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For those who love soccer as much as I do, who is gonna win?
As much as I wanted Portugal to win (the hosts of the Cup), especially since their coach is Felipe Scolari who led Brazil to the last World Cup victory...after today's disappointing 2-1 loss to Greece, I don't think they look good enough to do it.
So I'm placing my bets on England, as much as I dislike that Beckham model.

Good game to look forward to today...England x France.

Grudge match. Going to the largest british pub in Geneva to see that. I wanna see England lose

I love football and of couse follows the Euro 2004.

I've never thought that Portugal would win anything - they almost never does good at such competitions (except for the U21 some years ago), and the loss to Greece (way to go ) just confirmed this. But it is still a long tournament and the two best goes through - so there is a chance...

As for who will win - well - I don't really know. Possible Holland or Italy, I hope it'll not be France (just don't like france at the moment).

But the match between England and France today - I hope it is good. Didn't think the matches yesteday was terrible well played.

And of course, Denmark faces off against Italy tomorrow - and I fear we will get a severe beating this tournament (again ). The danish team is in something of a crisis at the moment, and can't really get a flow going.

I always try to watch the big international football events, but unfortunately I seldom have time to follow the whole tournament. This time, I will miss the some quarters and the semi-finals since I'm at a big conference then.

Right now, I am looking forward to the England-France game, and I'm cheering for England although I think France will be a very difficult opponent.

Like Xan I never held Portugal as favorites, they have a sad history of failing in the big games, and they have great difficulties playing as a team in the World Cup two years ago. Since they didn't have to qualify because they are hosting the event, they haven't played any serious games since then, which I think is a drawback. I was however negatively surprised to see them play as badly as they did yesterday. Poor Portugal, and what a pity for all the fans.

I hold Italy and France as favorites for the cup, with England as outsider. Germany should not be counted out either I think, although most people including the Germans themselves seem to have done so - however, they were scorned at the World Cup also, and there they were second, beated by a fabulous Brazil in the finals.

Whohoe, the European Championships have begun! Our whole nation is in an ecstasy now! Praise the guy who invented this sport

I am guessing Italy will go home with the cup this time. Holland will probably make it after the first round, but when they will near the finals, they will be kicked out. You are giving them too much credit Xandax. Of course I hope that we will win this time, but our team seems to be in a crisis lately. Even Van the Man isn't scoring anymore...

So I am sticking with Italy, I'm a fan of most of the players there and although Maldini doesn't play along this year (bah!! ), I try to watch as many games as possible. France-England will be a good match, and that means some nice beer drinking in the pub this evening.

The bad thing however, is that I'm on a holiday from next Saturday (well, bad... ), so I wont be able to watch that many games. Hopefully they got a TV. in the southern of France

Originally posted by C Elegans
<snip>
Like Xan I never held Portugal as favorites, they have a sad history of failing in the big games, and they have great difficulties playing as a team in the World Cup two years ago. Since they didn't have to qualify because they are hosting the event, they haven't played any serious games since then, which I think is a drawback. I was however negatively surprised to see them play as badly as they did yesterday. Poor Portugal, and what a pity for all the fans.
<snip>

One of the problems with the Portugies team is that Louis Figo isn't the player he was some years ago (or infact, I've never hold him in special regards, because I don't think he has been *that* good, more like being hyped).
And because so much of the game has to flow through him, well - it creates bottle necks.

The portugies are strong on paper, but as you say, they have a history of failing in tournaments.

And regarding the Germans, for some reason they have always been a "tournament-team". They usually get bether the futher into a tournament they come. It is interesting to see if they can do this again - and I've certainly not written them off as contenders to the trophy. (Infact I've waged a small amount on them on odds 12:1 on winning the cup, but then again - I've also taken Croatia in the final at odds 26:1 )

@Sytze: Holland might seem in a crises now - I don't know, I haven't followed the national team much, but Holland strikes me as more like a team then individualists playing on a team (unlike France, which are strongly build on individualists - Zidane, Henri etc). Combine this team-feel with some good solid players (and Nistelroy ) - they are always contenders to winning the european championship.

It's much easier to pick a team in the world cup, but I'll give it a try. Greece looked good yesterday, and since they never won anything at this level I'll stick with them for the time being.

Italy could play good football IF they (and especially Totti) skipped their ballet classes for a while. England have at least stopped giving me flashbacks of the traditional 0-0 european football, and fortunately so has Germany. Spain seems to have trouble with ghosts in their closet, which is a bit sad since they are a team of good players. France were treated pretty badly by their fans after the World cup and deserve restitution. In a way, so does Germany, but they did quite well in the World cup regardless of what their "supporters" though.

Which brings me to an interesting question: Why are fans called supporters, when many of them are far from supportive when the team is the most in need of support?

Hopefully England will lose, and then the media will be less inundated with football for the next three weeks.

I am quite annoyed with all the stupid football supporters who have stupid England flags attached to their cars. Soon, I'm going to start stealing them all, and burn them or something.

Originally posted by Georgi
Soon, I'm going to start stealing them all, and burn them or something.

Ahhh, sweet memories

Originally posted by Georgi
<snip>
I am quite annoyed with all the stupid football supporters who have stupid England flags attached to their cars. Soon, I'm going to start stealing them all, and burn them or something.

Read something about the sales of english flags in England had reached something around 3 million up to the Euro 2004, so you got your work cut out for you, if you are to steal and burn them all





Oh - btw - what about that *awful* match between Croatia and Switzerland. The only "fun" thing about that was trying to guess the number of yellow cards given ....
Waste of time that match

On second thought, who cares about the teams. I put my vote for Collina! Go Collina, go! He would definitely have been needed in the Switzerland - Croatia game. I slept well during second half, but could only tell from the clock that I had.

Well, so far France-England isn't that great either. It's good that England just scored, maybe the match will get more exiting now.

And if it doesn't, well, then you all just have to wait for Germany-Netherlands. I'm guessing that we will see some fireworks there

Half-time and 1-0 to England, perhaps not really deserved seeing how France dominated the first part of the first half, and had many good chances. However, both teams seem to have great respect for each other and play with a mainly defensive style, careful not to leave openings for the opponent. I think this kind of static and defensive play rather than attacking football, is an advantage for England.

Btw, Henry is surprisingly invisible, considering how he has played in Arsenal the last year. A pity really, he is my favorite player in the French squad, but good for England of course

Arsenal v Man Utd

Remains 1-0 to Man Utd

Georgi, you disappoint me *sigh*

I thought the Russians looked pretty flat footed yesterday, could that be the white boots? Never the less, they were no walk over for the Spanish - I remain impressed.

Penalty to England, excuse me please

<edit> good save!

<edit> England are denied by the sorcery of Zidane...a magical player...the finest in his position...

Now James is yellow carded at 1-1 facing a penalty... Zidane takes position 93 minutes in

2-1 to France in stoppage time

c'est la vie. Our next chance to beat them is the finals

What a fantastic team!

Hah, good thing I came in at the end of the second half to watch the game. Got the best part of it!

Man, are the English fans going to be mad...we'll probably see some acts of vandalism in Portugal tonight.
It's amazing what individual talent is capable of...and Zizu holds true to his fame by scoring the two goals for France.
Then again, I'd like to add I don't think much of the England goalkeeper, he was in a bad position for the first goal, and he created the penalty for the second one.
Then again, I've never seen a good english gollie (Seaman was rubbish), and Barthez is extraordinary. That said, the French team does have more talents than England, especially on the attacking side.

Ysh! Hi there! Long time no see!

The game was the best one play-wise so far, but since Collina wasn't rerereeing I was only moderately interested. I thought 1-1 was fair, but that unfortunate penalty was correct so not much to do.

My favourite man on the field - the referee Collina!

I must say i still follow England as i am from there....but why they SUCK again, Just like every other time.
What i don't understand is every time they lose they always say the the other side did really well..(ok the French 1st goal was a good one)...but the second a penalty...(yes yes we know England missed..thats the OTHER trademark of Beckham)....Lets face it England screwed up twice and France took the chances and got them...Hey good for the Frence.

Well i still hope..


not meaning to take anything away from the other teams

Originally posted by Lost One
Hah, good thing I came in at the end of the second half to watch the game. Got the best part of it!

Man, are the English fans going to be mad...we'll probably see some acts of vandalism in Portugal tonight.
It's amazing what individual talent is capable of...and Zizu holds true to his fame by scoring the two goals for France.
Then again, I'd like to add I don't think much of the England goalkeeper, he was in a bad position for the first goal, and he created the penalty for the second one.
Then again, I've never seen a good english gollie (Seaman was rubbish), and Barthez is extraordinary. That said, the French team does have more talents than England, especially on the attacking side.

It so bugs me that a complete nation is tarred by the brush of a minute company of idiots. Thank you Lost One for looking forward to it.

Silur, I relied on seeing you and CE here and came looking I like Collina too, that or I am too terrified to believe otherwise lol!

I thought a draw would have been justifiable, now we have a bit of work to do. But that was the game that concerned me most anyways, they had a bone to gnaw on after their embarrassing exit from the World Cup, and they are a mighty team...unfortunately we faced the savages first

What a match, I defenitly thought England was going to win when I saw the penalty of Beckham. But then he missed, from that moment it was a nice match, only the last penalty shouldn't be there, 1-1 had been a good result.

What a dramatic end of this game! I also think a draw would have been the most fair result seeing how the teams played, but well, well...France has one of the best goalkeepers in football, whereas England has a young and fairly inexperienced goalkeeper. Barthez brilliant save proved crucial to the result. However, I am confident that England will go further on to the next round anyway since I think they played well and defended themselves well against the reigning champions.