Men's U-19 European Championship 7/29/2011.

It was a brilliant day of football today as the Czech Republic faced Serbia while Spain and the Republicc of Ireland faced off in the other Semi-Final. Both were goal-filled extravaganzas but only the former was anywhere near to being close. The Czechs got off to a flying start, scoring in the 6th minute through Tomas Prikryl before Tomas Kalas added a 2nd in the 16th. 3 minutes later Tomas Jelecek scored from the spot to make it 3-0 in the Czech Republic's favor. That goal, however, seemed to spur the Serbians in to action. Rather than give up, they proceeded to score 2 goals before half-time! Both came from the deft foot of Djordje Despotović in the 23rd, and 28th minutes. It was thus 3-2 when half-time was called. The 2nd half had just 1 goal, but the Serbians really tried to equalize. They had a total of 10 chances or so throughout the game but only 2 went in. Jiri Skalak struck the Czech Republic's 4th in the 1st minute of stoppage time of the 2nd half to totally keep the Serbs out of the Final. Meanwhile, Spain were busy having their way with the hapless players of the Republic of Ireland. That isn't to say that the Irish didn't give it a good effort, they were simply out-gunned and out-maneuvered. The 4-time winning Spaniards came, they saw they conquered. Gerard Deulofeu opened the account in the 27th minute while Captain Pablo Sarabia tacked on a 2nd to close the half Spain 2 - Ireland 0. The 2nd half started badly for the Irish with Juanmi striking home in the 1st minute while Alvaro Morata added 2 late goals to make it 5-0 when the final whistle blew. To be fair to the Irish though, they didn't turn into a bunch of thugs. They committed just 5 or so more fouls than the Spanish and collected just 2 yellow cards more than Spain's 1. Expect the Final, and the 3rd place match, to be just as exciting as these Semi-Final performances!