FOOTBALL: CASILLAS BROKE THE CURSE

Casillas saved two goals in the penalty shoot-out from De Rossi and Di Natale while Fabregas scored the winning shot. The 88 years curse has ended in Vienna, Austria. Marchena, Capdevila, Sergio Ramos, Senna and Silva to me played well for the whole match, especially Marchena and Senna. When the match went into penalty shoot-out, I knew it will be a tough shoot-out as we have the two best goalkeepers of this era going down for the match-up. Casillas probably has the advantage of a younger age against Buffon.

It was a very careful match as both sides did not want to risk losing. Both sides, especially Spain had a hard time going through as Italy played with almost 10 players when Spain reached their half all the time. Cassano and Camoranesi are to me the only two Italians worth mentioning as they played very defensive football. Cassano made a lot of nice runs from the left while Camoranesi's entrance gave more creative play in the middle. Grosso and Ambrosini to me are very cunning players who managed to get away with bad tackles. Toni really sucks in front as he missed many good chances despite his height.

Iniesta was having a bad match and I thought Xavi should not be substituted. Spain lacked some creative play which can split the tough Italian defence. At times like this, I wish Guti is around. Fabregas came very late in the match but did contribute a lot of dangerous balls into the penalty box. Senna was like Makelele to me who defensively keep most of the attacks away. He even tried a ferocious shot which almost went into the goal eventhough stopped by Buffon. It was so ferocious that it deflected from Buffon's grasp but hit the goalpost.

David Silva tried some really nice shots but his accuracy was not there. Fernando Torres and David Villa were playing like individuals upfront. They really need to improve on their partnership as there was not once in the entire match that they ever created any dangerous plays. The connection between midfield to attack was also very bad. This needs to be rectified if they are going to challenge Hiddink's Russia well next.

Russia will play Spain while Germany will play Turkey in the semifinals. Now, it seems like Germany and Spain are restored as favourites. We will see how far both can go and whether they can meet in the final. It will be hard though as Turkey and Russia especially will want to upset them.