Just about a week left for the European Championships in Austria and Switzerland. A thread for news, reviews, opinions and whatever else you can think of Latest news- Ryan Babel has been ruled out of Euro 2008 after suffering an ankle injury.
I live in holland, but I hate dutch football, it's so dam boring, so I'm this time for Portugal, England and Italy.
yep qualification was in their hands, but they couldn't win their last match, so Croatia and Russia qualified
Well I would go with World Champions Italy and second team would be Portuhal. I will miss England in Euro 2008.
Spain have a very good team, but for some wierd reason they always fail to win major competitions. as for holland, they're going to fight so hardly to qualify rom their group (if they qualify) that i'm not sure they will have what it takes to win it. i reckon one of the "small" teams will take it in surprise, such as Czech, Turkey or even Russia
Yeah they have good players and one of the biggest players is Peter Cech who is one of the best goal keeper right now.
i called the Czech "small" as they have yet to win an international tournament or reach it's highest levels. moreover, i think their star player Nedved retired from international duties in germany 2006. Fifa's world rankings isn't the best way to measure a team strength as it also takes into account friendly games. i take the example of Israel which i know best ; they are ranked 20th by Fifa, but last time we took part in an international tournament was in the 70s and we finished 4th of our group behind Croatia, Russia and England. they just had some good results in friendlies. another example ; no offense, but do you honestly think that Lithuania should be in the top 50? right in front of South Korea, or that Uzbekistan should be better ranked then Angola that played in Germany 06?
Well I agree that Czech Republic never won big international tournament yet but they have good records. Check more: http://goal.com/en/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=702340 One more bad news: The Italian FA have confirmed the bad news all Azzurri fans were fearing: captain Fabio Cannavaro's injury rules him out of Euro 2008
so this places them higher then Spain who i'm pretty sure did not achieve so much but are always considered among the favorites. i believe the Czech also have an under 21 title or something like that. i didn't mean to disrespect them or anything, i personally consider them as a good team. when was last time you heard that the Czech had fans outside their country and countrymen? unlike france, england, germany, spain and holland who have fans all over the planet. i take back what i said about them being a "small" team!