Waiting for the grand finale...

Originally, I thought tonight will be France vs Germany. Turned out I was wrong. Come after the stroke of midnight (more specifically 3 hrs after), we'll be bracing ourselves for what is most likely a damn boring semi-final.

A Seleção das Quinas versus Y Dreigiau

Benedita Pereira [República Portuguesa]

Kimberly Nixon [Cymru]

So there we have it. A semi-final between realism and idealism. Pragmatists believe that Portuguese class will prevail, romantics will want to see the Welsh winning this with plenty of guts and glory. In a funny sense, that's exactly why opposites attract. Imagine this: the cynical me entering a BGR with an idealistic local girlfriend. That's how funny this match looks.

A lot has been said about Gareth "not Christian" Bale and Cristiano "I don't come from Brazil" Ronaldo. A lot has been said about this clash of titans, the footballing equivalent of 進撃の巨人. Thankfully, we don't have someone doing an Eren Yeager via public football analysis. That'd be absolutely disastrous.

Believe the hype, not the team

This time round, the match won't be about the team. Yes, tactics count. Quite obviously, a good strategy will go a long way to winning this. But that's where similarities to your generic 90 mins end.

5 blokes versus 4?

This will be a match of little chances if there's anything to go by so far. While Chris "the second Speed" Coleman isn't exactly known for closing shop, a 3-5-1-1 system doesn't exactly give the purists any hope of an alternate El Clásico. As for Fernando "nothing to do with F1" Santos, the less said the better. Interestingly enough, it seems that both tacticians opt to give their respective galacticos the centre stage. Bale will most likely be given that free roaming 2nd striker role just behind Hal "new boss wanted" Robson-Kanu while Ronaldo will most likely be paired up with Nani up front.

For the Welsh, the reason why they're so interesting to watch (i.e. not necessarily entertaining as O'Neill Jr had testified to us all) is down to GB11 given plenty of time off the ball. With a flat 5 behind him, he will never be running short of ammo. It's not just Joe "not Ledley" Allen in the middle or Chris "the set piece gunner" Gunter. It's also not about Aaron "got brutally tackled by Ryan just like me" Ramsey. Rather, it's 5 blokes playing for that one guy just further up. It's basically a British model which we're seeing here. A system made famous by Mr Eric Soh's fave football team, that (north London) football team currently owned by a Jew.

As for the Portuguese, I won't be surprised if Santos has always chosen to approach every match like some anti-F1 football guy. Assuming that it's true that Portugal has been guilty of playing deep instead of a high block, no one should fault CR7. You see, the logic in playing deep is this: the best player (at least on paper, that is) in the tournament is currently forced to run twice (or even thrice) the mileage up and down.

What this scenario means is very simple: CR7 won't have the luxury bossing the match in the final 3rd like what Zlatan "I now want to send entire cities and towns into retirement 4 teh lolz" Ibrahimović has been tasked to do with the Norsemen from Sweden. It's about how much time you're given to express yourself, it's about how much fuel in the tank you'll need to burn.

As for Bale, I won't be surprised if he doesn't have this absurd amount of burden so far. Yes, he'll have to track back. But you don't expect a player like him to grab the 90 mins by the balls if you're out to park that Irish bus. To be fair, not even José "O Especial" Mourinho would have done that 10 tries out of 10 (read: at least Real Madrid was scoring freely like your stereotypical foreign talent under his command).

A battle of attrition?

Be prepared for a pitched battle all over the pitch. Santos will most likely want to force the Welsh dragons to run (or fly for that matter) all over the pitch without getting a sniff of the ball (no pun intended)  anywhere within the 20 yard box. The Portuguese Armada has to keep the ball and defend the ball. There's no other way out because without the ball, Santos and his anti-F1 XI will be subjected to plenty of fire and blood from the Welsh. The Brits may not have the Khaleesi with them, but at least they got a Batman on fire just like Will "on fire" Grigg (okay, the Khaleesi part is technically a lie because Emilia "Dany" Clarke is a Brit).

As for Dragon Chris, he'll need his entire starting X to be at their best. Why I say X instead of XI is very simple:

~Batman's on fire=your defence is terrified~

By this, I mean playing smart like what the Italians have been doing under Antonio "Il Bestia" Conte so far. The entire team needs to stay calm, to play the ball forward without fear.

Conclusion

If possession is to be the key to Portugal's dream of winning the footballing equivalent of a continental F1, then the first touch of the ball will be vital to a potential fairy tale ending to Wales' campaign for glory.