Official Euro 2008 thread

[-V-]

Thats a good point, all spanish teams struggle defending set-pieces. But they atleast have Ramos who can head a ball

Still it think they can outscore most teams so they will do well. Will be entertaining anyway. Im looking forward to it

[SK]

Thats a good point, all spanish teams struggle defending set-pieces. But they atleast have Ramos who can head a ball

Still it think they can outscore most teams so they will do well. Will be entertaining anyway. Im looking forward to it

they do play some great football..and so do others like france, portugal, russia, holland, romania(play some good attacking football and have talented attacking players)..it should be a great tournamet.

[BFG]

Well spotted lads - there's a hoax in every midfield. Was pissing myself at initial replies

Cunt. I actually went to Alaves' squad listing on Sky Sports after reading only your first post thinking a Spanish lad called Andy Thorpe, surely not.

****.

[-V-]

I think the French will do well if they play their young talent- Nasri, Arfa, Benzema

.............Coupet
Gallas...Thuram..Mexes...Evra
Ribery....Flamini.....Nasri...Arfa
............Benzema...Henry

They have Malouda, Cisse,Anelka, Toulanla,Viera.............Certainly good enough

However i have a feeling that Spain will come good this year

Torres

That midfield will be ripped apart.

I suppose they would be better off playing-

.............Coupet
Gallas...Thuram..Mexes...Evra
..............Makelele
..........Famini....Nasri
Ribery.....................Henry
............Benzema

[Neil Young]

I'm looking forward to seeing Trev Marples getting a run out for Switzerland.

So these are all your real mates, are they, Shaggy?

[zimbo]

Portugal squad (definitive) :

Goalkeepers: Ricardo Pereira (Real Betis), Quim Silva (Benfica), Rui Patricio (Sporting)

Either Shaggy's creativity is scaling new peaks or that's the most gloriously named footballer since the great Bongo Christ hung up his boots.

[PTP]

Either Shaggy's creativity is scaling new peaks or that's the most gloriously named footballer since the great Bongo Christ hung up his boots.

No thats his real name - i'm sure fantasy football(the baddiel and skinner show that was ****ing funny) did a sketch on it ages ago

[Parm]

So I take we will be cheering on Spain (LFC international)
they do have a good strong team on paper, but then they alway do dont they.

[zimbo]

No thats his real name - i'm sure fantasy football(the baddiel and skinner show that was ****ing funny) did a sketch on it ages ago

Excellent.

Although David Baddiel would be probably quite at home acting the tw*t.

[NIred1]

To get through:

Group A: Portugal, Turkey (I think Turkey will surprise a few)

Group B: Germany, Croatia

Group C: Netherlands, France

Group D: Spain, Russia

[jonesie]

Good to see my brother Jermaine made it into the Germany squad. He doesn't get talked about much in the family and is always at the back of the photos with my other brothers Tito and Randy.

Potential stars of the tournament?

I'll go for Michael Ballack (he'll score the goals that will take Germany to at least the semis), Alexander Frei (ditto for Switzerland, very tempted by him for top scorer at 40/1), Fernando Torres (if he can transfer his club form to country then they've got a chance for once, but will probably lose in the quarters again), Niko Krancjar (gonna be vital for Croatia without Eduardo) and Ruud van Nistelrooy (still one of the best finishers around).

Potential flops?

Cristiano Ronaldo (fantastic player, just got a feeling he'll be a bit knackered), Jan Koller (time to put him out to stud surely?), Thierry Henry (all good things come to an end), Florent Malouda (god he's awful isn't he) and Austria (seriously, they're worse than Wales).

[jonesie]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/22/sports/EU-SPT-SOC-Austria-Petitioner-Fined.php

INNSBRUCK, Austria: A man who set up an online petition to have the Austrian soccer team withdrawn from next month's European Championship was fined €1,500 (US$2,204) for misusing the national coat of arms on his Web site.

Michael Kriess said Thursday he appealed the verdict and a hearing would take place on June 5.

The city council court of Innsbruck, which could not be reached for comment Thursday, fined Kriess for damaging Austria's reputation by publishing a manipulated image of the coat of arms, in which a crown was replaced by a soccer ball.

Kriess is the son of Werner Kriess, who played 15 times for Austria in the early 1970's. He jokingly started the online petition Oesterreich zeigt Rueckgrat to have Austria withdraw from the tournament it will co-host with Switzerland.

"Our demand for a withdrawal was polemic," Kriess said. "We just wanted to start a discussion on the reasons behind the fall of Austrian soccer. Since 2000, Austria lost 52 of its 72 matches."

According to the petitioner, more than 10,000 people actually signed up, backing Kriess' opinion that watching the national team "means you fall into a dismal state of depression."

[Konstro]

u don't reckon the czechs will go through in group A? they always seem to do good in these tournaments(final in '96, semis in '04) and are never given credit for that. they also have some very experienced players in ujfaluši, koller, rosicky(if fit), jankulovsky, baroš and rozehnal. i think that either the swiss of the portugesse will not go through. so:

A - Czech Republic, Portugal
B - Germany, Poland(exellent coach in benhakker)
C - Italy, Holland
D - Spain, Greece(great coach& team spirit, very hard to break down, finished comfortably first in their qual. group)

Everybody writes us off, especially in Poland and going by experience it can only help. Anytime there were any expectation going into tournament we ****ed up ( Argentina78, Mexico86, Japan/Korea02, Germany06) . Best tournaments we had were when nobody gave us a chance. In Germany`74 ( after kicking England out in qualifiers )we beat Italy and Argentina at the group stage and finish 3rd. In Spain`82 after 2 goalless draws we were on the brink of elimination only to destroy Peru in second half and again finish 3rd in the world.

Polish players are very average but play as a team. We probably have no chance vs. Germany but we will park a bus in front of goal and you never know. If Croatia underestimate us they can be in for very unpleasant surprise.

Austria are **** for last fifty years or so and hopefully it will stay this way.

Slokopite, we will meet in WC qualifiers. Best of luck

[NIred1]

I'll give that a go:

Stars: Mario Gomez, Samir Nasri, Andrei Arshavin, Fernando Torres, Ibrahim Afellay, Antonio Cassano, Luka Modric.

Flops: Flourent Malouda, Fabio Cannavaro, Miroslav Klose.

[Shaggy]

I'm looking forward to seeing Trev Marples getting a run out for Switzerland.

So these are all your real mates, are they, Shaggy?

Nah, just made up names.