Euro 2008 Preview GROUP A

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CZECH REPUBLIC

Czech Republic ever since their Euro 1996 run have been something of a purists' darling when it comes to major tournaments. Supreme, technical footballers who plough the goals in during the group stages, normally upset a team in the knockout stages before falling under their own pressure. Despite a good qualifying campaign where they beat Germany home and away, some say that their time is running out. The hallmarks of 1996 are still hauntingly there Karel Poborsky holds a role as a coach who entertains the players and translates their vibe to the manager, whilst wily campaigner and head coach Karel Bruckner attempted to get Pavel Nedved back into the team for this competition and the pivotal point of attack is still the giant journeymen of Jan Koller.

It's evident that there is a bit of a dip in champagne players for the Czechs and with Tomas Rosicky now out with injury, the Czechs must unite and grind out some workmanlike performances. Their football is attractive but can often be accused of far too many square balls and not enough penetration. Bruckner is in his last days as manager (due to retirement, his assistant is to take straight over) and his plea for Nedved's return, the Czech press see as a massive sign to how he views the current crop. However, there is some encouragement for the future in last year's Under-20 Championship in Canada, the Czechs managed a final appearance where they were out done by the raging bull in Atletico Madrid's Kun Aguero of Argentina, the star of the campaign striker Martin Fenin decided on a summer move to Frankfurt (snubbing Liverpool in the process) and has performed well in the Bundesliga this season (in constrast to the relegated Jan Koller at Nuremburg).

The draw has been very kind to them and whilst a fading power (for now), they should still make the quarters and with some luck the semi-finals. Opening day against Switzerland will be interesting.

SUPREME PERFORMER - Petr Cech
ONE TO WATCH - Martin Fenin
WASTE OF SPACE - Milan Baros

Goalkeepers: Petr Cech (Chelsea), Jaromir Blazek (Nuremberg), Daniel Zitka (Anderlecht)

Defenders: Zdenek Grygera (Juventus), Marek Jankulovski (AC Milan), Michal Kadlec (Sparta Prague), Zdenek Pospech (Copenhagen), David Rozehnal (Lazio), Rudi Skacel (Southampton), Tomas Ujfalusi (Fiorentina)

Midfielders: Tomas Galasek (Nuremberg), David Jarolim (Hamburg), Radoslav Kovac (Spartak Moscow), Marek Matejovsky (Reading), Jaroslav Plasil (Osasuna), Jan Polak (Anderlecht), Tomas Sivok (Sparta Prague)

Forwards: Milan Baros (Lyon), Martin Fenin (Frankfurt), Jan Koller (Nuremberg), Libor Sionko (Copenhagen), Vaclav Sverkos (Banik Ostrava), Stanislav Vlcek (Anderlecht)

Fixtures
Day 1 - Sat 7 June - Switzerland - Basle - 1700
Day 5 - Wed 11 June - Portugal - Geneva - 1700
Day 9 - Sun 15 June - Turkey - Geneva - 1945

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PORTUGAL

Not at all in any England fan's favourite teams with IMO an arrogant manager, a pig of a goalkeeper and a woofer of a winger who fails to spark in the big-game occasion but credit due where credit is due, they have been consistent performers in major tournaments for a while now. The emergence of a 'golden generation' under Scolari however have failed to add any silverware to Portugal's very bare cupboard. Of course, there is a lot of talk about Cristiano Ronaldo - a joy to watch against the Premiership's lesser teams, he appears to me to be just another Manchester United player in the big games. In a group where no team should really beat Portugal, Ronaldo must fancy his chances of increasing rumours that he could join Real Madrid with a dazzling display.

After Ronaldo, there's possibly two collections of footballers in the Portugal national team. The players who best days appear past the, - Deco, Nuno Gomes, Simao and players whose best days are there to be played for - Bosingwa, Nani, Veloso. It's a team in transition in this respect with a manager clearly intend on making some impact on the European scene. Scolari is very much his own man but often comes across as rude and arrogant but mainly this is just a trait which comes from his South American background.

Portugal have always missed a beast of a striker who can plough the goals - the donkey attempts of Nuno Gomes, Pauleta and Helder Postiga in previous years simply haven't gave a potent touch to a team whose midfield breaths creation of opportunities. Personally I have always felt that this has been their problem - No Torres, No Henry, No Toni to create a bit of magic or pounce on a chance and there is still no answer. They have a supreme defence, an excellent midfield with cracking wingers but no killing touch to place them beyond the quarter-finals.

SUPREME PERFORMER - Christiano Ronaldo
ONE TO WATCH - Miguel Veloso
WASTE OF SPACE - Nuno Gomes

Goalkeepers: Ricardo Pereira (Real Betis), Quim Silva (Benfica), Rui Patricio (Sporting)

Defenders: Miguel Monteiro (Valencia), Jose Bosingwa (Porto, to join Chelsea after tournament), Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea), Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea), Fernando Meira (VfB Stuttgart), Bruno Alves (Porto), Pepe (Real Madrid), Jorge Ribeiro (Boavista)

Midfielders: Raul Meireles (Porto), Joao Moutinho (Sporting), Deco (Barcelona), Armando Petit (Benfica), Miguel Veloso (Sporting)

Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United), Simao Sabrosa (Atletico Madrid), Ricardo Quaresma (Porto), Nuno Gomes (Benfica), Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen), Nani (Manchester United), Helder Postiga (Panathinaikos)

Fixtures
Day 1 - Sat 7 June - Turkey - Geneva - 1945
Day 5 - Wed 11 June - Portugal - Geneva - 1700
Day 9 - Sun 15 June - Switzerland - Basle - 1945

[marron]

May 29, 2008 9:04:44 GMT @harry said:

CZECH REPUBLIC
WASTE OF SPACE - Milan Baros

Baros is a good player when it comes to his country and scores regularly, did very well at Euro 2004 aswell.

Pity he can't transfer his international form to his club as if he could he would be in the Premiership for good.

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SWITZERLAND

If there was one team in the competition who are incredibly accurate to their country's stereotype I think it's Switzerland. Very neutral, very functional, very boring. It's difficult where to start on the Swiss - they did bore themselves to the World Cup Quarter-Finals two years ago and they do have a strong defence. In fact that's probably their biggest strength - Degen set to join Liverpool from Dortmund, Muller at Lyon and Senderos (who for some reason looks ten times the player in the red of the Swiss than the red of Arsenal are all decent enough and there's plenty of other honest professionals elsewhere in the squad for that position.

The midfield is full of battlers, spoilers - in some sense like a Championship midfield in comparison to the other 15 teams in the competition. With the firework which was Hakan Yakin (a mercurial player who led Basel to a couple of decent Championship League runs) sparked out, it's very defensive minded - Behrami at Laszio, Fernandes at Man City, both do a similar job. Barnetta and Vonlanthen (the youngest ever goalscorer at the Euro Champs) have always been tipped for great things but deceive and have yet to do anything of note.

They have a very good striker in Alexander Frei but he's just coming back from a hip injury and after that it's recent Wembley goalscorer Eren Derdrivok, a 19 year old whose in the Peter Crouch frame. After a very uninspiring two year period of friendlies, they were calls for manager Jakob Kuhn to resign and part with some money stored in a Swiss bank account to get a foreigner in charge. It's give or take that he leave at the end of the competition.

They also have a devilish fixture in playing Turkey - the team they knocked out of the World Cup 2006 Play-Offs and subsequently qualifying for WC2006. At the final whistle of the second leg in Istanbul, on and off the pitch it kicked off badly with a number of fines and suspensions being handed out. Turkey had to play 3 fixtures behind closed doors. It's cute that now Switzerland has to play to it's stereotype and be a good host that it comes across a fixture which is explosive. It's possibly the fixture of Group A which will have a very dedicated crowd in the vein of Germany v Poland fixture but it may all be for nothing but pride.

SUPREME PERFORMER - Patrick Muller
ONE TO WATCH - Eren Derdrivok
WASTE OF SPACE - Pascal Zuberbuehler (West Brom fans remember him, the rest of England doesn't)

Goalkeepers: Diego Benaglio (Wolfsburg), Eldin Jakupovic (Grasshoppers), Pascal Zuberbuehler (Xamax Neuchatel)

Defenders: Philipp Degen (Borussia Dortmund), Johan Djourou (Arsenal), Stephane Grichting (Auxerre), Stephan Lichtsteiner (Lille), Ludovic Magnin (Stuttgart), Patrick Mueller (Lyon), Philippe Senderos (Arsenal), Christoph Spycher (Eintracht Frankfurt)

Midfielders: Tranquillo Barnetta (Bayer Leverkusen), Valon Behrami (Lazio), Ricardo Cabanas (Grasshoppers), Gelson Fernandes (Manchester City), Daniel Gygax (FC Metz), Benjamin Huggel (Basel), Gokhan Inler (Udinese), Johan Vonlanthen (Red Bull Salzburg)

Strikers: Eren Derdiyok (Basel), Alexander Frei (Borussia Dortmund), Marco Streller (Basel), Hakan Yakin (Young Boys)

Fixtures
Day 1 - Sat 7 June - Czech Republic - Basel - 1700
Day 5 - Wed 11 June - Turkey - Basel - 1945
Day 9 - Sun 15 June - Portugal - Basel - 1945

[marron]

May 29, 2008 9:40:08 GMT @harry said:

SWITZERLAND
WASTE OF SPACE - Pascal Zuberbuehler (West Brom fans remember him, the rest of England doesn't)

Oh, I do.

He played for Basle at the Riverside in 2006 during one of the best Boro games i have ever witnessed.

Was stood in the south stand witnessing the scenes in the video below.......i wasn't to know that i would be going through the same thing again, stood in the same place a couple of weeks later when Steaua visited.

uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YuZEszh8N0g

Phillip Degen also played in the game.

[Deleted]

David Degen, his lesser twin played in the cup tie between Basle v Boro. Phillip was at Borrusia when that fixture was played.

You fail to mention the end Marron...when Boro put in the worst UEFA Cup Final performance ever....

The pair of them are so sad....they have their own website.
www.degendegen.com/

[marron]

Oh right, i knew there was 2 of them and both have played for Basle but didn't know who it was who played against us.

Yes we did put in a poor performance, but Sevilla are a class act and after a FA Cup run to the Semi's, UEFA Cup run to the final and fighting off relegation we ultimately never had the squad size or fitness left to do ourselves justice.

The score did flatter them though, they scored 3 in the last 15 minutes whilst Viduka missed a sitter aswell us having a stonewall penalty being turned down.

EDIT: Oh, and that is sad

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TURKEY

The nasty Turks - hardly the greatest team to warm to. A few incredibly technical, skillful players and then some immobile, dirty lumps at the back. Their appearances at international championship are sporadic and they normally hold the role of being the dangerous side to face in qualifying but in a relatively easy group (where the top two qualified instead of the normal top side), they are here in Austria and Switzerland. They haven't appeared in the past two international championships, World Cup 2002 was their last appearance on this stage and it went all the way to a semi-final. It's difficult to see them go suspass that or go past the group stages.

Fenerbahce with their recent exploits in the Champions League have been developing superbly with a stadium which deserves the UEFA rating it has and they continue to dominate in the Turkish League. They do have a heavy reliance on Brazilians - some have even played for Turkey (after claiming citizenship see Mehmet Aurelio) and this doesn't bode entirely well for the national team. However, there are players abroad lighting up. Nihat, formerly of Real Sociedad who went very close to a La Liga title with his wizardery is now plying his trade at the Yellow Submarine, Villareal. He's led an immense season for them as they claimed a Champions League and at one stage looked a more worthy opponent to Real Madrid's title challenge than Barcelona did.

Hamit Altintop's big money move from Schalke to Bayern lead him to claiming medals as he intended and his eye for a wondergoal and elegant touch for a player over six foot is superb. For Turkey to click he's an important part of it. Sanli Tuncay is in many regards is similar - looks clumsy, tall but technically superb. Questions as always remain over the goalkeepers - Rustu, one of the most dreadful in recent times, how the hell he wore a Barcelona shirt I will never know. The defence is strictly of players from the Turkish League and in process remains a bit of a mystery. Expect plenty of support with nearby German housing thousands of Turkish immigrants but don't expect much more.

SUPREME PERFORMER - Nihat Kahveci
ONE TO WATCH - England's Colin Kazim-Richards
WASTE OF SPACE - Rustu Recber

Goalkeepers: Volkan Demirel (Fenerbahce), Rustu Recber (Besiktas), Tolga Zengin (Trabzonspor)

Defenders: Gokhan Zan (Besiktas), Sabri Sarioglu (Galatasaray), Emre Asik (Ankaraspor), Servet Cetin (Galatasaray), Emre Gungor (Galatasaray), Hakan Balta (Galatasaray), Ugur Boral, Gokhan Gonul (Fenerbahce)

Midfielders: Mehmet Aurelio (Fenerbahce), Mehmet Topal (Galatasaray), Arda Turan (Galatasaray), Ayhan Akman (Galatasaray), Emre Belozoglu (Newcastle), Tumer Metin (Larissa), Hamit Altintop (Bayern Munich), Gokdeniz Karadeniz (Rubin Kazan)

Forwards: Nihat Kahveci (Villarreal), Semih Senturk (Fenerbahce), Mevlut Erdinc (Sochaux), Tuncay Sanli (Middlesbrough), Colin Kazim-Richards (Fenerbahce)

Fixtures
Day 1 - Sat 7 June - Portugal - Geneva - 1945
Day 5 - Wed 11 June - Switzerland - Basle - 1945
Day 9 - Sun 15 June - Czech Republic - Geneva - 1945

[Deleted]

May 29, 2008 9:40:08 GMT @harry said:

SWITZERLAND

WASTE OF SPACE - Pascal Zuberbuehler (West Brom fans remember him, the rest of England doesn't)

Flashbacks, terrible terrible flashbacks