lineups Confirmed:

GERMANY: Lehmann; Friedrich, Mertesacker, Metzelder, Lahm; Rolfes, Schweinsteiger, Hitzlsperger, Ballack; Klose and Podolski

TURKEY: Rustu; Sabri, Mehmet Topal, Gokhan Zan, Hakan Balta; Mehmet Aurelio, Kazim Kazim, Hamit Altintop, Ayham Akman, Ugur Boral; and Semith Senturk

Before Kick Off: I'm watching the match at the Goethe Institut in Los Angeles with a lot of German fans (including some beautiful girls) so I guess I'll have to cheer for them (I mean the girls...) hahaha

Before Kick Off:

I don't know what kind of miracle the Turkish coach is going to try this time but he's going to need a big if they want to beat the balanced and motivated German side.

Here are the probable Lineups:

Germany vs. Turkey

Tomorrow Germany and Turkey will play the first Euro 2008 Semi-Final. Both teams got to this point with merit but in totally different scenarios.

Germany came from a unexpected second place in Group B behind Croatia but the team used its force, discipline and tradition to beat Portugal - one of the favourites - in the quarterfinals.

Turkey struggled to finish in second place in Group A scoring last-minute goals and having passion as the main ingredient for the success. The "never give up" motto was also essential to give the team a goal in the stoppage time of extra time to allow Turkey to beat Croatia in the penalty shootout and secure a spot in the semis.

With that being said, both teams should have equal possibilities to moving to the final but everything changes if we analise each team's roster at this point.

From the 23 players on the squad Turkish coach Fatih Terim can only count on 14. He has 4 players suspended and 4 players who are injured. Important names included in this absence list are: Nihat and Emre (injured) and Arda Turan and Tuncay (suspended).

On the other hand, Germany has no injuries or suspension problems. All 23 players are available for the head coach Joachim Löw. And after the victory over Portugal the motivation level is high.

The responsibility now lies on Germany's back. They have all the favourable conditions to get to another Eurocup Final.

As for Turkey, they have ahead them another "mission impossible" but we've all seen this movie before during this tournament and we know that so far the Turks are playing award-winning roles.

Coach Fatih Terim's mission just gets tougher and tougher

Captain Michael Ballack knows that the Final is just one step away 

VS

The Turks didn't impress me when they played Portugal. The team is not bad, Nihat, Mehmet Aurelio, Hamit Altintop... I expected much more from Turkey, specially from Atintop but they really disppointed me.

Switzerland on the other displayed great football in the opening match but ended up with two defeats. One was the goal that gave the Czechs the victory and the other was Alexander Frei's injury. I'd love to see Derdiyok have more time on the pitch.

A MUST win match for both teams. Switzerland will have to face Portugal in the last round of this group phase so if they're still hoping to move on in the competition they'd better get this one!

I just hope that we don't see embarrassing violence scenes like the ones from the last match between these two teams. But anything is possible. There's certainly some tension in the air.

You can follow all the action in the MATCH CENTRE with live commentary and a heated chat room!

Join me there!

The first weekend of the Euro 2008 can be summarize like this: Great Saturday, Boring Sunday.

The opening match between Switzerland and Czech Republic had tears, strategic battles - Switzerland playing offensively and Czech Rep. all the way back in defense - and an undeserved Czech goal scored by a substitute player. It was great.

Then we had Portugal vs. Turkey. A very interesting match. Portugal hit the Turkish post three times, Cristiano Ronaldo made his traditional funny/frustrated faces and defender Pepe scored his first goal with the National shirt after an excellent one-two play. Turkey has a good team but not good enough to beat one of the favourites to win the title and at 93rd minute Raul Meirelles sealed Portugal's triumph.

Then on Sunday Croatia and Austria played one very boring match. The goal scored by Croatia on a penalty kick on the 5th minute set the final score and for the other 85 minutes I had to force myself no to fall sleep.

The so expected clash between Germany and Poland was a little better (or less worse). Podolski respect for Poland (he was born there) and for his Polish family was admirable. He didn't celebrate the two goals that seal Germany's victory and what a beautiful goal was that second one. But besides that none of the teams really impressed me.

But monday has finally arrived (football is the only reason to make me happy on a Monday morning) and right now I'm here at OleOle's HQ sitting next to my friend Frenchi just waiting for the (hopefully) two great matches of the day...