UEFA Euro 2008 knockout stage

main|UEFA Euro 2008The knockout stage of the 2008 UEFA European Championships began with the quarter-finals on 19 June 2008, and was completed on 29 June 2008 with the final at Ernst Happel Stadion in Vienna.

The knockout stage was different from that of past tournaments. Teams in groups A and B were separated from teams in groups C and D until the final. This increased the chance of a group fixture being replayed in the knockout stage, and rendered a final between two teams drawn in the same half of the tournament impossible. The reason for the format change this year was to equalise the rest periods during the knockout stage.cite news |url=http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-eurodraw&prov=reuters&type=lgns |title=Euro-Format means group rivals cannot meet again in final |publisher=Yahoo! Sports |date=2008-06-03 |accessdate=2008-06-03 ] Also, in another major change, for the first time in a European Championship, only two venues (St. Jakob-Park, Basel and Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna) will be used for the seven matches in the knockout stage of the tournament.

Another new rule forgave all single yellow cards received up to and including the quarterfinals. However, players that were booked both in group tournament and quarterfinals missed semifinals through suspension, but could play in the final. It was thus not possible to be suspended for the final without a red card.Round8
19 June - Basel|fb|POR|2|fb|GER|3
20 June - Vienna|fb|CRO|1 (1)|fb|TUR (p)|1 (3)
21 June - Basel|fb|NED|1|fb|RUS (aet)|3
22 June - Vienna|fb|ESP (p)|0 (4)|fb|ITA|0 (2)
25 June - Basel|fb|GER|3|fb|TUR|2
26 June - Vienna|fb|RUS|0|fb|ESP|3
29 June - Vienna|fb|GER|0|fb|ESP|1

"All times local (UTC+2)"

Quarter-finals

The first quarter-final saw Group A winners Portugal take on Germany, who finished as runners-up of Group B. Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger scored the opener half-way through the first half, before Miroslav Klose doubled their lead four minutes later. Portugal pulled one back five minutes before half-time, but Germany restored their two-goal lead on the hour mark. Portugal now needed two goals to take the game to extra time; Hélder Postiga pulled one back, but Germany were able to hang on to qualify for the semi-finals for the first time since 1996.

The second quarter-final was between Croatia and Turkey, and was a much more tame affair. No goals were scored in normal time, and it took 29 minutes of extra time before Ivan Klasnić put Croatia into the lead. However, two minutes into injury time at the end of extra time, a long free kick from Turkey goalkeeper Rüştü Reçber found Semih Şentürk on the edge of the area; the striker turned and hit a shot into the top corner of the net to take the game to a penalty shootout. Croatia went first, but only managed to score one of their four penalties, while Turkey scored all three of theirs to win 3–1.

The Group C winners, the Netherlands, who had won all three of their group games, took on Group D runners-up Russia in quarter-final 3. The Netherlands' players wore black armbands in sympathy for the death of Anissa, Khalid Boulahrouz's premature baby daughter. Russia took the lead through Roman Pavlyuchenko just before the hour mark. Ruud van Nistelrooy managed to equalise in the 86th minute to take the game to extra time, but two quick-fire goals from Dmitri Torbinski and Andrei Arshavin secured an unlikely win for the Russians.

The final quarter-final pitted Spain against Italy. With such big names on show, fans might have expected an exciting match. However, in 120 minutes of football, neither team managed to produce a goal, sending the game to penalties. Spain went first and scored three of their first four penalties, Gianluigi Buffon saving the other from Dani Güiza, while Iker Casillas saved two of Italy's four penalties. This left Cesc Fàbregas having to score to send Spain through. He converted, meaning that Spain had won their first competitive match against Italy since the 1920 Summer Olympics and that Spain had qualified for the semi-finals for the first time since 1984.

Portugal vs Germany

footballbox
date=2008-06-19
time=20:45
team1=fb-rt|POR
score=2 – 3
report= [http://www.euro2008.uefa.com/tournament/matches/match=301699/report=rp.html (Report)]
team2=fb|GER
goals1=Nuno Gomes goal|40
Postiga goal|87
goals2=Schweinsteiger goal|22
Klose goal|26
Ballack goal|61
stadium=St. Jakob-Park, Basel
attendance=39,374
referee=Peter Fröjdfeldt (Sweden)

References