A quick one for you today, since an emergency at work, and an early hangover following my wine tasting marathon, have conspired to ensure I’ve only had a couple of hours sleep.
Yesterday’s games at Euro 2012 saw Denmark pull off a shock as they beat the Netherlands 1-0 in a result that makes group B very interesting. I had the television on for the match, but was only half watching as Robin van Persie had something of an indifferent game, not particularly aided by his side’s inability to supply him with good ball, but also missing several chances you’d expect him to score were he wearing red and white.
Having started strongly, the Dutch fell behind to a goal by Michael Krohn-Dehli in the 24th minute, and despite huffing and puffing, and hitting the post at least once, never got back into the game. The Dutch manager, Bert van Marwijk, felt it necessary to defend Robin’s performance after the game, saying:
It was not only Robin van Persie. There were maybe four, five, six players who had a lot of chances. And the referee had also a chance to give us a penalty
I’m not sure that’s quite the sort of man management that’ll see your players ready to die on the pitch next time out, but I’m sure Bert knows his players better than I.
Denmark will have been delighted with the result that sees the group wide open, but Nicklas Bendtner admitted his side were a little fortunate with the result:
We must admit that they had chances to score as well, and on a normal day I think they would have scored one or two of them. But the luck was on our side and we took full advantage of that.
In the other game, Germany beat Portugal in what was a pretty dull game, the Germans eventually wearing down Portugal with Mario Gomez scoring with 20 minutes to go. Again, it wasn’t a game I was watching particularly closely, so I can’t really comment on how Arsenal new boy Lucas Podolski did. He didn’t score, get sent off, or have a nightmare, it seems, but the official site described his performance as “lively”. Per Mertesacker was on the bench for the Germans.
Today’s games see what will hopefully be a tasty match up (I’ve jinxed it now, haven’t I?) when Spain take on Italy in the early fixture, with Ireland playing Croatia this evening.
In today’s tenuous transfer tosh, the Metro reports “Arsenal could bid to buy back Samir Nasri as Man City ‘open to offers'”. Which is true – we probably could bid to buy him back. We could probably also divert our entire transfer budget into a pointless bid for Lionel Messi (who scored a hat trick for Argentina last night as they beat Brazil 4-3 in what sounds from the scoreline like a brilliant game), or developing a craft to fly to the moon, but I think both are somewhat unlikely. While it’d be quite hilarious were City to move Nasri on after a single season, I think it would be next to impossible for him to come back to Arsenal having made some of the comments he has.
And that’s your lot. Have yourselves a good Sunday, and I’ll see you again tomorrow, bright and early.
