27 June 2012

Spain Hoping for Third Successive Major Final While Ronaldo Looks To Leave His Mark


By Richard Scott;

Tonight sees the first semi-final of the European Championship as group B runners up Portugal take on group C winners Spain.

Portugal's hopes rest on Cristiano Ronaldo who is one the leading scorers so far in the tournament with three goals. The Real Madrid star man will be up against many of his team-mates in the Spain team.

One of his Real team-mates is Spain number one Iker Casillas who will win his 136th cap should he play and will become the first player to win 100 games for his country should they progress to the final. The Spain goalkeeper made his debut 12 years ago against Sweden at the age of 19.

Spain, defending European champions and World Cup winners, are favourites to make Sunday's final with their attacking style of play having already brought 8 goals from Fabregas, Alonso, Torres (2 each) Silva and Navas (1 each).

Former Liverpool star Xabi Alonso said during the pre match press conference that it will be a team effort in stopping Ronaldo from taking his team through.
The Dombass Arena will not be full of fans as not many have made the trip to the semi final due to the distance from Spain and Portugal.

The game kicks off at 7:45pm (BST time) and will be shown on BBC One.

No comments:

Post a Comment