UEFA Euro 2008 Thread

Who will win the UEFA Euro Championship 2008?

  • Total voters
    122
Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
Orderite
The usual rules apply: non-"soccer"-fan Americans stay out, remarks of the type "lol this isn't a sport" will be vatted on sight.

A few notes:

AHAHAHAHAHA - at England. Sorry, English dudes, but your team looked terrible out there, and amazing as it may sound, Croatia and Russia have more right to be in the EC than you.
Too bad - at Scotland. I'd have loved to see them in the EC over world champion Italy. but what the hell, lose some, win some.
Holy shit - at Dutch coaches. Poland and Russia ftw?
You suck - at the Dutch national team. Seriously, you guys suck. Especially Dirk Kuyt. Dirk, you suck, stop begging for a spot.
You guys still suck - at Italy and Portugal. You guys always suck.

Nothing much to say here. I'm ecstatic about Russia being in the EC, and really think it's a same about Scotland. Discuss.

(thread to be bumped back next year)

Qualified teams:
Austria
Switzerland
Poland
Portugal
Italy
France
Greece
Turkey
Czech Republic
Germany
Croatia
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Romania
Netherlands

Debuts from Austria and Poland, third time for Greece, Turkey, Croatia and Switzerland, fourth time for Sweden and Romania. The only real veteran teams are Italy, France, the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands (and Russia, who officially holds SU caps).

Should be fun.
 
Portugal has the bad habit of performing bad against "lower level" teams. Hopefully they'll start to play some football in the next stage.

Hoping for Scolari to get sacked soon.
He sucks, he makes Portugal suck.
 
Demonslayer said:
Portugal has the bad habit of performing bad against "lower level" teams. Hopefully they'll start to play some football in the next stage
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Funny, that's exactly the same excuse the Dutch internationals use.

It's not a valid excuse for them, either.
 
Well but it's true.
You just have to look back to the Euro hosted here. Portugal gone over every stage and only lost 2 games. Both with Greece who was theorically an outsider and a weaker team.

Holland has a great team in every sector. Portugal isn't so good, we're just overrated, so i agree the excuse shouldn't work with the dutch team.
 
Holland has shit on defence.

The theory doesn't work, though, unless you want to argue Portugal played pretty v. the Netherlands last World Cup.
 
Hahaha, football! I still can't get on how Czech footballers could win 3:0 over Germany after that epic whore/party scandal. :D
 
Austria-They are in the 84th place on the FIFA rankings. Really tough path ahead.

Switzerland- They have a good team, but no great players. Can go both sides. The country is the less party friendly country possible, why is the championship there?...

Poland- Good coach, great players, still lacks some bench. But they might be a surprise.

Portugal- My country didn't play well in the qualifiers, but won 4, maybe 6 new players. Since Scolari is leaving after the Eurocup he didn't wanted to make many changes, to renovate, and that was a mistake. So when he was forced to bump the youngsters he was a bit lost, but they delivered anyway. Good luck to them, they will need it.

Italy- Italy is all about solid defense and great attackers. Nothing changed, one of the favorites again.

France- The renovation isn't working. Still all they need is Henry in good shape to get to the finals.

Greece- Good team, there are no stars there, they will sweat their way to the top or die trying.

Turkey- Good players, great heart and motivation, I'm not convinced with their defense though. We'll see.

Czech Republic- Effective bunch, a few new players can become great stars very soon. I'm still divided on them though, if they pick up an easy group they might get the strength to go all the way.

Germany- Great coach, the same as the Czech, an easy first group and they will get to the top.

Croatia- Very different from the old great Croatian teams, much more focused, disciplined, might be the surprise.

Russia- great dutch coach, very motivated, even if they lack a few out of the ordinary players.

Spain- They are furious with the last disappointments, and want revenge. Also did a good renovation, so they should be taken seriously.

Sweden- I'm not very impressed with Sweden, I have to say, but I said the same thing of Denmark in 94 and they won the tournament, so...

Romania- Really underrated, they have a lot of talent in their players. Remind me of Portugal in 80's, or some Argentinian teams. We'll see if they can get the strength to show that talent in full.

Netherlands- if they had the Russian coach then they would be my favorites. Even with Van Basten, and looking at the dutch under 21 teams in the last six years, with so much talent it's time those players get their act together and win something. Let's see if their talent is enough to overcome some inexperience and lack of concentration that many dutch players show in the last years.


In the world Cup topic I said Steve Mclaren wasn't what England needed. I guess I was right.
 
Anyway, it's great that roflmao defensive Greece team is out...

EDIT: wtf? Greeks are qualified? Damn, damn... :D
 
Jesterka said:
Anyway, it's great that roflmao defensive Greece team is out...
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I thought they finished their group on the first place. :shock:

Ah, edit after i posted. :P
 
Madbringer said:
Jesterka said:
Anyway, it's great that roflmao defensive Greece team is out...
Click to expand...

I thought they finished their group on the first place. :shock:
Click to expand...

Yeah, yeah, my mistake. I was watching closely only Czech Republic, because I'm a goddamn Czech, and England, just because it was fun to watch how they're loosing the chances.
 
Hah. Really, England falling out is THE lol of the qualifying stage. But, they did it on their own wish. A team with so much talent just CAN'T play matches like they played in their home game with Macedonia, or in the away game with Israel. Too many points lost in a stupid way.

A real damn shame about Scotland, though. It would make me a happy man if they'd out Italy, i so hate the Italian playing style. Also, a shame about the Norwegians, they practically gave away their qualifying spot to the Turks..

Well, at least Poland is in. :D I just hope Leo can keep our players FOCUSED till the tourney and throughout it. Polish players are notorious for celebrating success too early, thinking they're so great when they go through eliminations, only to utterly SUCK when it comes to proving they really are a strong team in the main tournament. Engel and Janas utterly fucking failed with keeping our players on a leash, ha, Engel even got carried away by that post-qualifying frenzy in 2002 and starred in some MacDonalds commercials. Lol.
 
Honestly, imo Poland has no big chances. My favourites are Italy and Germany, just because they know how to win for ages (although their matches are often kinda boring). Or maybe, just maybe, Netherlands, if they go crazy and demonstrate damn offensive football (it's basically enjoyable to watch their matches - eg. Euro 2004). I wouldn't believe in success of southerner teams like Spain or Portugal, they aren't able to do the job properly. France is a myth, the golden generation (cca 96-02) is over. After last two matches (Germany 3:0, Slovakia 3:1) I must newly count on Czech Republic, they can evidently play well against anybody (not counting Greece... LOL).

And don't forget the England! Yay! England! :D
 
Briosafreak said:
France- The renovation isn't working. Still all they need is Henry in good shape to get to the finals.
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Henry is the past and proving more and more that he's overrated.
No, the French EC chances are in the hands of one man: Franck Ribéry.

It's too early to start naming favourites. I'd like another fairy tale from a hard-nosed team like Russia, Rumania, Poland or Switzerland. Other than that, Italy and Germany are the only obvious favourites, we'll see how France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and the Czechs pan out.
 
It's on days like today that I am so glad I really don't like football. If I did, I would be peeved beyond belief.
Still, we sacked a manager, which always give people a modicum of satisfaction.
 
i laughed my way through the qualifiers (i dont watch football, but i always catch a snippet of the sports news because it comes before the longer reports after the news...). the belgian team sucked so hard they were in danger of creating a black hole and thus dragging Earth into oblivion.
 
Yeah, Group A looks passable. Portugal, the country of Briosafreaks, could be 2nd. :wiggle:

France, Italy and The Netherlands in C, damn, it will be tough. I hope French and Dutch will succeed. Rumania is properly lost. :D
 
Jesterka said:
France, Italy and The Netherlands in C, damn, it will be tough.
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I'm laughing my ass off here. The Dutch players were whining for better opponents, now there you go, guys, good luck.

That pool has France and Italy written all over it. I'd also like to somewhat see France and the Netherlands pass, but what're the chances?

At least this time if the media hypes it as the Group of Death it'll be justified. As the coach of Romania puts it: "I am ecstatic with this result. It couldn't be any simpler. We're playing the world champion, the losing WC-finalist and the land that he performed the best in the past three years in qualifiers for the EC and WC."
 
Our team is pretty excited about it. They'll get large amounts in cash if they do good.
 
I'm all for Italy, but I don't have cable so I'm not really going to be watching. Forza, guyses...
 
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