The EURO 2008 thread!

[mojo (Mod)]

Yep, it's an old favourite! Known for causing great commotion and passionate debates in the past, International Football (aka soccer) competitions are always fun to discuss, especially on BITS.

A brand new EURO starts on Saturday, June 7th, which makes it more than appropriate for us to start showing support for our national teams, trash-talking every other one, picking fights and going bananas over this very innocent subject.

The competition will take place in Austria and Switzerland, and as usual the 16 teams have been randomly divided into 4 groups, which are:

Group A
Portugal
Czech Republic
Switzerland
Turkey

Group B
Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Group C
France
Italy
Netherlands
Romania

Group D
Greece
Russia
Spain
Sweden


I'm sure for most of us Saturday can't get here soon enough. Meanwhile, discuss.

[LaYSTaR]

England suck

[Jan Willem]

I plan to be more polite than 2 years ago, that was nasty
Greece have lost to Hungary last week, which was really a surprise to me. They are defending Euro champion, the best performing team in the qualifying, and didn't lose since last August. No reason to think they can't do it again, except for that weird match.
The Dutch are with Italy, France and Romania...with Romania being a rising team, this means two nice teams will not go through. But it also means we'll probably see great matches in this group.
I think it's much easier to say which is the weakest team though, Austria as co-host didn't have to qualify, they're way below the level of the other teams. A group of Austrians even started a petition to withdraw their team from the tournament, to prevent a possible humiliation! But you know what the underdog position can do with teams, e.g. South Korea and Japan at recent World Cups.

[Saudade]

But i don't think that Austria will do a surprise like Japan or South Korea, they don't have the team for it, of course it would be great to see a different thing, what Greece did last time was the worst someone can do in Portugal, against Portugal in front of their supporters.

I'm for Portugal, i have again hopes , it's just stupid that they are in the same group with Turkey lol

[High Voltage]

No British teams this year, it's a loss I think. But I'm pretty sure Holland will make it as long as they have Van der Sar, Van Nistelrooy, Van der Vaart, Robben, Van Persie, Sneijder, Heitinga,.... all of them but Kuyt!

[Marty]

GO FRANCE!!!
I think that the 2 winners for each group will be:
A - Portugal, Czech Republic
B - Germany, Croatia
C - France, the Netherlands
D - Spain, Russia

[Marty]

also, I hate Italy.

[LaYSTaR]

Originally Posted by High Voltage

No British teams this year, it's a loss I think.

Not really...the UK suck at football

I'm rooting for Italy and Sweden (is Freddie playing this year?).

[Lidka]

Forca Poland!
I can't wait to Saturday!

[Jan Willem]

Those are indeed all great players, but in the end it's the best team that wins. Which is where the pain has been for the Dutch in the last couple of years.
My predictions are
A. Portugal + Czech Rep
B. Poland + Germany
C. Italy + France
D. Greece + Russia

Also, I hate grapefruit juice.