Re: Euopean Championships 2008 - Predictions (none / 1)  by nanne

Group A
Czech Republic Turkey
Portugal
(order reversed)

Group B
Croatia
Germany

Group C
Italy
Netherlands
(order reversed)

Group D
Spain
Russia

1. I hope that for Les Bleus, the era Domenech is now over, and his successor(s) (Deschamps?) will return to a more attacking play... and a play with less fouls and more wizardy... and the fostering of a better team morale (loss was written on the faces already when the Italian fans hissed during the Marsellaise).

2. Ribéry, Ribery... is he okay? His injury (in which I can't decide whether Zambrotta was the cause intentionally with very professional execution - later in the match Pirlo showed the fine art of kicking the opponent's leg with the referee in back, only the referee was Ľuboš Micheľ - or was it just the unlucky result of Ribéry's own stupid attempt at fouling Z) and Abidal's immense stupidity of reaching after the easily toppling Toni really killed that mach.

3. Old Karel Brückner also made a big big mistake in the best match of the tournament so far, when he tried to strengthen the defense instead of replacing a tired Koller with Baroš, opening the way for the Turkish pressure that resulted in 2-0 going 2-3.

4. Quite spirited play from the two hosts, even if with little result.

5. Names to remember: Sionko/Czech Republic, Barnetta/Switzerland, Derdiyok/Switzerland (he who gave that dream pass to Hakan Yakın, one of the nicest goals of the tournament IMO)

• Portugal: everyone talks about Ronaldo, and he played well, but IMO the Man of the Tournament so far is Deco. He moved all the wheels in the first two matches. I think the only thing that could undercut the A selection of the Portugal team is internal conflicts.

• Netherlands: whom could I lift out?... This is a completely different game from what van Basten made 'em play in the World Cup.

• Russia: it seems the boys were just shocked of the new in the first match, but are finding back into their game. If they improve their scoring (with less mistakes in the finish, they could have won 10-0 against Sweden - they could cut across the defense like butter...), Netherlands-Russia could prove very interesting. And I was missing a playmaker - now Arshavin impressed me very much.

• I have to give to the Azzurri that they played on the attack, and didn't excel in faults. Even if under pressure to win.

• Spain: overcame Sweden, Greece too. Still I'm not impressed enough - now comes the real test.