[LuckyLloyd]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Enough about England, lets look at the teams that made it and their seedings for the draw on Dec. 2 in Vienna:

Pot 1: Switzerland (hosts), Austria (hosts), Greece (holders), Netherlands

Pot 2: Croatia, Italy, Czech Republic, Sweden

Pot 3: Germany, Romania, Portugal, Spain

Pot 4: Poland, France, Turkey, Russia

Possibility of a real "group of death" with Netherlands, Italy, Germany and France all in the same round robin group.

[/ QUOTE ]
My thoughts on best team from each pot:
1: Greece
Yeah whatever, I think it's close but they play a good and compact system and are easier to "overlook" than the Dutch. I'd hate to play them.

2: Imo the strongest pot. I like all 4 teams but overall I think the Czechs are a little stronger than the rest. Italy hasn't been all that impressive after the WC but their style is perfect for tournaments.

3: This is a funny pot. Rumania, Portugal, Spain are all teams I'd concider to somewhat lack the mindset for a big tourney. Germany played strong during the WC and during the qualifiers (they dropped the tempo a little after they were through) but overall I think it's the easy pick from this pot.

4: Hard for me to judge as I didn't see many games from either team but I think France will be slightly overrated. Turkey has the ability to either implode or explode, depends a lot on how they start and if they can get the emotions going. They will definitely be one of the most present nation when it comes to fan support. I think Poland lacks experience and overall firepower. They underperformed at the WC and I expect the same to happen at the Euros. I think Russia will be the team which depends the most on how they play game 1. Overall I'd pick France.

[/ QUOTE ]

I disagree a little.

You are on to something with Greece. But no - one will menatally underestimate them in this competition. And they are still quite limited in terms of pure talent. The Dutch are easily the best team from this pot.

The Czech Republic are not good. They looked laboured and past it in many of their qualification games. Their group was very, very easy (I should know [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]). I would be surprised if they progress to the quarter finals irrespective of the draw they receive. Italy are the strongest team in the second group without question.

Germany are good at tournaments. Portugal will carry a degree of threat but they are in transition. I think everyone should just start writing Spain off at these things until they actually do something, ya know, good.

France is an easy pick from the final group.


If there is a surprise in this tournament I would bank on it coming from Switzerland largely on the basis of home advantage. They will be a solid outfit anyway that would have expected to qualify - and will include players with plenty of experience from the last World Cup.