The group stage games of the 2012 UEFA European Championship ended on June 19, after which the organizers gave fans two days for some to properly celebrate the advancement of their countries to the next stage, while others calm their nerves after the collapse of hopes. Then, within four days, matches were held for reaching the semifinals of the tournament, which determined the four teams worthy to compete directly for the championship medals.
The first team to qualify to play in the Euro 2012 semi-finals was the Portuguese national team. On June 21, in Warsaw, she met with the winner of the group in which the Russians performed - with the Czech Republic. In this match, only one goal was scored - 11 minutes before the end of the meeting, it was scored by the most famous footballer of the Portuguese national team, Cristiano Ronaldo.
The next day, the second offender of our team stopped its participation in the European Championship - Greece, quite expectedly, gave way to the German national team in the semifinals. Unlike the previous day, the audience saw a lot of goals - the Germans scored 4 of them (Philip Lam, Sami Khedira, Miroslav Klose, Marco Reus), and the Greeks - 2 (Giorgos Samaras, Dimitris Salpingidis).
The next two meetings for reaching the semifinals were held on the territory of Ukraine. On June 23, the national teams of Spain and France played in Donetsk. This game was the 100th anniversary for the Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso and the 30-year-old Real Madrid player celebrated this event to glory. He scored both goals in the match - first from the field, in the 19th minute of the first half, and then from the penalty spot, in addition to the second half. Spain advanced to the semifinals, which few experts and fans doubted.
The last participant in the four strongest teams in Europe was determined in Kiev on June 24th. The Olimpiyskiy stadium gathered the largest number of spectators of the quarterfinals - more than 64 thousand. They had to wait for the first goal scored longer than anyone else - neither in main time, nor in extra time, the teams of England and Italy could not do this. Therefore, to identify the last participant in the semi-finals for the first time at Euro 2012, a penalty shootout was held. In it, the Italians missed first (Riccardo Montolivo), but the British did it twice (Ashley Young and Ashley Cole).
At the end of these four days, the semi-final pairs were formed as follows: Portugal - Spain, Germany - Italy.
