[Gollum]

Am I the only one who can't wait for the championship to start? Only one more day and the wait is finally over!

Sure, most of the games will be dreadfully boring and the teams playing the most attractive football are not going to make it through the first round, but who cares? Get out yer drinks and chips, invite your friends for a BBQ and have fun!

Who will you cheer for and who will win the title?

[sytaylor]

England vs France on Sunday will be a phenomenal game. I hope its as close as the two teams are technically. France have more confidence but England have masses of unfulfilled potential, I'm really quite excited by the prospect of some of the games.

The winner is impossible to pick at this point. You can usually tell by the time the group stages are over although I fancy Italy or Portugal.

[london-boy]

Every time there's a big tournament, be it Euro or World Cup, Italy is always one of the favourites. At World Cup 2002 we were top favourites until being beaten. Same for the last Euro thing.
Thing is, we haven't won anything for AGES!!!
Maybe you should do the opposite thing. Let's not say anything about Italy this year, we might actually get somewhere!!

[sytaylor]

The fact that they haven't won in a while means that maybe they will soon. The strong defensive tactics are bound to yeild results eventually...

[london-boy]

Originally Posted by sytaylor

The fact that they haven't won in a while means that maybe they will soon. The strong defensive tactics are bound to yeild results eventually...

Hehehe the longer we wait the more probability we have to win... It's not dice we're playing at!!

[Mariner]

I'm flying off to Portugal tomorrow morning for a couple of weeks. I'm seeing 4 matches during my stay, but none featuring England so hopefully I'll avoid getting my head kicked in by an over-zealous policeman!

The 'best' of the games I'm watching is Germany vs Holland which should be a good one, but I'm also watching Italy vs Sweden, Switzerland vs Croatia and Holland vs Latvia.

Anyone want me to cheer their team on in any of these games?

[nutball]

Originally Posted by sytaylor

The winner is impossible to pick at this point. You can usually tell by the time the group stages are over although I fancy Italy or Portugal.

I'm pondering putting a fiver on Germany -- because they are Germany and the odds are 16-1! Besides, it'll be £80-worth of consolation if they win!

Italy, Spain and Portugal all seem to be amongst the favourites, I have no idea why as the latter two in particular are even worse bottlers than England.

France, is who will win.

[Moffell]

France is my favourite as well. They'll crush England most likely unless MR. Eriksson can pull a rabbit out of something. Maybe he can persuade Posh to flash the French in halftime, that might throw them off.

Sweden will go undefeated through their group with a tie against Italy and a complete smack down on those pesky Danes. Make sure to pay attention to the fairly unknown Swedish right midfielder, Christian Wilhelmsson, he will make a serious breakthrough in this tournament.

[sytaylor]

Originally Posted by nutball

I'm pondering putting a fiver on Germany -- because they are Germany and the odds are 16-1! Besides, it'll be £80-worth of consolation if they win!

Thats certainly worth 4 beers

[oi]

Make sure to pay attention to the fairly unknown Swedish right midfielder, Christian Wilhelmsson, he will make a serious breakthrough in this tournament.

If they'll let him play :?

[thop]

Germany-Netherlands, that will be it. It's a classic and probably one of the biggest rivalries in football! Does anyone remember 1990 quarterfinal where Ruud Gullit spit on Rudi Völler (who is now Germany's coach)? It's gonna be a massacre!

I think Italy has good chances on the title.

[Snyder]

Originally Posted by thop

Germany-Netherlands, that will be it. It's a classic and probably one of the biggest rivalries in football! Does anyone remember 1990 semifinal where Ruud Gullit spit on Rudi Völler (who is now Germany's coach)? It's gonna be a massacre!

As long as it won't become a Worst Case Scenario... 8) [/url]

[MuD]

Originally Posted by sytaylor

Thats certainly worth 4 beers

I second that!

[t0y]

Anyone coming to Coimbra for england/france/switzerland ???

I live really close to the stadium, so please behave!

GO PORTUGAL!

[thop]

t0y are you going to the games?

[t0y]

Not really... By now all games are sold out, I believe, and the tickets were a bit expensive for me .

It's a wild summer this year in Portugal with lots of great rock festivals and the Euro. Too bad I'm not very well in the financial department to enjoy it.

It's a student's life... I'll live, now let's just hope Portugal scores!

[Gollum]

What a start into the tournament! Greece was a great surprise, even though I was cheering for Portugal (they'd deserve to finally win a title). SPain Russia was a bit tame but decent. Croatia vs. Switzerland was a terrible, terrible game IMO, really sorry you had to endure that one live Mariner.

But I'll be damned if France vs. England wasn't one of the most intense games in recent history. Holy crap! England played really well the first and defended rock solid in the second half. If anybody ever asks you why Zidane is constantly refered to as one of the greatest of all time and Beckham mostly as a popstar, point them towards the last 30 minutes of this match - that is all the explanation you'll ever need...

Italy vs. Sweden should be good, but I'm really looking forward to Germany vs. Holland - a real classic!

[TheMightyPuck]

I'm not a huge fan of France since I have underdogitis but I dropped a 20 on the over and 50 on the blues. Needles to say i had pretty much written it off then BOOM Zidane (well gotta give Gerrard and Heskey some credit). I just won a bit less than 60 bucks YAH. Even so, by the end of the game I was totally rooting for England which surprised me quite a bit. Probably my Chelsea fanboidom and Lamps scoring a nice header. My team for the tourney are the Czechs since they have a couple players I really think can change a game and it would be nice if they could win something like this. Plus I got em at 13 or so to 1

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

Once again, England manages to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Bambers]

As good as zidane may be, england so blatantly threw that away rather than france won it.


I'm convinced I'm jinxed though now, I only watched the last 5mins

[Diplo]

As an England fan I am absolutely gutted. Totally. The collective hurt we feel is unbearable. I can't even find the words. Gutted.

[thop]

Yes that was a very brutal loss, probably one of the most brutal i ever saw. The 1:1 was well deserved, but the 2:1 was not.

If anything it showed why so many people love football, a very good game. And a very good EURO so far.

[PatrickL]

Well, I am simply Happy

[nutball]

Oifff. I was convinced before the game even started that it would be 1-1. Even when we were 1-0 up in the last 10 minutes I was expecting a France goal (England always concede against good opposition). But two goals rather flattered the French I thought.

At least Heskey's tournament is off to a flying start. Thanks Emile, no, seriously, nice contribution! I do hope we can look forward to seeing you on the pitch more often. NOT!

Well, we know what we've got to do now (how many times have you heard that as an England fan?), nothing less than two victories will do. We are quite capable of pulling out a draw against one of the other two teams, which is rather worrying.

But if we didn't do it the hard way, it wouldn't be England, would it?

[Deepak]

Whose (miss)pass was responsible for 2nd French goal??