sm80
| Join Date: | May 28, 2009 |
Finland played well with England and shown that they can withstand any rival. They had a lot of chances for a draw but luck was not on their side. Sure they haven't such amount of high professionals as England or Spain but they play in team football struggling from first to last minutes of match. Now they trust they can qualify to semi-final and will do their best to reach this goal. Germany players are staying in good physical shape, but i expect they will have big problems to score because of tight defense line of Finland.
I should say Ljubicic is not the same kind of players as Santoro has played yet. This guys have 4-4 record, but all their meetings were on hard surface. I think on grass Ljubicic is favorite, he feels very good on this surface. He shows better and better tennis from tournament to tournament, in addition to strong serve he practiced net approaches, out-of-straight decisions. Santoro won't be able to win using "smart" play on baseline like he played with Ginepri, that won't work with Ljubicic.
Belarus shown strong-willed character, won Turkey with necessary handicap, and qualified in quarter-final. Not only result is important. The quality of game is growing from match to match, after the poor beginning most of girls show their best play, and looks like staying in good physical form. The team of Slovakia surprised most of sport analysts and i think they have reached their maximum result yet.
They met only once on grass three years ago and Tursunov won in stubborn match. The main base for this stake is not the best form of Tursunov who has 10 losses and only 9 wins this year and at this tournament have won Fognini in hard 3-sets match . Bogdanovic in his turn isn't top of tennis but has good serve and plays aggressively, that will be enough i think to keep such handicap.
Italy have one of the best attacking line in the championship, the coach might choose schema 4-3-3. Italians want to get match-return after loosing Serbia in the latest championship, and i think they will be looking forward to Serbians goal line from first minutes. Serbians in their turn have good attacking midfielders that can score at any time. In my opinion it will be too difficult for Serbians to play in defense style and they accept Italians attacking strategy.
Value in Ginepri. His latest results on hard surfaces don't impress, but grass is more suitable for him. Maybe he is not so technician and clever (in the context of playing) as Santoro, but younger, has good serve, quite good shots. I don't understand why Santoro is clear favourite here (in books opinion). There will be stubborn struggle (after both have won in first round in 2 sets). Shortly put, Santoro is overrated.
Team qualified in semi final is meeting team that really needs to win (+ draw or loose of Holland) for qualifying. Argentinians play in attacking open football. I think they will not change their tactics today. In opposite U.A.E. played in defense style, but in this match, i am sure, they will choose other tactics because they need to go forward and score. The defense line of Argentina is not so high level as forwards line, so i expect over in this game.