EURO 2008 Preview

Update: for a Euro 2008 preview far more entertaining and enlightening than the one below, you may want to check out:
http://thatsonpoint.blogspot.com/2008/06/big-eur-bowski.html


The Euro 2008 final tournament kicks off in just over a week. What better time to start getting geared up for what promises to be an exciting month of, if not quite the beautiful game at it's finest, an action-packed collection of fixtures featuring much of the world's best talent. The field is so deep that Steven Gerrard, Frankie Lampard, and John Terry will be joining the rest of the world as spectators, as England failed to qualify for the Group Stages for the 1st time in almost 25 years.

Without further ado, here is a group-by-group look at what the 1st stage of the tournament has to offer. Check back for a knock-out round preview and final tournament predictions after the Group Stage completes.

Group A

Switzerland

Czech Republic

Portugal

Turkey

Look for Portugal, led by soon-to-be FIFA 2008 Player of the Year Christiano Ronaldo, to win the group. Expect the remaining sides to trade points with the home-cooking making the difference as Switzerland advances to the knock-out round.

Group B

Austria

Croatia

Germany

Poland

Germany, top scorers in qualifying and 2006 world cup semi-finalists, win the group handily. The battle for second in the group should be hotly contested between Poland and Croatia, but I expect Poland to join Germany in the knock-out round with co-hosts and auto-qualifiers Austria failing to earn a point.

Group C

Netherlands

Italy

Romania

France

Clearly the group of Death with three teams who could easily win the tournament including both finalists from Berlin two years ago. Consider this line-up of all world players, any of whom can hand pick the club they play for:

Henry

Luca Toni

van Nistelrooy

Robben

Ribery

Anelka

Malouda

van Persie

Del Piero

Kuyt
Babel

Pirlo

Makelele

Cannavaro

Gallas

Zambrotta

van der Sar
Buffon

The tournament may officially start on 6/7, but I have my calendar marked for Monday the 9th, when Italy meet the Netherlands @ 2:30 on ESPN2HD.

Group D

Greece
Sweden
Spain
Russia

Look for Perennial (Quadrennial??) underachievers Spain to come out on top of what promises to be a very competetive and hard fought group also featurning the defending champion Greeks, an up and coming Russian side bosting the youngest line-up in the tourney, and an experienced Swedish team led by Serie A super-striker Zlatan Ibrahimovich.