Yeah, and the other lot of talented Spaniards who haven't done well at previous competitions

Shut it Hitler

france germany or italy
then portugal or england (if they qualify)

All I know is Spain will not win it. As some of you said, no matter if we have a good or bad team, we always underachieve...

Edit this...




[beep!] you, you [beep!] [beep!] loving, [beep!], shiting, [beep!], [beep!], fanny dodging, nuggit digging, jizz c0ck hand shandy giving, carrot throating rent boy.

I can see someone getting banned soon...

Oh come on. As much as i admire and respect what they have built you can't call them front-runners when every single European superpower will be in Austria/Switzerland. Hence, the "dark horse" tag, which was meant more as a compliment than anything. I wouldn't call them that if i didn't think they have a chance to win it.

On the other hand, calling them "front-runners" means you see them as the likeliest team (or one of the 2-3 likeliest, at least) to succeed. If you're so sure, i certainly hope you've placed a nice bet on them so you can benefit financially from this prediction.

Imo, the front-runners are Italy and Germany, with maybe Portugal and France as second in the run. After these 4, i'd say Croatia and Greece, although in Greece's case i'm very sceptical because it's the team i support and because i doubt we can win 2 in a row. We have a better team than in 2004, without a doubt, but other teams will see us coming this time and i'm not sure we have enough quality to see off all the suitors to the throne.

Obviously, traditional teams like the Netherlands, Spain and possibly even England are capable of great things if they manage to find their form, but something tells me they won't.

Okay, so Germany has a history of excellent results in the final phases of tournaments.

But honestly, I don't see the quality there any more. They didn't even convince me during the World Cup, even though they got so far.

I'd be happy for any team to win, so long as it's not like the previous European Cup. Greece, IMHO, won NOT thanks to their footballing skills or tactics, but because they were best at preventing the opposition from playing football. Fouls all over the place, kick anything (ball or opponent). Therefore, tactical and skillful teams (like Portugal) are punished when fouls and aggressive play are not punished.

Croatia... If I were Croatian I'd be happy to hear myself even considered for the title. "Dark horse", IMO is a suitable label. I wouldn't take the FIFA Ranking table so seriously...

England...wont' qualify.

France...have Domenech (it's like having Robinson as a goalkeeper!)

I disagree with what you said about tactics. Tactics was a major factor in us winning the competition. But i agree that it was defensive tactics, not offensive.

As for your accusation that we only won because we fouled everyone all over the place and kicked anything that moved, i beg to disagree. We had to suffocate the opponents' offensive efforts and we did have to randomly kick a few balls when they reached our penalty box, but saying we won it by fouling all over the place is ridiculous.

Portugal got their asses kicked twice by us. At the very least, they should have adjusted their style better for the final, wouldn't you say?

Also, more than half of the 2004 starting XI won't be there this time, so it's a different team. Rehhagel is more confident about deploying his players forward this time round and assuming 3-4 key players remain fit i doubt we'll be as defensive as in 2004.

And i find it funny that an Italian is accusing another nation of fouling too much? Rhino Gattuso anyone? Marco Materazzi anyone? Danielle De Rossi anyone? Great players, but no-one can accuse them of being pussy-cats!

I do like the Italian team though, so don't make me open my mouth against you guys!

Don't worry, marios, I didn't actually mean what I said about Greece fouling all over the place - it was just my exaggeration (lazy me not bothering to find the right words).

What I mean is that sometimes teams (especially defensive teams, like the Greece of 2004) are quite violent, and aren't punished enough for it. It is not the teams' fault, though. It's the lack of refereeing consistency that allows this to happen. I have nothing against Greece.

It's frustrating to see teams who play beautiful football have their actions continuously stopped by fouls and the opponents get away with it, just because they think it's rugby ("they" includes the refs). Thus, all teams start becoming more rugby-like, which means less class football.

Maybe you have nothing against Greece, but again that sounds like an exaggeration to me.

Just go back to 2004 discussions on football forums,right after the Euro (use google if you don't believe me), and see what most football fans believed at the time. The teams most associated with many fouls and dirty football were Switzerland, Portugal (yes, the hosts themselves!) and the Netherlands, not Greece. In fact, everyone praised Greece for their team spirit and ability to cover for each other's mistakes.

The best team of the last Euro was the Czech Republic, by far, but they were unlucky enough to come up against us and lose their chance to reach the final and steal back some of the glory they lost in 1996 when the Germans beat them in extra time. It was the end of a generation for the Czechs and it was sad to see all that potential go to waste because of a bad game. But the fact it was us doing the winning more than compansated for that feeling.

Honestly Germany lately did very bad, being defeated without a victory in both Euro 2000 and Euro 2004.

I think the word he's looking for is 'Physical'.

Anyway, i agree, the Czech republic were without doubt the best team in Euro 2004.

I can't remember the game against Greece to be honest, although i did watch every game i could, and saw every goal, so i definitely watched it. I remember the final though, and Portugal had a very good chance to score (think it was with Ronaldo) but fluffed it. They should've scored, and had they, then i think they would've gone on to win it.

As for Germany, they currently have a very good team. There reserves beat England, anyone forgot that?

Up front they have Klose, Podolski (who is superb for Germany), Gomez and thingy with the little Bepe tash... Can't believe i've forgotten his name. In midfield they've got loads of quality with Sweisjteryegfreser, Frings, Ballack and co. And in defence (the so called weak area) there's Mertesacker, Metzelder, Lahm, Jansen... yeah, pretty weak... Oh and let's not forget Hildebrand in goal. He's a class goal keeper. Better than Lehmann.

The German national team has a hell of a lot of quality.

I think Mertesacker and Metzelder aren't as good a CB partnership as people think. Germany are in Cyprus' group and i guarantee they have defensive problems. Even Cyprus were able to creat 6-7 scoring chances 2 days ago when we played them away and we should have scored 1-2 of those. The Czechs, for example, took complete advantage of the Germans' defensive problems and beat them 0-3.
And Ballack hasn't played for so long that you can't really count on him to lead the Germans this time. He'll try to, but i'm not so sure he can do it.

But i agree that they do have some quality players who have been playing well together these past 2 years. And the fact they'll be playing on familiar ground (Austria/Switzerland) for the second big tournament in a row with lots of fans by their side should help them do relatively well, maybe even reach the final.

Well, i can't say i've been watching Germany's qualifying games, so i'll take your word for it. But there's still time for them to form a good partnership, and Ballack to start playing and get back to his best.

Germany have some excellent players, shame they don't have German Jurgen as thier manager.

Marios, I have placed a tidy bet on Croatia, yes. Not on England though.

You can go and look over the Croatian history and see they have done ok in some tounements.
The main point being that the team they have now is just excellent...and young!
Place in the top ten ranked teams in the world is justified and expect them to remain there for years to come.
This "team" has only really been together since the start of this campaign.

So far, they have showed that they can match England. Worst case scenario - they finish level on points.
Ranking is spot on.

BBAntonio...about Domenech....he's an astrologer, as well as being a football coach....a national team coach. If France don't win the Euro, at least they will win the lottery!

Getting in the top ten is a great achievement if you're a european nation.

I watched all the Croatia games in WC 1998. If it wasn't for Thuram they would have been in the final against Brazil.

But in every tournament ever since (2 WCS and 2 Euros) they've been disappointing.

So, as you said, there's not much history to their current team. They still have to prove themselves. They have lots of young players and they're a breath of fresh air in European football right now, but it remains to be seen if they'll dominate or choke on the big scene.

My money is on them doing relatively well, but as i said other teams are favourites to win it, imo.

Of course, at 16/1 - 20/1 odds it's not a bad bet, especially if you were able to combine it with tournament top scorer or something like that so you'd get higher odds.

I've found odds from 20/1 to 33/1 for Greece and i'm thinking about taking a chance on them. It was 100/1 last Euro and i still regret not betting on them from the start.

Here are the odds for all the teams from several online bookies:

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/internationals/euro-2008/win-market

N. Ireland - 3000/1?

But they have David Healy!

I wouldn't put my money on Croatia. I just can't imagine it happening. But then again, I couldn't imagine Greece winning last time.

As marios says, the last four major tournaments have been disappointing for Croatia. If we really want to take the ranking table into consideration, you'll see that since 1998 Croatia had a big drop (down to 36th in Nov 2002), and their rise in the table only really started in 2007 (don't remember any major events this year). I think it'll be more of a squad to watch out for in the future, but not in 2008.

Oh, and before... that wasn't exaggeration. More violent (or physical, if you like) teams aren't punished enough, IMO.

FRANCE

look:

The defence is just about perfect, and at the same time attacking is really efficient.

Germany might not have the best team, but their history is a heavy problem for 'smaller' nations deal with. Same happens with Italy, but they have a better team imo, the best of Europe when their game strategy works. Czech Republic has a great team too, but they are some like England and Spain, always underachieve. cant see some other than Italy, Germany or France getting this one. Although Greece done it last I really doubt an outsider will do again, in a row

Shame on the 17% that voted England would win it.