Euro 2012

You re right Playa .

Germany look strong i.m.o.. I still think they ll win it all...maybe Spain ll show us some style to state their case.
I think Spain ll beat Croatia 2-1..and Italy ll beat Ireland 1-0 (Ireland never suit the Italians).

First of all they have to break down the Greek fortress.
Not be suprised if the Greek will park their Teambus right before the goal. ;D

LOL .

Judgement Day for Group D. I have the French beating the disappointing Swedes 3-1.
England - Ukraine...well I m biased, but this is a hard one to call.
I m going for 1-1, and if England don t go out today, they will in the QF .

Germany kicks out denmark, expected but still dissapointed. A sure semi finalist. my bet is germany, portugal, spain and italy/france in the top4.

i dont believe much in england, despite having some good players, they always choke ^^

They didn t choke yesterday djowger .

Didn t expect France to get beaten, but glad to see the Swedes show some passion. Brilliant Ibrahimovic goal by the way. Pity he s out so early because he s been one of my favourite players so far. Let s hope France get their act back together for the next game.

Camera time Mr. Blatter / Mr. Platini? C mon! We don t need those extra officials, we just need a few seconds to review the action. It should have been 1-1, though luckily both score lines meant the exact same final group standings. Then again, the exact same thing applies as in the Germany game in 2010. What if the goal had been given? The English had the momentum then, Ukraine had the momentum now. FIFA and UEFA have to step out of the 1920s and use this modern thing called television.....

Somebody should give that Blokhin bloke a hanky because I ve never seen a worse loser in my life.
Before the game: There will be big problems for them but it s not the same for us. The England team will be more nervous. We have nothing to lose. They are one of the favourites and are expected to play in the final.
Uhh, not exactly....
Then after the match he complained about Carroll and Terry (didn t say a word about that Shevchenko challenge though.... ), say the English scored a lucky goal (didn t say a word about Rooney s pathetic miss), and so on and so on. I ve said it once and I ll say it again, England don t have the best players, don t play pretty football, but they are hard to beat and look better than they usually do (though nowhere near good enough to even reach the final i.m.o.). England also have a bit of luck on their side, and you always need luck in these championships. I wasn t impressed by the Ukrainians skills, though their passion and effort levels were excellent. Then again, if they hadn t had the home advantage, I think they d have gone home à la Holland.....0 points.

Last bit on Mr. Blokhin courtesy of the BBC website:

Blokhin took his anger out on one reporter in the post-match press conference by challenging him to go outside and have a man conversation .

You should respect that I played football. Did you play football? snapped the former USSR international. Respect my job and me. I won t allow anyone to criticise my team, about [Oleh] Gusev or [Andriy] Shevchenko. If you re a man, go with me. One on one.

Anger management anyone?


Group thoughts...

Group A surprised me, I really thought Russia would go through, and I thought Poland would too. I guess Russia miscalculated in their last match, and Poland just couldn t do it when it mattered most. The Czech Republic imploded against the Russians, but looked good in their other matches. The Greeks looked one of the weakest teams but gave it their all and deserved to go through.

Group B was a tale of faltering egos (Holland...their are plenty of good jokes on the internet concerning their exit...most of them in German ), and dominance (Germany). Portugal were a bit unlucky they didn t get a point vs the Germans, maybe a bit lucky they got all three points against the Danes, but deserved qualifiers. Denmark impressed me and they might have deserved more than they got in their two losses.

Group C almost saw the shock of the championships but another bad decision helped to end the Croatian challenge. Spain still looked good enough to win the group and I think they ll improve. Italy looked stronger than most people thought and they look tough to beat. Croatia looked strong and can feel hard done by. I always enjoy watchin Ireland in tournaments, though they lack skill, they show real spirit. Pity they went home without a point, but they really were out of their depth here.

Group D had a few surprises. England topping the group was my shock of the round. France weren t as strong as a lot of people first thought. Sweden disappointed me, though they showed their true promise in the final game. Ukraine showed spirit, but I don t feel they were good enough to go through.


Quarter Final predictions

Czech Republic - Portugal 1-2
(This ll be a hard game (yellow card fest?), but I feel the Czech defence isn t good enough to withstand the Portuguese attack)

Germany - Greece 2-0
(Germany are still my favourites, and I think they have the game to stop the Greeks)

Spain - France 2-1
(This could be a great game which could go both ways. I think the Spanish B-game is better than the French B-game, which will edge this match)

England - Italy 1-1 (Italy win on penalties)
(Italy have a game which should cancel out the English strengths. This could be another card fest. I see England hanging on by the skin of their teeth, riding their luck time and time again. Eventually their luck ll run out. Buffon ll save 3 penalties, including a double save from Rooney...stopping the ball with his left hand and Rooney s wig with his right ).

Got all the winners right...and even predicted the penalty shoot-out .

All pretty straightforward really. Portugal had too much for the Czechs, the Greeks never really had a chance against the clinical Czechs, France pressed the self-destruct button against Sweden...and it showed against the classy Spaniards, the English let the Italians come...didn t concede but deservedly got knocked out on penalties.

Should be a great final four...I only missed Portugal in our poule at work (I had the Dutch.....stupid me). We should see two great games as these really are the best four teams in the Championships.