Offical Euro 2008 Thread.

[Molons]

ok, with Euro only days away i thought that it would be good to start a thread where we can talk anything and everything to do with Euro 2008.

Who win win it?
Who will be the player of the tournement?
Who win be the suprise packet?
Who will be the dissapointment?
Who will top the goal scoring?
and what are you looking forward to seeing?

For me i can't go past Spain. this is there time and i really, with all the class that they have, can't see them choking again.
A long shot at player of the tournement is Rafael Van der Vaart. I really like this guy and i would expect him to shine against quality opposition.
I think Croatia will be the suprise packet. They have a few quality players and will challange. On the flip side, i think don't really know who will dissapoint. One of Italy, France or Holland will fail to make it out of the group stage, but who knows.
I think one of David Villa or Fernando Tores will top the scoring. with a midfield like they have, there will be pleanty of opportunitys, it's just who takes them. If not one of them, i will take a long shot and say Luca Toni from Italy - he's is good form.

Two things i am looking forward to seeing. 1- whether or not Cristiano Ronaldo can lead Portugal to Euro sucess. He has proved that he is a very good player with Man U, but can he lead his team all the way. 2- We all know Fernando Torres has been in great form for Liverpool, but again, can he back it up on the International stage?? Will be interesting to see.

Anyway there are my thoughts. We'll keep updated with Results.

 

[Molons]

Squads and Numbers:
http://www.bigfooty.com/forum/showpost.php?p=11180906&postcount=77

 

[Benno_900]

Who win win it? Spain, can't fail again with Cesc pulling their strings in midfield
Who will be the player of the tournament? Cesc
Who will be the suprise packet? Tipping Russia to make the semis
Who will be the dissapointment? As in team? Alot of 'experts' are still tipping the Czechs to go deep into the tournament. Looking at their individual talent, I can't see them advancing from their group.
Who will top the goal scoring? David Villa
and what are you looking forward to seeing? Samir Nasri, if he becomes a gooner, hopefully gets a few appearances

BTW, Babel has injured himself in training and is out of the Dutch squad. RVP struggling for fitness as well (hope he is ruled out).

 

[ashley12]

winners = Italy
player of the tournament = Ronaldo
Surprise = Romania to scare Italy and France, beat Netherlands
dissapointment = Netherlands, will be lucky to win a game
Golden Boot = Henry
Looking forward to = Actually watching Arsharvin play a few games... none of this "his brilliant but I havent watched him" crap iv heard from other posters...

 

[A Bit High]

Ryan Babel out of tournament with torn ankle ligaments from training

 

[DonMania#5]

Who win win it? Spain
Who will be the player of the tournament? Fabregas
Who will be the suprise packet? Turkey
Who will be the dissapointment? Czech Republic
Who will top the goal scoring? Fernando Torres
and what are you looking forward to seeing? The Fabregas-Torres cominbation.

 

[ShearMagic9]

Ryan Babel out of tournament with torn ankle ligaments from training

Extremely disappointing for him, and the team.

 

[Molons]

In over-night friendly results-
Spain 2 - 1 Peru - Spain- David Villa 38 Joan Capdevilla 90+3 Peru- Hernán Rengifo 74
Germany 2 - 1 Serbia - Germany- Oliver Neuville 74 Michael Ballack 82 Serbia- Boško Janković 18
France 0 - 0 Paraguay
Croatia 1 - 1 Hungary - Croatia- Niko Kovač 23 Hungary - Niko Kovač (OG) 45
Portugal 2 - 0 Georgia - Portugal- João Moutinho 18 Simão 44
Romania 4 - 0 Montenegro - Romania- Adrian Mutu 15 Sorin Ghionea 49 Dică 54, 69

 

[NMFCMUFC]

Who win win it? Holland
Who will be the player of the tournement? Wesley Sneijder
Who win be the suprise packet? Russia
Who will be the dissapointment? Italy
Who will top the goal scoring? Ruud Van Nistlelrooy
and what are you looking forward to seeing? Samir Nasri, Cristiano Ronaldo, Holland proving their youth is now good enough and how Portugal go.

 

[Kompany]

No chance Spain will win it. They've got enough attacking talent to field 3 sides but because of their crappy defense, they're simply a class below France and Italy.

Holland won't make it past the group stage.

It's all about teams turning up or not at tournaments nowadays. Just look at France, always hot or completely cold. I never got the impression they were beaten on their true value in 02 and 04.

I'd expect Italy to do well - their form appears to be there and you'd expect their players to be still hungry for success in testing times for Italian football.

 

[TorresIsGod]

Kompany, you seem to be forgetting the fact that if you score 4 goals a game, you'd be hard pressed to lose them all.

Spain will win, simply because they'll score more goals than anyone else, and wont lose, because they wont be conceeding 4 goals per game.

 

[macca69]

Who win win it? Portugal
Who will be the player of the tournament? Ronaldo
Who win be the surprise packet? Russia
Who will be the disappointment? Netherlands
Who will top the goal scoring? Torres

 

[Ricketts]

I have the German's to make the Semis in a multi bet, so go them.

I don't like Simao either.

 

[DB10]

Who win win it? France
Who will be the player of the tournement? Cesc Fabregas
Who win be the surprise packet? Switzerland
Who will be the disappointment? Netherlands
Who will top the goal scoring? Thierry Henry
And what are you looking forward to seeing? Tizzle recapturing some form but most importantly, no injuries for Arsenal players participating (sans van Persie since that's inevitable)

 

[ShearMagic9]

Kompany, you seem to be forgetting the fact that if you score 4 goals a game, you'd be hard pressed to lose them all.

Spain will win, simply because they'll score more goals than anyone else, and wont lose, because they wont be conceeding 4 goals per game.

I thought Spain would win because they've got more Liverpool players than anyone else?

 

[ashley12]

I thought Spain would win because they've got more Liverpool players than anyone else?

Correct answer...

 

[Tigerbob]

Who win win it? Italy
Who will be the player of the tournement? Christiano Ronaldo
Who win be the surprise packet? Russia
Who will be the disappointment? Netherlands
Who will top the goal scoring? Mario Gomez
And what are you looking forward to seeing? Players like Arshavin, Turan, Gomez, Gomis, Modric - the next up and comers so to speak!

 

[TorresIsGod]

Spain will win because they've got Torres.

 

[davey_magik]

Who win win it? Germany. Ridiculously underrated.
Who will be the player of the tournament? Ballack
Who will be the suprise packet? Russia
Who will be the dissapointment? France. They won't advance from their group.
Who will top the goal scoring? RvN
and what are you looking forward to seeing? Van der Vaart, Van Persie, Gomez and Modric

 

[Lowie01]

Who win win it? Ze Germans. Good draw, good spread of talent over the pitch, good coach.
Who will be the player of the tournament? Ronaldo, probably.
Who will be the surprise packet? Switzerland and Greece.
Who will be the disapointment? Spain. Another quarter-final exit coming up.
Who will top the goal scoring? Alexander Frei.
And what are you looking forward to seeing? Karim Benzema, and the spiteful re-match between Switzerland and Turkey. If I had Setanta, of course.

 

[AG]

I agree with everything that Benno wrote. Maybe Torres for Golden Boot. I remember enjoying watching Rosicky put in some good displays at the World Cup after signing for Arsenal. Hopefully I will enjoy watching Nasri do the same.

 

[DB10]

I thought Spain would win because they've got more Liverpool players than anyone else?

That's actually the reason they won't win.

 

[ashley12]

That's actually the reason they won't win.

They will be happy if they sneak into the top 4...

Lowie actually makes a good point though. Switzerland vs Turkey will probably be one of the highlights of the tournament. For those who dont know, they had a World Cup play-off in 2005 that went down to the wire. 4-4, and the Swiss went through on away goals. Lots of drama and fighting after the final whistle in Instanbul...

Will be a corker...

 

[bus24]

That's actually the reason they won't win.

You should know our players are cup specialists

I'd doubt 2 of them would play at all anyway.

One of them is one of the best strikers in Europe.

And Alonso is class, but will he even start?

No way you can pin this one on us

 

[Ricketts]

Lowie actually makes a good point though. Switzerland vs Turkey will probably be one of the highlights of the tournament. For those who dont know, they had a World Cup play-off in 2005 that went down to the wire. 4-4, and the Swiss went through on away goals. Lots of drama and fighting after the final whistle in Instanbul...

Heh. I remember that. Was it on the same night as our qualifier V Uruguay? We went to Sydney for the match and stayed in some dump where the TV got Win and Prime instead of 9 and 7, despite being in the CBD... came home two days later and caught all the action of this on Eurosportsnews.