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.

LOL
Who would those 17% vote now?

Sweden

I don't know, but I know final match - Russia-Croatia!!!And 0-0 after 2 half's and extra time. Champion will be determined in penalty shoot out

shall i remove England from the poll now ...

Well there is a possibility Russia or Croatia beeing disqualified for some reason,other than that you should remove Eng of course,and your poll included only 7 teams. Out of these 7 I predicted long time ago at least 2 won't qualify,almost right I was ,shame Italy made it ,would have liked scotland instead,..

I'll take that back Spunky and support, ummmm, sayyy Poland