By: Luke Anderson

　　With England failing to even make it into UEFA Euro 2008--after suffering the humiliation of being defeated during the qualifying stages of the tournament--there unsurprisingly hasn't been as much interest in football since the end of the Premier League season in May. Nonetheless, Euro 2008 will continue with or without The Three Lions, and it wouldn't be fair for a football- (or soccer-) loving nation such as the UK to not pay interest to the tournament, which marks the halfway point between the Germany 2006 FIFA World Cup and the 2010 cup hosted by South Africa.

　　The official game, EA's UEFA Euro 2008, has been out for a while now (read the full reviews here) on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, PSP, and PlayStation 2. We decided to use the game's simulation mode to find out which nation would win based on the teams that progressed to the real-life quarterfinals.

　　There are quite a few potential contenders to win the real cup at this stage of the tournament, with Portugal, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, and Italy in with a good chance. Rounding out the eight include Croatia, Turkey, and Russia. So far the competition has produced a few surprise results, with France losing out to Italy and Netherlands in Group C. Euro 2004 winners Greece were quickly eliminated from the competition, as were cohosts Austria and Switzerland. Others to be eliminated in the group stage include the Czech Republic, Poland, and Sweden.

　　Thus the UEFA 2008 simulation mode's predictions for the semis and final are based on the following matches, kicking off tonight in host countries Austria and Switzerland:

　　Portugal vs. Germany

　　Croatia vs. Turkey

　　Netherlands vs. Russia

　　Spain vs. Italy

　　After running through quarterfinal simulations, Portugal, Croatia, Netherlands, and Spain made it through to the semifinals, with the matches looking like this:

　　Netherlands vs. Spain and Portugal vs. Croatia

　　The Spaniards fought a good fight against the Dutch but in the end the orange army was too much for them, and Spain lost out 2-1. A 64th minute own goal from Sergio Ramos certainly didn't help them in their quest for victory, either.

　　However, more surprising than this was the upset of the Portugal vs. Croatia game. Portugal, going in as our favourites for the match (and the winner of other predictions out there, including EA's own Euro 2008 predictions) drew with Croatia 0-0 at full time. Surely the talented side--including formidable striker Cristiano Ronaldo--couldn't stray from the road to victory?

　　In an upset bound to cause many a Portuguese fan's anguish, the team lost to Croatia 4-5 on penalties. Although Ronaldo, Deco, Maniche, and Quaresma all netted for Portugal, it wasn't enough to stop the boots of Croatia's Srna, Kovac, Kranjcar, Budan, and Modric.

　　Finally the moment of truth was upon us. The final two came down to Croatia and Netherlands.

　　Croatia vs. Netherlands

　　It was a tough game. It was a long game. With both teams fighting for glory and bragging rights throughout Europe, a lot was at stake. Would favourites Netherlands snatch the trophy, or would underdogs Croatia, encouraged by a win against Portugal, emerge victorious? We hit start on the simulation to find out.

　　After 90 minutes of blood, sweat, and tears (or two six-minute halves to us), the score was tied at a nail-biting nil all. Incredibly, it was still anyone's game. In a case of history repeating itself for Croatia, it was still nil all after two rounds of overtime. With everything at stake and both teams running near empty, the score was still tied at the end of overtime. It seemed that penalties would again settle the score on this occasion. Playing just as incredibly as they have in the real Euro 2008, Netherlands came through to clinch a 5:4 penalty shootout victory and the European cup.

　　We'll be running separate semifinal and final predictions, based on the real-life winners of those stages, so stay tuned to Sports Beat to see who'll win the virtual UEFA European Football Championship, and just how accurate UEFA Euro 2008's AI is compared to real thing.