The quarterfinals of UEFA Euro 2008 are over like an all-too-brief English summer, and the quadrennial tournament is now through to the semifinal stages. If you want to see which team UEFA Euro 2008's AI thought won Euro 2008 based on the quarterfinalists, check out our previous predictions.

　　How did our quarterfinal prediction teams differ from real life? Well, Turkey beat Croatia, Portugal lost to Germany, and in perhaps the biggest surprise, a promising Netherlands lost out to Russia in reality. This second round of predictions is based on the real semifinalists, with the two games looking like this:

　　Semifinals:

　　Germany vs. Turkey

　　Russia vs. Spain

　　On the face of it, most would pick Germany and Spain to be easy favourites in the semifinals, but what does UEFA Euro 2008 on the Xbox 360 think of the contenders? As we saw in the quarterfinal stage, the predictions were anything but predictable, with a few surprises up its simulated sleeves.

　　Germany, which came third in the 2006 FIFA World Cup against Portugal, faced off against Turkey, which failed to qualify for the World Cup or Euro 2004. True to the team's real-life counterparts, the Turks put in a strong fight, resulting in a 0-0 draw against the Germans at full time. Despite two extra time periods, neither side scored, leading to the inevitable penalty shootout.

　　Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger and Simon Rolfes managed to feel the back of the net, but a few clumsy mistakes resulted in Turkey's Tumer Metin, Hamit Altintop, and Yildiray Basturk leading the team to a 4-2 victory. Turkey would be entering the finals.

　　Next up was the passion and flair of Spain versus the raw determination of Russia, who have surprised quite a few critics thus far in the tournament. Taking a page out of the last match, both teams failed to net in 90 minutes, which brought them to yet another goalless extra time period. For the second time in the semifinals, the underdogs had won on penalties, with Russia walking away 3-2, much to the anguish of the Spaniards. The grit of Russia's Konstantin Zyrianov, Sergey Ignashevich, and Roman Pavlyuchenko was too much for Spain, with only Villa and Capdevila scoring penalties. Russia would be heading into the finals against Turkey.

　　Final: Russia vs. Turkey

　　Determined not to finish the final game scoreless, both teams netted quickly in the first half, with Russia's Diniyar Bilyaletdinov scoring on 20 minutes, followed by Nihat Kahveci's 31-minute goal for Turkey. Both teams entered the second half neck-and-neck, and despite a frantic second half, drew at one apiece at full time. Two periods of extra time failed to break the stalemate, leading once more to a penalty shootout.

　　In the end, the power of the Russians was too much for the Turkish team, with penalties from Igor Semshov, Zyrianov, Ignashevich, and Pavlyuchenko trumping Turkey's two scores from Altintop and Gökdeniz Karadeniz. After successfully leading Australia to their first World Cup finals in 32 years, manager Gus Hiddink has taken the Russsian side to its first UEFA European Football Championship since the former USSR won the inaugural competition in 1960. Will real life imitate our simulation? Time will tell.

　　We'll be running our last final predictions, based on the real-life winners of the semifinals, soon, 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 to real thing.