Category Archives: Euro 2012 – Portugal

Spain Vs Portugal Euro 2012 Semifinal. Image Content Analysis

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Spain and Portugal played the first semifinal of the football UEFA Euro 2012.

No goals scored during the regular 90 minutes times. No goals after the 30 minutes of prolongations. The finalist of the championship was decided in the 5 penalties series. Spain finally got the ticket for the final game versus Italy, scoring four penalties. Portugal scored just two of first four penalties. Cristiano Ronaldo did not take the chance to shoot the last penalty.

We propose another media impact analysis of the match in our series of blog posts about the Euro 2012. We use as in all previous posts about the Euro 2012 games the image content analysis of photos used by newspapers to cover the post game information of Portugal Vs Spain. We have selected news published in Britain.

We will propose a new feature in this post.

A null game with no goals and with a penalties series creates an attractive framework of analysis. This kind of results do not produce a clear star of the game (except if goalkeepers have an outstanding performance in the penalties series). There are a plurality of protagonists. This creates an uneasy task for journalists’ choices: which is the image that reflects the best the essence of the game?

A 0-0 game in a decissive knockout round like the semifinals makes that the most important information if the global output (which team qualified) more than individual stars. So, a natural way for journalists to solve the problem of the lack of single stars is to show team images around the crucial moments of the game: during the penalties series or in the right aftermath of the game, celebrating qualification for the final or showing disappointment and suffering for the the elimination.

So, instead of showing you who were designed by the media as leading stars of the game, we show which have been the choices by journalists concerning the decision photos during or after the match.

Results in  the figure below tell us that media in Britain showed images about players from Spain in 41% of all cases. Images with players from Portugal got a 32% share, while images showing players from both teams represented 27% of all photos.

Concerning the specific question raised in this post, we find that post game images showing Spanish players celebrating celebration represented 29% of all news (versus 12% during the game). As for images about Portugal, 25% showed images of frustration, versus just 7% of during the game images. All together, post game images represent 54% of all images used  about the game Spain Vs Portugal.

As for individual stars of the game, we find that main media reference was Cristiano Ronaldo, mostly with images showing his disappointment just after elimination. In the Spanish side, Cesc Fàbregas was the leading reference. He scored the last penalty in Spain. Goalkeeper Iker Casillas and defender Sergio Ramos (Panenka style penalty) were among top three players of the match in the Spanish side.

Example of ‘Spain post match’ image

UEFA Euro 2012 Quarter Finals: Spain, Germany, Portugal and Italy. Winning Teams, Winning Stars. Media Coverage Analysis

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We continue our series about media impact analysis of football UEFA Euro 2012 championship.

Quarter finals results

Last eight teams were confronted in a single knockout round, in quarter finals, to determine the last four semifinalists.

Games were played between 21 and 24 June 2012.

Teams and results were:

Portugal – Czech Republic 1-0 (Cristiano Ronaldo)

Germany – Greece 4-2 (Lahm, Khedira, Klose, Reus // Samaras, Salpigidis)

Spain- France 2-0 (2 Xabi Alonso)

Italy – France 0-0 (penalties 4-2).

So, the semifinals of the tournament are:

Portugal Vs Spain

Germany Vs Italy

Media value in the final stages of the competition

It’s time for glory for the teams reaching the final stages of the competition. There are less and less teams competing, there is much more now at stake. Media coverage increases and focusses in the remaining teams and players. Just three big games to play (two semifinals and the final), but they have the power to create new winning and prestigious teams, and launching new heroes of football, or confirming and strengthening the established football stars.

Media impact measurement of the decissive matches provide us the information about how big is the reward that teams and players will receive from sport success and which players will win the more after each game. As explained in previous posts, the massive media coverage that some football players are receiving in Euro 2012 is translated into increased media value. Football media value is an almost direct mesure of future commercial power of players of football stars.

The crucial games are still ahead. But quarter finals were already a very important step and have their own impact in terms of media value.

Comparative media impact analysis

We propose in this post a different analysis concerning post game media coverage of games.

We show this time comparative analysis of all four games. We will show also team Vs Individual media impact.

We use as in all previous posts about Euro 2012 media impact metrics based in image content analysis of photos published in newspapers the day after each game.

We have chosen news published in British media, except for the match Italy Vs England. In order to avoid media bias we have chosen media coverage in Spanish newspapers for Italy vs England.

We present as first result the distribution of media coverage received by each team. In the following figure, we present the share reached by all eight teams in quater finals. Green bars refer to qualified teams to the semifinals. Red bars correspond to eliminated teams.

Winning teams control between 64% adn 72% of all post game media coverage. Losing teams receive between 36% and 28% of the post game media attention.

According to our results, the game with the highest orientation towards the winning team was Portugal Vs Czech Republic. 71.6% of all post game coverage about the match turned in favour of players from Portugal. Second team most massivelly followed was Germany (68%). Winners Spain and Italy shared media space with losers France and England.

The increased attention in favour to Portugal reflects that the game was seen as very unbalanced and that the Czech Republic players did not deserve much attention because of their lack of sport performance. It also reflects the increased expectations created by Portugal. At the beginning of the competition, Portugal was just the seventh favorite team to win the championship, according to Bwin odds. After the end of the group stage, Portugal jumped to third favorite, ahead of other prestigious teams in the quater finals (all teams that were eventually eliminated, plus Italy).

Team Vs individual stars media impact

In this section we proceed to the analysis of the media coverage given to each match, by focusing the attention to the place given to individual stars versus team success.

We have applied the following strategy. Applying image content analysis, we have distinguished the images showing just one player (or the coach) to photos showing several team players, tipically celebrating a goal or the qualification for the next round. This analysis allow us to study how do media perceive the sources of the success of the team: individual versus collective contributions. Of course, media choices are strongly determined by the actual development of the match. There are matches with clear individual heroes who capture almost all media glory, while in other cases there are more than one heroe or key protagonists of the match are unclear.

Based on the results of the four games, we should expect  a huge individual media coverage for Spain (Xabi Alonso scored all two goals), and Portugal (Cristiano Ronaldo scored the only decissive goal, he had other clear scoring opportunities). As for the other two winning teams, we count with the extreme cases. We have a lot of protagonists in Germany, as there are four different scorers, and even the man of the match was another player, Mesut Özil. As for Italy, we have no clear heroes, as there were no scorers during the regular time. In the penalty series, Nocerino missed his shot, goalkeeper Buffon just blocked one penalty and Pirlo reached protagonism using an unusual soft shot (Panenka style). Andrea Pirlo became eventually the Man of the match.

We present our empirical results in the following four figures.

We find that Portugal is the team were media coverage is more oriented to individual players, with 48% of all images about the match. The vast majority of them show Cristiano Ronaldo as protagonist.

We have discussed in some previous posts the relevance of Euro 2012 for CR7 individual interests. According to our results, Leo Messi is the most valuable player of the season in terms of media value (see the post about Football media valur report 2012). In the last four seasons, the most valuable player by media value got thereafter the Ballon d’Or. Our prediction is thus that Leo Messi will win the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2013… except if Cristiano Ronaldo continue to emerge as the decissive team leader and Portugal reached the final or even win the title. In any case, we can confirm that the quarter finals had an excellent positive impact for Cristiano Ronaldo.

As expected, second team more oriented to individual post game reward is Spain. Individual images refer mainly to Xabi Alonso. Individual share is 35% of all news. This is quite less that the share reached by Cristiano Ronaldo (48%).

As for the other two winning teams, we find that individual images reach 22% value for Italy, and a mere 14% share for Germany. Images explaining Germany outstanding performance against Greece is reflected in collective images showing the strength of the group.

(more content coming)

Stars of Portugal vs Denmark 3-2 Euro 2012. Cristiano Ronaldo, Varela, Bendtner, Pepe. Media Coverage Analysis

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This is another post in our series about football Euro 2012 media impact analysis.

We analyze the match Portugal Vs Denmark, with final result 3-2. This was Game 2 in Group B. A dramatic game, as Portugal needed a win to had chances to classify for next round.

Evolution of the game score:

Portugal – Denmark: 1-0, Pepe, min 24

2-0, Postiga, min 36

2-1 Bendtner, min 41

2-2, Bendtner, min 80

3-2 Valera, min. 86

Man of the match: Pepe

This is a very attractive game in terms of post game media impact analysis, as we count with a variety of protagonists within the match. WE have four different scorers; we have Cristiano Ronaldo as the player with highest media value, who missed great goal occasions and finally didn’t score. We have the goalkeepers.

How does the media covered the match in the news the day after?

As in all previous entries about Euro 2012 media impact analysis, we use image content analysis of photos published in newspapers reporting the game.

We have chosen media coverage of news written in English.

According to our results, media has turned strongly towards Portuguesse football players. 64% of all photo images were related with players from Portugal.

What about the media stars of the game?

Surprisingly enough we find that the main media reference of the game is mega star Cristiano Ronaldo, as he was present in 18.8% of all post game images about the match. Images about Real Madrid star showed many times a profile of frustration or discontenment.

Second star of the match is also a Portuguese player, Silvestre Varela. He entered into the pitch just in minute 84 replacing Raul Meireles, and only two minutes later he scored the crucial goal for Portugal interests.

Third star of the game is again another Portuguese player, Pepe. He scored the first goal and was named the Man of the match.

Even if Nicklas Bendtner scored twice, he has not even emerged as the media leader of Denmark. Simon Poulsen appeared more times in the news, in his defensive tasks.

Annex: Videos

1. Press Conference Paulo Bento, Coach Portugal. Duration: 18 minutes (Via UEFA in English)

2. Press conference Morten Olsen, Coach Denmark. Duration: 7 minutes (Via UEFA, in English)

3. Portugal and Denmark players reaction. Duration 1:22 (Via UEFA, in English)

Annex: Commentary and Statistics of the match 

Source: UEFA. Com

Commentary of the match, minute by minute: UEFA.com

Denmark Portugal
2
 Goals scored
3
58
 Possession (%)
42
9
 Total attempts
17
6
 Attempts on target
12
3
 Attempts off target
5
0
 Attempts blocked
0
0
 Attempts against woodwork
0
7
 Corners
6
2
 Offsides
0
2
 Yellow cards
2
0
 Red cards
0
18
 Fouls committed
17
14
 Fouls suffered
18

Stars of Germany Vs Portugal 1-0 Euro 2012 Game 1 – Mario Gómez, Cristiano Ronaldo

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Another post in our series about the media impact analysis of Euro 2012 matches.

Now we analyse the match played 9 June 2012 in Group B, Germany Vs Portugal.

NOTE: You may be also interested in our post about Germany Vs Netherlands analysis (see it here).

Final result was 1-0 for Germany. The goal was scored by Mario Gómez, in minute 72. According to analysts, Germany did not play a good match and Portugal had some chances to obtain a better result. Mesut Özil was named by UEFA the Man of the match.

Even if Portugal is not one of the big favorites to win the championship, this team counts with the biggest football star in the tournament, Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo.

According to our measurements, published in our ‘Football Media Value Report 2012′, Cristiano Ronaldo is the second most valuable player in the world in terms of global media impact during the season 2011/12, only behind FC Barcelona mega star Leo Messi.

You can check below the list of top 10 players in the world by media value, according to our estimations (you can find more about the Football Media Value Report 2012 in a previous post in this blog (see here).

This means that Cristiano Ronaldo is the leading media star in the Euro 2012, as Leo Messi is from Argentina. There are another six players playing in the Euro 2012 among world top 10: Xavi (Spain), Rooney (England), Ibrahimovic (Sweden), Van Persie (The Netherlands), Inesta (Spain) and Terry (England).

We have monitored the share of photos in news after the match, as in previous posts. We have selected news in English.

We show first the distribution of global media attention to both teams, as shown in the figure below. We find that post game media attention was oriented towards players from Germany, the winning team. germany received 60% of all image news.

Concerning the individual ranking, we find that the main star of the game was again the scorer Mario Gómez, with 19.2% of all photo news about the game. He is tied in first position by Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo.

Both strikers dominate completely post-game media attention, as third player receives just 5.7% mentions in photos. This is Jerome Boateng. He appears many times in his defensive role, stopping and tackling his opponent, Cristiano Ronaldo.

We find German coach Joachim Löw among top stars of the match. This happened only once, in game England Vs France, with French coach Laurent Blanc.