*Official Euro 2008 Qualifying Thread*

[Iplayboard]

[ 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 ]

Can someone with more firsthand knowledge of Netherlands fill me in? I haven't watched any of their qualifiers, but they have really struggled to score. On paper they should be one of the favorites.

Portugal are always a dangerous team with Ronaldo, Quaresma, Nani, Deco, etc, but they lack a top-class striker which I think will prevent them from making a deep run.

Unless the Dutch can find a formation and play-style that suits them or unless the Portuguese somehow develop a striker in the next 6 months, then the cream of the crop has to be Italy, Germany, France and Spain.

If they only had Nesta and Totti, Italy would be clear favorites, but even without those two they have depth and balance at every position. Totti has never played as stunningly with the Azzuri as he has in Rome and Nesta was injured during the World Cup.

Germany don't seem to have as many world-class stars as other top European nations but their results in tournaments speak for themselves. In 2006 they shed their defensive image and played some of the most beautiful, attacking football at the World Cup.

France are really loaded. I'm shocked that anyone would say they are overrated. They are well represented at the finest clubs in the world, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester United. In addition, they are brimming with young domestic talent such as Benzema and Ben Arfa who are becoming stars. Trezequet, a top striker in Serie A, has routinely been left of the roster. France took 4 points from Italy in qualification and were only ever in trouble due to two fluky results against inferior Scotland.

Although Spain have such a history of ineptitude in major tournaments, this generation will be able to match every opponent in talent. Their style of play at the best of times can be a joy to show. At the worst of times they can dominate a match yet fail to produce a result. They have a world-class goalkeeper, Puyol anchors the defense, Xavi, Cesc, etc headline the midfield and they have plentiful riches up front with David Villa, Torres, etc.

As is always the case, the Euro field is well balanced, and knockout tournaments produce high variance, but there is a good chance of the champion coming from one of the four above powerhouses.

[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 ]

Can someone with more firsthand knowledge of Netherlands fill me in? I haven't watched any of their qualifiers, but they have really struggled to score. On paper they should be one of the favorites.

Portugal are always a dangerous team with Ronaldo, Quaresma, Nani, Deco, etc, but they lack a top-class striker which I think will prevent them from making a deep run.

Unless the Dutch can find a formation and play-style that suits them or unless the Portuguese somehow develop a striker in the next 6 months, then the cream of the crop has to be Italy, Germany, France and Spain.

If they only had Nesta and Totti, Italy would be clear favorites, but even without those two they have depth and balance at every position. Totti has never played as stunningly with the Azzuri as he has in Rome and Nesta was injured during the World Cup.

Germany don't seem to have as many world-class stars as other top European nations but their results in tournaments speak for themselves. In 2006 they shed their defensive image and played some of the most beautiful, attacking football at the World Cup.

France are really loaded. I'm shocked that anyone would say they are overrated. They are well represented at the finest clubs in the world, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester United. In addition, they are brimming with young domestic talent such as Benzema and Ben Arfa who are becoming stars. Trezequet, a top striker in Serie A, has routinely been left of the roster. France took 4 points from Italy in qualification and were only ever in trouble due to two fluky results against inferior Scotland.

Although Spain have such a history of ineptitude in major tournaments, this generation will be able to match every opponent in talent. Their style of play at the best of times can be a joy to show. At the worst of times they can dominate a match yet fail to produce a result. They have a world-class goalkeeper, Puyol anchors the defense, Xavi, Cesc, etc headline the midfield and they have plentiful riches up front with David Villa, Torres, etc.
As is always the case, the Euro field is well balanced, and knockout tournaments produce high variance, but there is a good chance of the champion coming from one of the four above powerhouses.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice post. But before EVERY championship I get sick of hearing about how talented Spain are. So what. There is nothing within the current squad in terms of motivation or mentallity that wasn't there in previous years. Why the following is true I don't know, but:

- Spanish teams consistently go to major championships and produce less than the sum of their parts in terms of talent; dashing hype and expectation.

- German teams consistently go to major championships and produce much more than the sum of their parts in terms of talent; exceeding expectations and overachieving.


I just feel very comfortable writing them off. Portugal will be much more of a factor. But will again be let down by their traditional lack of a dominant frontman as noted in above posts.

[THAY3R]

You guys probably don't care but in my Football Manager 2007 franchise England lost to Ireland in the finals of Euro 2008 in shootouts and then lost to Columbia in the World Cup 2010 finals.

And yes Lampard missed a PK in 08 and got a red card against Columbia ;-P

[LuckyLloyd]

[ QUOTE ]
You guys probably don't care but in my Football Manager 2007 franchise England lost to Ireland in the finals of Euro 2008 in shootouts and then lost to Columbia in the World Cup 2010 finals.

And yes Lampard missed a PK in 08 and got a red card against Columbia ;-P

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] Football Manager.

[Fallen Hero]

[ QUOTE ]
Nice post. But before EVERY championship I get sick of hearing about how talented Spain are. So what. There is nothing within the current squad in terms of motivation or mentallity that wasn't there in previous years. Why the following is true I don't know, but:

- Spanish teams consistently go to major championships and produce less than the sum of their parts in terms of talent; dashing hype and expectation.


[/ QUOTE ]

There's a huge ammount of variance that comes into play here, I'm surprised how many of you are making this type of comments about Spain and Germany.
In 2002, for example, Spain was playing the best football of the tournament the only team that was even close was Italy, yet both those teams ended up being knocked out basically by the refs against Korea.
In 2004 they were knocked out in the group stage but their group included the two finalists, this is the type of thing people don't usually notice.

A team as talented as spain has to be one of the front runners.

PS: Just remembered in 2000, they lost to france because Raul missed a penalty in the last minute.

[LuckyLloyd]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Nice post. But before EVERY championship I get sick of hearing about how talented Spain are. So what. There is nothing within the current squad in terms of motivation or mentallity that wasn't there in previous years. Why the following is true I don't know, but:

- Spanish teams consistently go to major championships and produce less than the sum of their parts in terms of talent; dashing hype and expectation.


[/ QUOTE ]

There's a huge ammount of variance that comes into play here, I'm surprised how many of you are making this type of comments about Spain and Germany.
In 2002, for example, Spain was playing the best football of the tournament the only team that was even close was Italy, yet both those teams ended up being knocked out basically by the refs against Korea.
In 2004 they were knocked out in the group stage but their group included the two finalists, this is the type of thing people don't usually notice.

A team as talented as spain has to be one of the front runners.

PS: Just remembered in 2000, they lost to france because Raul missed a penalty in the last minute.

[/ QUOTE ]

94? 98? 2006?

We'll have to agree to disagree about 2002 I'm afraid. They were very lucky to sneak past us in the second round. And IMO, South Korea don't get enough credit for the quarter final victory.

[Fallen Hero]

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94? 98? 2006?

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94 - Eliminated by Italy. Italy lost the final in penalty kicks to Brazil

98 - Poor performance, couldn't go past the group stage.

2006 - Eliminated by France, France lost the final to Italy.

So you have one truly disappointing performance in the 6 or 7 tournaments we've mentioned so far, not bad at all.


[ QUOTE ]
And IMO, South Korea don't get enough credit for the quarter final victory.

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Probably because Spain scored two obviously good goals that were disallowed [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] I think South Korea played very well in that WC, but "very well" should only have gotten them past the group stage.