Portugal, Spain In Crunchy Tie

It will be a crunchy tie as Portugal face defending champions, Spain, in the first semi final of the Euro 2012 Championship tonight.

As Portugal and Spain renew their Iberian rivalry, both teams are coming off the back of three consecutive wins at Euro 2012 after an opening day loss to Germany and draw with Italy.

Seleccao boss, Paulo Bento, remains confident despite the disruption of Ricardo Quaresma and Miguel Lopes coming to blows during training on Saturday, but will be forced into a change after centre-forward, Helder Postiga, suffered a thigh injury against Czech Republic, and will be replaced by either Hugo Almeida or youngster, Nelson Oliveira, in the starting XI.

Rest of the line-up is expected to remain the same as Cristiano Ronaldo, who has three goals in his last two games, Pepe and Fabio Coentrao come up against several of their Real Madrid teammates and Clasico rivals from Barcelona on the opposition side.

This generation of Spain players are coming off an effective quarter-final win over France and looking to add this tournament to their trophy cabinet after Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010, but a majority of the media have been unimpressed, labelling their performances “boring” so far, and questioning whether the team is up to the same standards as the last few years.

Coach, Vicente del Bosque, will not be swayed by the critics though, and is likely to stick with the players and formation he has utilised in Poland and Ukraine thus far with the lone doubt coming up front.

La Roja have started Cesc Fabregas as a “false No.9” on two occasions and gone for the more direct approach of Fernando Torres in their other two matches, with both players notching two goals at the tournament so far. However, the Chelsea star may have a slight edge in being chosen for the first XI tonight.

Fabregas warned his teammates not to under estimate their rivals in tonight cracker. The former Arsenal star had plenty of chances to see Portugal’s star player, Cristiano Ronaldo, as he helped Real Madrid win La Liga last season.

and he is also wary of the talents of Manchester United winger Nani.

He said: “I think they play a different system from Real Madrid, but one of Portugal’s strengths is having Ronaldo and Nani. If I were the coach of Portugal I would play on the counter. They can do much damage, but surely if we defend very well together we will have a good game.”