Euro 2004
48 hours to go until the European Championship (football) starts. I’m looking forward to it. It’s reasonably open for once. France are the favourites, and rightly so, but if they should slip up there are a number of teams who could grab the title from them. If they should fail then I reckon one of Portugal, Spain, England, Italy or the Czech Republic will win it.
Portugal I only include because they’re the hosts and for a number of players it’s probably their last chance. Figo is rumoured to be planning to retire from international football after the event and others may follow. I don’t honestly think the team is good enough to win the tournament, I think they had their best chance last time around when they made the semis. However they have home advantage and that generally pushes teams to over-perform; witness South Korea and Japan in the last World Cup.
Spain are the perpetual underachievers of international football. Despite having arguably the best league in Europe they have only one European Championship to show, and not even an appearance in a World Cup final. It will be a big surprise if Spain don’t go through from Group A. If they can win the group then who knows? They may self-destruct as previous sides have, or maybe they’ll enjoy being close to home without any great expectations on them. I can see them making the quarter final but I can’t see them getting past England or France if they should meet either. I think it will be another summer of disappointment for Spanish football fans.
Italy I’m not sure about. I haven’t seen much of their play of late. They had some dodgy results and narrow escapes in the qualifying, and were lucky that Wales self-destructed allowing them to qualify automatically. They’re basically a more consistent Spain, packed full of talent and skill but never guaranteed to perform. If it clicks then they can go all the way, but I worry for their goalscoring, if Vieri doesn’t put them in I think they’ll run out of steam.
The Czech Republic are, in my eyes, the most likely to challenge France and I desperately hope that they don’t meet in a projected semi-final. Hopefully one of them will finish second in a group and allow the possibility of a France - Czech Republic final. The Czechs, despite not being one of the “glamour” sides, have been one of the most consistent teams in Europe for the last couple of years. They can travel well, as shown in 1996, and probably aren’t afraid of anyone.
England are the last of the 5 and probably have their best chance of winning a title in a long time. If they can get out of the group then they can’t meet France again until the final by which time they’d be comfortable and confident. They have 2 of the best midfielders I’ve seen in Europe this season, in Gerrard and Lampard, and a number of other players who have played well this season, such as Beckham. I think there are some problems though. Owen still doesn’t look like the Owen of old, Scholes is not the player for England that he is for United and any team which regards Gary Neville as a key member can’t be in the best shape! Realistically England need France to mess up somewhere along the line. France are the better team, but anything is possible.
I have missed out a number of teams, such as Holland and Germany. The reason being, they won’t win the tournament. I expect one of them to fail to qualify from Group D, with the Czechs taking a spot. Germany are not the team they were and I can’t see them performing the miracle they did in the World Cup. As for Holland, they appear to be bickering and backstabbing again. I watched the game against the Republic of Ireland and, frankly, the Dutch were second best against an experimental Irish side.
I hope England win it. From a pure footballing point of view I favour France, but Mum gets my vote everytime, and England have David James, a Manchester City player! :)