UEFA European Championship 2008!

Euro 2008 is about a week and a half away (June 7th) so I think its ok to make this thread now.
Who do you think will win?
Decide in the poll! Poll will close on the 19th June, the start of the knock-out rounds.

Also, who do you think will succeed/fail in the group stages?

Group A:
Czech Republic
Portugal
Switzerland
Turkey

Group B:
Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Group C:
France
Italy
Netherlands
Romania

Group D:
Greece
Russia
Spain
Sweden


Also, what are England gonna do during the summer? :p

euro2008.uefa.com - Home Page
YouTube - Teams of EURO 2008
YouTube - EURO 2008 preview

Where's the fantasy Euro 2008? There's no way I can do as badly as I did during the World Cup.

Ah I want the fantasy Euro 2008 as well, but I havnt found a place to do that yet. If anyone wants to set one up, go ahead.
I remember missing first place on the final game by like 1 point grrrrrr!

Hooray for The Euro! Woo!

Going to be cheering on my only non-Canadian heritage, Germany! :)

As for who will succeed:

Group A:
Czech Republic
Portugal

Group B:
Croatia
Germany :D

Group C:
France
Italy

Group D:
Russia
Spain

But really you never know who will get upset, will be a nice change from the North American sports! And I'd totally be up for a fantasy tourney!

:)

England aren't in it for me to laugh at when they inevitably fail so I don't care

Spain, Portugal & France have such strong squads, that I think it will be between these three, unless someone else does a Greece. *cough*


I'm going for Spain though.

Switzerland will do well. I hope Spain win though. Dunno if they will, but they've got my moral support for obvious Torres/Reina/Arbeloa/Alonso related reasons.

Oh, England. You make me sad. :(

I want Greece to win, purely because I like the country.

Provided Russia don't win, I'm not that bothered. I'm frankly sick of Russian LJ users spamming the Premiership community telling us that they're going to behead the Queen with their bears and vodka because they beat us in qualifying. Having said that, when I mentioned that their glorious UEFA Cup winners (Zenit St. Petersburg) managed to get beat by an English team (Everton), they were oddly quiet.

Sweden or Germany'd do. We seem to always get drawn with Sweden in competitions these days and they're a generally good team so I'd like them to do well. They've got quite a tough group though. I don't think Everton have any European internationals going to play; unless Nuno Valente is in the Portugese squad.

I think Germany will win this one. They have been playing really really well. Other favourites such as France and Italy have been playing bad ever since 2006. Austria and Switzerland have been playing poorly even for their standards and the atmosphere down there is extremely bad for a championship.

I think Spain will finally get the job done, for reasons that I don't entirely understand. I'll be supporting the Netherlands, though, because they've got the winning combination of talent and not being jerks. :up:

Spain? Ha! I'll believe it when I see it (a bit like with England really).

I'm going to go for France, which is admittedly stickingmy neck out a little considering the evil group they are in. But I think they have a strong team and I've discounted the other teams for the following reasons:

Spain and Holland - always implode
Italy - often implode, rarely have two good tournaments in a row.
Portugal - don't think they're quite strong enough overall
Czech Republic - good but I think their best chance was four year ago where they were probably unlucky against Greece
Germany - possibly the strongest threat to France, and have the easier half of the draw. One concern is I'd like to see how they do on foreign soil this time, being hosts in 2006 would have boosted them a bit. I think they're a good bet though.


Switzerland could be dark horses for me. I'll be just happy for Greece if they can make it to the quarters this time. Defend your title with honour guys! There could be another surprise a la Denmark in 1992 or Greece in 2004 but I'll go for France.

Frankly I can't wait. Bring it on!

The Netherlands team not being jerks??? Nothing to do with dutch people but the team itself has the most arrogant players in the world of football!
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IMO

Spain and Holland, always tipped to do well, always fail. Neither will win. My money's on Portugal.

Cheering for the Netherlands and Czech republic to somehow make the finals =) (My dream final)

But I voted for the Italians. Who will either choke and not make it out of the group stages or go all the way.

Group C = group of death?

Note: Don't have too much knowledge in Euro's but always a joy to watch

Cheers!

wont be england lol

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Originally Posted by DK

England aren't in it for me to laugh at when they inevitably fail so I don't care

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That in itself is worthy of a laugh. Come on, lap it up!

Group C = the Ultimate Group of Death! Interestingly Italy/France and Romania/Holland were respectively in the same qualifying groups.

I want Spain or The Netherlands to win because both countries really deserve something. I've supported Holland in competitions ever since Scotland got knocked out of France '98, ten years later and we haven't made it to a major competition since, the shame :cry: Even though I hate Dirk Kuyt I want them to win it.

I've not got a team for it, neither Ireland or N.Ireland are in it.

I'd like to see Greece do well, and only because when Man City sell on Samaras to Celtic, if he scores a few goals and helps Greece along the way we'll bag more money for him.

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Originally Posted by Cz

I'll be supporting the Netherlands, though, because they've got the winning combination of talent and not being jerks. :up:

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You do realise that van Nistelrooy and Robben are in the Dutch squad, right?

I'm going for Croatia, because I went there when I was 10.

... And I'm still a better football pundit than Ian Wright.

A fair number of the BBC pundits are tipping Spain. Frankly I think they're off their rockers.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

You do realise that van Nistelrooy and Robben are in the Dutch squad, right?

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I was talking more about the nation, but point taken.

I reckon a lot of the Spain love is to do with the fact that we've had a whole season of seeing what Fernando Torres can do rather than just hearing about it. That, and there's no earthly reason why they couldn't win the thing other the fact that they just don't win tournaments.

About to start!!

Did you see the view around the stadium? NO ATMOSPHERE WHATSOEVER!!!

I thought Switzerland were a little unlucky in that opening game, they should have had a penalty really as well. Not the most amazing opening game but decent enough.

I think that's pretty much sealed Switzerland's fate. Losing Frei and losing that match to a lacklustre Czech side was a disaster, I think. I don't think they can take out Portugal, and having watched the first half of the Portugal v Turkey match, you get the feeling that Switzerland - Turkey will be just like that World Cup match with Ukraine.

I want to see more goals dammit!

Oh.... Nevermind...

This tournament doesn't really get underway until the first round of Group of Death games for me. I can't see either of tomorrow's games being particularly thrilling contests either. Still, I'm not complaining about three weeks' worth of almost solid football. :greenie:

Germanys playing tomorrow so its going to be amazing.
Also, I tip Romania to actually go through top of the "death group".

Romania - France snorefest......
And that referee is awful!

This is the "group of death"??? I think we can put it down to half a group of death if france carry on like that...
I WANTED them to win but not anymore....

I'm just hoping France are being slow starters again. We'll see against Holland. Poor game but Romania were well drilled and never seemed that troubled.

And 2-0 Holland already! Even if the first goal was the worst decision ever.

Hey, stuff happening. And happening for the Dutch, too. :up:

First goal was definitely iffy, but that second goal was brilliant. Otherwise it was a fantastic performance thus far by Holland.

Germany were great yesterday and certainly feel more confident about them doing well than I did.

I have heard an explanation for why the first goal was valid, but have no idea how much of it is reflecting the rules accurately, and how much of it is rabid Italy hatred talking XD

Come on Greece tomorrow!

EDIT: Well er...don't think anyone saw this result coming before the game. This'll shake things up and no mistake.

Oyeah, Holland represent! :choc:

Podolski with 2 goals in that game... he's my prediction of top scorer for the Euro! :)

Apparently in offside situation players behind the goal line are counted as on the pitch, according to www.bundesliga.de and euro2008.uefa.com - Home Page
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It says the decision was correct. I wonder if thats all there is to it?

Also, be interesting to see how Spain do!

Ugh, I know Greece are pretty defensive but this passing the ball to each other in their own half is pushing it a bit (I swear despite everything they never did that four years ago). Even I'm getting embarrassed a little, and I'm Greek! :(

Good start by Spain.

EDIT: Good start Greece, lose and make yourselves unpopular in the process. Doh! :)

Back to Group A tomorrow...

The most entertaining matches so far have all involved the big teams. A few of those seem to be meeting each other in the next round of games, so I reckon we'll see some more exciting contests over the next few days, starting with the Portuguese and Czechs tomorrow.

I've been doing this everywhere, but I have to apologise for that Greece performance. It's like Chelsea but 100 times worse XD

I'm looking forward to today's games, but not looking forward to hearing ITV go on and on about Ronaldo when Portugal play (like they did in their first game). There are 21 other players out there!

I think Germany looked excellent as did Spain, but based on track record, I'm not sold on them yet.

Also, hey Rafa, David Villa looks mighty good playing next to Torres, no? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.



Take care all.

Scolari is the new Chelsea manager!

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Originally Posted by charliepanayi

Scolari is the new Chelsea manager!

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That sucks! He was a great manager for our team... ah well maybe we can convince Mourinho XD

Mourinho is at Inter!

Poor Switzerland :(

It seems I grossly overrated Switzerland. I thought that they had a promising young team full of energy and that, plus home advantage, might just see them pull off an upset. Oh well.

Also I hate that commentators have developed Wayne Rooney disease with regards to Cristiano Ronaldo. It's like "Deco to Simao, to RONALDO OH MY GOD CRISTIANO IS ON THE MOTHERsmurfING BALL JESUS CHRIST LOOK IT'S RONALDO HE'S DOING STUFF to Nuno Gomes". Okay. Yes. We get it. He's a great player. But he's not perfect. Don't screech his name and kittens if he's just letting off a scuffed and tame shot. If he does something wonderful, hey, go for it, but no player does something wonderful every time they get the ball, so just wait.

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Originally Posted by charliepanayi

Mourinho is at Inter!

Poor Switzerland :(

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hm well he can quit XD or not ^^"

That game was almost a farce. The rain in the first half made Turkey's passing game pretty much null and void, even though the Swiss goal made me laugh.

Croatia are the new Czech Republic.

Austria seem utterly incapable of scoring - how many gilt-edged chances do they need?!

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Croatia are the new Czech Republic.

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Well they have squares on their shirts and sovereignty is invested in the people rather than a monarch so...:eep:

Great game, anyway.

I know I said I wanted Greece to win the Euros overall, but the Greece vs Sweden game was more boring than a Middlesbrough vs Bolton game. :jess:

Most entertaining game for me so far would have to be Spain vs Russia. David Villa is impressive, and also very easy on the eye. ;)

Germany were awful, im embarrased and disappointed.....

They weren't awful, but they were disappointing, especially the defence. They'll just have to do what Croatia did after their first game and improve for the next one and the possible quarter-final that follows. Germany (or Italy) are not automatically rubbish yet because they lost just as much as Holland and Spain aren't suddenly nailed on dead certainties to win it.

And if you're embarrassed now, imagine how I felt being Greek Cypriot after that Greece game! :(

Back to the group of death tomorrow :)

I have to admit that I am spoilt in this sense because I have watched every germany match in the qualifiers and they have been peforming absolutely great, so when I saw the match today, I was speechless.

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Originally Posted by Croyles

I have to admit that I am spoilt in this sense because I have watched every germany match in the qualifiers and they have been peforming absolutely great, so when I saw the match today, I was speechless.

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Again I would say - same with Greece to some extent, they were impressive in qualifying for the most part too. Now they're getting booed by everyone for being duller than Bolton Wanderers.

I'm going to stick my neck out and tip France to bounce back today against the Netherlands. And Italy to eke out a narrow win against Romania.

My predictions stink! I must have been mad when I predicted France to win this tournament...

Fantastic save by Buffon today to keep Italy in it. Though I notice that assuming the Netherlands beat France here, they could theoretically let Romania win in their final game, making the France v Italy game immaterial and knocking both those teams out XD

I also find it funny that if the Czech Republic and Turkey draw their final match against each other, they'll have to have a penalty shootout to see who makes it to the quarter-finals!

Bloody hell, the Dutch are beasts. Absolute beasts. Their attacking players are all just so impressive. Oh if only Ryan Babel wasn't injured, I'd love to see what he'd do in this side.

Romania can take a hell of a lot of punishment and still be left standing. Dutch second team for the final game, and Romania to sneak a win and dump Italy and France out...? I sure hope so ;)

I want Italy to go through, but will be fun to see this final set of games. Do the Dutch have a monopoly on spectacular goals or something?!

Loving the Dutch. Easily the most exciting team in this tournament. They've beaten both World Cup finalists and by a comfortable margin too. We'll see how the Spanish compare tomorrow, but they might just be favourites after today's showing.

As daft as it may be to suggest this (and considering I've been hopelessly wrong with everything else to far) I don't think the Netherlands will win it still, despite these two games. I'm just not sure such a spectacular start can be maintained. But they certainly look good for at the very least the semis right now.

Oh yeah, I'm not sure that they'll go all the way either. Good fortune had a hand in the win against Italy, and France aren't exactly the best team in this tournament. I'll be very surprised if they don't make the semis, but anything could happen after that.

Holland represent! :cool: It's crazy out here, I just heard a radio broadcast about how us Dutch are partying in the steets in every major city, creating one big mess of orange chaos in the process. Too bad I've to go to work tomorrow morning... :mad:

We all got high hopes for the finals now, but we'll just have to see...

Anyway, proudness! :choc:

What the hell just happened? o_O

Bloody hell this Turkey v Czech Republic game has been astonishing the last few minutes

Hahahaha Baros got booked while on the bench. I don't know what the smurf but I love it.

Don't care much for the result, but that was one hell of an exciting game. More of those, please. :up:

Aw man! Why the smurf did I want to watch Big Brother?

Why did the commentator repeatedly refer to Petr Čech as the best goalkeeper in the world? Not only is that complete bs but his astonishingly bad attempt at catching the ball proved it.

Buffon is the best goalkeeper in the world. Certainly Cech, Buffon and Casillas are the three best I think.

I dont think Buffon or Cech are the best. But I dont know who is.

I agree with saying Buffon is the best. I don't know how he managed to stop Mutu's penalty in the Romania game.

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Originally Posted by charliepanayi

Buffon is the best goalkeeper in the world. Certainly Cech, Buffon and Casillas are the three best I think.

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van der Sar ftw!

I think Casillas is the best personally.

Anyway I was about to say the French are smurfed. 10 men, 1-0 down, the brink of a Euro exit. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. The one man who can save the French. Step up, Jean-Alain Boumsong, now is your hour. I couldn't believe it when I saw him marching onto the pitch.

Also Luca Toni vs Germany's Gomez for biggest striking failure.

Italy should win now (mind you with their wastefulness - I mean Toni's wastefulness), but that Romania v Netherlands game is still on a knife edge. Both sides could have scored. I wouldn't be surprised if the France v Italy descends into full-blown farce by the end at this rate.

Holland ftw. We're doin' good, even with pretty much bench-players we've beaten Romania. High hopes for the finals!

Good game. Looks like the Germans have overcome their earlier wobbles and have done so in style.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Good game. Looks like the Germans have overcome their earlier wobbles and have done so in style.

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Excellent game to watch. And it was the right result as well. Viel Glück Deutschland!

I hope the rest of the knockout stage is as much fun. Well done to Germany, they took advantage of some atrocious set-piece defending by Portugal.

I really didn't expext Germany to win the game considering their earlier matches in the tournament. Anyway, glad the Portugese got sent home.

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Originally Posted by Pete for President

Anyway, glad the Portugese got sent home.

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Why?

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Originally Posted by Polaris

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Originally Posted by Pete for President

Anyway, glad the Portugese got sent home.

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Why?

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The world isn't ready for Ricardo's dire ball punching skills

I am so chuffed about that game! Shame I forgot to change my fantasy football line up. I didnt do ANYTHING fot the quaterfinals!

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Originally Posted by Polaris

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Originally Posted by Pete for President

Anyway, glad the Portugese got sent home.

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Why?

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For some reason the Dutch team always has a ton of trouble playing against Portugal. We'd rather face Germany for some odd reason. No offense intended.

So Croatia v Turkey is pretty dull for 118 minutes then....Turkey goalkeeper makes a huge error, Croatia score and look to have won it, then Turkey get a last-minute goal for the third game in a row. Croatia fall apart in the shootout (two penalties off target? Unforgiveable), Turkey go through to the semis, even though they'll be missing half their team at this rate. And they've been ahead for er...two minutes so far in the whole competition

Blimey, don't know when they're beaten do they XD

The knockout stages are so intense. Even when nothing was happening in that game the crowd were really fired up, and when everything collapsed at the end...wow. These tournaments always shift up a gear when the knockout stages come around, and this one looks like no exception.

The Turks are so jammy. Disappointed for Croatia when they went out because they are a good side, but on the other hand, it's their own fault for casually sitting back when the Turks put a brick wall up until the 80th minute or so when they finally decided to push them hard.

Wow...... Im happy Turkey went through but there will now be anarchy in Germany lol. Germany vs Turkey semi final. Its going to be mad back home.

Oh my god, you're right. Better not go anywhere then XD

Man the Russians really had the Dutch team's number tonight.

Looks like the teams that went through with ease and played their reserves in the last game are going out. Could Spain be next?

Holland always blow it. They're almost as bad as Spain, who will lose 2-0 to Italy tomorrow.

Russia to win it? Totally outclassed the Dutch there in every sense of the word.

I would love a Russia - Turkey final.

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

Holland always blow it. They're almost as bad as Spain, who will lose 2-0 to Italy tomorrow.

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I agree with the first two thirds of that, Holland always manage to mess it up just like Spain do. And so it proved tonight. But I'm not so certain as to predict a score tomorrow is all XD

I want an Italy v Germany final.

Sheesh, that little guy just had craploads of energy to burn. It's amazing how a good manager can do so much for a mediocre side

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

Holland always blow it.

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Word. I feel ashamed. :cry:

So Spain are through to the semis for once and have beaten the 22 June jinx.

I was wrong about Spain tonight I admit. They deserved the win against an Italy team who never stepped up a gear from the group stage like I expected them to. Sorely disappointed by Italy.

Agreed with charliepanayi. Italy are not a good side to watch and so I am glad Spain progressed ahead of them.

I wanted Italy to go through before the game, but then I was expecting a lot more from them. Despite their negative reputation their games weren't too boring generally at the World Cup, not least the great semi-final against Germany. Today though they seemed happy to conform to their worst stereotype. By the end I did not really want them through XD

I think what it mainly proves is that Donadoni is no Marcello Lippi.

WOW! What a game! I was watching it on a huge screen in a bar and it was mental in there. German and Turkey fans in equal measure!

Great game - Turkey played excellently and were a little unfortunate, but credit to Germany for digging in and getting the win.

All those in favour of expelling Germany from the competition and putting Turkey into the final say aye.

Seriously, I'm sorta supporting Germany, but they most definitely did not deserve to win tonight.

Every team that wins a major tournament usually has one game where they were 'lucky' along the way - and Turkey were a little fortunate in previous games (though not to belittle them, after all it was mainly them not knowing when they were beaten). The best team doesn't always win, but we all know that, it's just how football is. You score more goals or tough crap.

It's funny how two of the semi-finalists were Turkey, which is more Arabic than European, and Russia, which mostly isn't even in Europe

I think they did deserve to win tonight. I know im biased but, here is my point:
Our defense was awful and gave plenty of chances to Turkey, however, this alone doesnt say anything cause if your striking force is about twice as good as your defence and better than the oppositions defense/attack, you deserve to win it. 3 shots on goal, 3 goals.
It seemed as if Lehmann was playing against Germany also. And, excuse me ref? Did you not see that stampede of elephants trampling Lahm? Wasnt that a penalty? Or at least a free kick? It KINDA happened on the other side i guess you can only hope the referee was trying to set things right. Really, the officials have been very poor in this tournament!
Also, that first goal was a mix of extreme bad luck and extreme bad goalkeeping. Kinda like that goal Germany scored against England in wembley last year.... very lucky. But, it happens.

Spain have been pretty dominant really tonight. They're coasting towards the final - so it's Spain v Germany! The seasoned veterans of major finals against the perrennial underachievers. Time for Spain to finally break their duck for the first time since 1964?

Spain might miss David Villa, but they've still got far too much quality in the final third to fall short against Germany. The only argument I can make against Spain is the psychological element of having underachieved for so many years, but they looked extremely composed against Russia, so I don't think that'll be much of a factor. That's not to say that the result is a foregone conclusion, since anything can happen in a game like this. But Spain have been consistently impressive in the tournament so far, and they're clear favourites for me.

Spain win and it's fully deserved really. I wrote them off at the start of the tournament and I was wrong this time. Aside from a bright start and a brief period around 60-70 minutes Germany were desperately short of ideas tonight and as someone who loves great defences their defence has been painful to watch today. Against Turkey they made up for it with some good attacking but today Spain had their measure easily.

So well done to Spain - credit to Germany for making the final (not many in the UK will do so to be honest) but the best team won.

Wow, Spain have finally won something. What next, Liverpool winning the league? :D Made up for Fernando Torres. He deserved to hit the winner tonight, and Spain deserved to win both the match and the tournament.

With Spain winning, England and Portugal are now left standing in the 'no major trophies in ages/ever' room XD

England will need a lot of work if they want to just make the quarters and semis in 2010, thanks to the rise of Eastern Europe, like Croatia, Turkey, Russia, et al.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

Wow, Spain have finally won something. What next, Liverpool winning the league? :D Made up for Fernando Torres. He deserved to hit the winner tonight, and Spain deserved to win both the match and the tournament.

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They did. I didn't want them to win, but they deserved to. Everton for the league though!

I was really disappointed by Germany who I've been supporting. They really lacked passion and drive in the last two games. No overall quality and just didn't seem to either care so much or be able to live up to the expectations of them, which weren't that unreasonable. It was like watching England play.

It was quite funny though to see the BBC pundits talk about how 'average' Germany are as a team. That statement may bre true in terms on individual ability (Hansen saying they'd been poor through the whole tournament was a load of crap though) but that 'average' team has still made a World Cup final and semi-final and a European Championship final this decade. What does that say about England, BBC pundits?

Heath makes a good post about tonight above.

I wanted Spain to win, so yay for them. My brother is also happy because he had them to win on the sweep at his work, so he won. :jess:

also, I don't think England are going to win anything for years to come unless Capello is a miracle worker. which I hope he is. show us your magic, Fabio. :love:

I didn't think Germany played particularly well this entire tournament, with the exception of the Portugal match. And even then, the Portuguese defence made the German's job really easy.

Whereas Spain have been really good throughout this entire tournament. They had a slightly off day against the Italians, although Italy was playing some anti-football, and Panucci & Chiellini defended really well. Even in the final tonight, they dominated most of the game, and really could have scored 1 or 2 more.

So, I think Spain deserve their win. I was slightly biased towards them coming into the game, because they had been playing the more attractive football, but wasn't really bothered, because I was supporting the Russians.

I think England definitely do have the players to do well. It just seems that they get stage-fright whenever they play. What I also find is that there tends to be very little movement off the ball, which Mr Capello must get sorted. If England want to do well, they can no longer play long-ball rubbish. They need to play a good passing game (like the Spanish did tonight), and that means that the players off the ball need to be looking for space constantly. If they can get that sorted, and get themselves more comfortable on the ball, then England could do well. Otherwise, another disappointment.

Oh, and I reckon the Russians are going to do well in 2010.

Congratulations to Spain, who deserved their win tonight and deserved to take the whole tournament too.

And good news for England about the next tournament: UEFA look set to expand the number of teams in the European Championships to 24. We can't possibly fail to qualify now...can we?

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Originally Posted by Cz

Congratulations to Spain, who deserved their win tonight and deserved to take the whole tournament too.

And good news for England about the next tournament: UEFA look set to expand the number of teams in the European Championships to 24. We can't possibly fail to qualify now...can we?

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Please don't tempt fate. I was actually a little sad when the national anthems were playing that England weren't there. But then I don't really have much of an attachment to the English national team. I support them, but I care more about Everton. Must be something to do with living in Wales!

Actually the expansion to 24 teams might not happen until the 2016 tournament I think.

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Originally Posted by charliepanayi

Actually the expansion to 24 teams might not happen until the 2016 tournament I think.

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Ah. Then we can still fail for a little while yet. :up:

Wow, the BBC moderators were idiots. You can tell they definitely enjoy it when Germany goes out. This is one thing I still hate about living in England.

To be fair, the BBC website forums are littered with idiots on every subject from politics to football, it's a breeding ground for morons so I wouldn't worry too much what they spout on there. Unless you mean the BBC pundits on TV in which case.... well actually they're morons too (except Martin O'Neill) XD - so yeah they're best ignored too.

As a final note, France kept Domenech as manager, clearly indicating that they are totally insane.

Martin O'Neill was one of the principle reasons why the BBC coverage was much better than ITV's.