[Keyzer Soze]

Originally Posted by a_devil_inside

possible players we'll have there

Ronaldo
Nani
Saha
Silvestre
Evra
Van Der Sar
Kuszczak
Pique

Silvestre will have a job on his hands to make it with Evra, Clichy and Abidal and Saha is Saha.

[Van Piorsing]

Polskaaaaaa białoczerwoni !

Kuszczaaaak spoko, a najgorsi to Klozet i Pedaaaaalski !

[dejans]

Viva Portugal!

[UnofficialDevil]

Ronaldo and Nani will add a EURO cup to their collection shortly after winning the CL cup.

[MelvinYeo]

Fancy the Germans to win it, provided that their key players get fit. No other stand out teams for me really.

Just to sidetrack a bit we should get a sweepstake going when the time comes.

[IBleedRed]

Lets go Germany!

[Fergie's gum]

Greece again I'm afraid
If not Turkey is surely worth a punt at 33/1

[davisjw]

I'll go for the Germans and Dutch. Though I've always enjoyed the Swedes.

I'd never support Russia, France or Italy.

[Longlivekeano]

Originally Posted by botond

no chance for us (romania) we have a good team but we are bottlers ,as usual
some cunt team will win it

Yeah, I think Romania's greatest chance of winning a European tournament has passed since their own golden generation of players like Marius Lacatus, Gheorge Hagi, Gheorge Phopescu, Florin Raduciou, Dan Petrescu retired. I loved the World Cup 1994 team with Hagi being in inspired form. He was for me the player of theat tournament....

[Longlivekeano]

In this tournament, I will back Portugal because Ronaldo and Nani is playing for them as well as Holland (have a soft spot for them since the days of Gullit, Van basten, Koeman, Rijkaard)

[Dr. Dwayne]

Germany.

[ralphie88]

Originally Posted by Snake Doctor

I'll be watching Group C too, all 4 are quality teams.

Anyone coming to Switzerland to watch some games?

I'm there for a week with work. Flying in to Geneva on matchday2 and making my way east, flying back to Mancs from Innsbruck after the Russia v Greece game.

[Dippersripper]

Anybody but Portugal.

[crappycraperson]

I shall be supporting Portugal, mainly because of Ronaldo.

[Rahul]

Portugal all the way

[ch7]

Portugal squad:

GK:
Ricardo (Betis,),Quim (Benfica),Rui Patrício (Sporting)

DF:

Bosingwa (FC Porto), Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea,), Miguel (Valência,) Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea,) Pepe (Real Madrid,) Bruno Alves (FC Porto)
Fernando Meira (Stuttgart,) Jorge Ribeiro (Boavista)

MF:
Miguel Veloso (Sporting) Petit (Benfica) Raul Meireles (FC Porto) Deco (Barcelona) João Moutinho (Sporting)

FW:

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United,) Nani (Manchester United,) Quaresma (FC Porto) Simão (Atlético Madrid,) Nuno Gomes (Benfica) Hélder Postiga (Panathinaikos,) Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen,)


- Really surprised there is no Maniche considering what he has done for Portugal in major tournaments. Midfield isn't great in comparison with other nations, there were suggestions Paulo Assuncao was going to be naturalised and included but thats not the case. Defensively great apart from left back, wonderful creativity at number 10 and on the wings however if Portugal are going to win it the striker situation seems a problem and needs to be solved. Who knows maybe Ronaldo will play upfront?

[Keyzer Soze]

Portugal have got four great wingers in their squad. No lethal striker though... that has always been their problem. Maybe Ronaldo will push forward.

[Wonder Pigeon]

Germany or Portugal in the final.

Holland, as usual, will be shit.

[Sean_RedDevil]

Originally Posted by ch7

Portugal squad:

GK:
Ricardo (Betis,),Quim (Benfica),Rui Patrício (Sporting)

DF:

Bosingwa (FC Porto), Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea,), Miguel (Valência,) Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea,) Pepe (Real Madrid,) Bruno Alves (FC Porto)
Fernando Meira (Stuttgart,) Jorge Ribeiro (Boavista)

MF:
Miguel Veloso (Sporting) Petit (Benfica) Raul Meireles (FC Porto) Deco (Barcelona) João Moutinho (Sporting)

FW:

Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United,) Nani (Manchester United,) Quaresma (FC Porto) Simão (Atlético Madrid,) Nuno Gomes (Benfica) Hélder Postiga (Panathinaikos,) Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen,)


- Really surprised there is no Maniche considering what he has done for Portugal in major tournaments. Midfield isn't great in comparison with other nations, there were suggestions Paulo Assuncao was going to be naturalised and included but thats not the case. Defensively great apart from left back, wonderful creativity at number 10 and on the wings however if Portugal are going to win it the striker situation seems a problem and needs to be solved. Who knows maybe Ronaldo will play upfront?

What´s Portugal first XI?

[kishankhagram]

Originally Posted by Wonder Pigeon

Germany or Portugal in the final.

Holland, as usual, will be shit.

holland have got italy and francais in their group as well.

[Dev]

Come on TURKEY !

[ch7]

Originally Posted by Sean_RedDevil

What´s Portugal first XI?

I think its really hard to predict due to the poor form of Portugal since the world cup. Some places are up for grabs and the exclusion of Maniche has further complicated things. This is the beginning for the new generation of Portuguese players to take responsibility, there are lots of young players in the squad who don't have the likes of Figo, Rui Costa, Pauleta and Andrade to rely on. Bosingwa, Pepe, Veloso, Moutinho, Nani, and Quaresma are all going to play in their first major tournament and the fact that Ronaldo is one of the most experienced players with around 55 caps and the captain at 23 says a lot.

My guess at the XI would be

-------------------Ricardo------------------
Bosingwa---Carvalho-----Pepe---Ferreira----

-----------Petit---------Veloso-------------
-----------------Deco----------------------
Ronaldo----------------------Quaresma/Simao
-------------Hugo Almeida--------------------

[Ruben]

With neither Norway or England in it I`m not sure who I`ll support. I`ll be against the Swedes, Italians, Spanish and French of course. Greece too by the way.

Germany were fantastic to watch in 2006 and are always good in tournaments, so I`ll have them as favourites together with Portugal, who deserve some glory and who have an exciting team.

[enghuei]

Viva Les Bleus.

[sonymobby]

Originally Posted by Ruben

With neither Norway or England in it I`m not sure who I`ll support. I`ll be against the Swedes, Italians, Spanish and French of course. Greece to by the way.

Germany were fantastic to watch in 2006 and are always good in tournaments, so I`ll have them as favourites together with Portugal, who deserve some glory and who have an exciting team.

Ohhh, our little bitter Norwegian puppy...

[M'n'M]

Germany of the Eyeties to win it but I'll be putting the usual tenner on Spain too. They have the best team on paper they are bound to click sometime.

I wonder when the official Euro 2008 fantasy footy will start?

[101]

Netherlands got a tough group, but I hope they do it this year. Portugal are my second.

[Ruben]

Originally Posted by sonymobby

Ohhh, our little bitter Norwegian puppy...

I`ll happily admit to being a bit bitter about that!

Thing is, I think it`s quite likely that Sweden will go through from their group as well. Hope they don`t of course.

[Iron Stove]

Originally Posted by Ruben

I`ll happily admit to being a bit bitter about that!

Thing is, I think it`s quite likely that Sweden will go through from their group as well. Hope they don`t of course.

I think it will be harder for us to advance from the group stage this time around. I don't think the teams in our group suit us at all. Could see both Greece and Russia winning against us as both are decent teams and we seem to prefer to be the underdog. Against the Spanish it could go either way, but they are the obvious favourites. We won one game each in the qualifiers, the difference being that they fecking murdered us in Madrid while we 'merely' got a deserved victory at home.

On a completely unrelated note, why is Norwegian football so shit? The glorious days of Drillo and Flonaldo are long gone. What a shame.

[esmufc07]

Right I'm going to have a few bets on this and these are the ones I am thinking of so far;

£15 on Spain at 6/1 (Wins £105.00)
£15 on Portugal at 13/2 (Wins £112.50)
£20 on Czech Republic at 16/1 (Wins £340.00)

I'm also looking to put a bet on the highest scorer, Ronaldo/Torres are the obvious choices at 9/1, but I think Spain are going to do well this year and I'm tempted to go for Villa at 16/1. Any tips guys?

[Ruben]

Originally Posted by Iron Stove

I think it will be harder for us to advance from the group stage this time around. I don't think the teams in our group suit us at all. Could see both Greece and Russia winning against us as both are decent teams and we seem to prefer to be the underdog. Against the Spanish it could go either way, but they are the obvious favourites. We won one game each in the qualifiers, the difference being that they fecking murdered us in Madrid while we 'merely' got a deserved victory at home.

Teams always find it difficult to play Sweden though, so it can always go both ways in your matches. Sweden never gets outplayed, the way I see it.

On a completely unrelated note, why is Norwegian football so shit? The glorious days of Drillo and Flonaldo are long gone. What a shame.

Lots of reasons for that really. We`ve changed coaches a few times now, and the new one Åge Hareide is trying to get us to vary our game more. Less long balls and a bit more possession and more down the flanks. It`s not really working though. During the 90`s we had good players in other leagues, I think only five players were from the domestic league in 98, now we probably have five from European leagues and the rest at home. We just don`t have the players IMO. Our midfield is extremely shit. Hæstad runs a lot, but lacks creativity, so does Martin Andresen. We don`t have a proper goalie, got only one good defender (Brede Hangeland), so we let in a lot of goals. Our "superstars" don`t really perform. Gamst Pedersen and Jon Arne Riise are both horrible when they play for us. Carew has been great for a year or two but he isn`t good enough to do it on his own. The players just aren`t there. Been talk of changing the coach again, personally I feel he`s done the right things but that the material he has to work with is just too poor.

Got some young talents coming up now though, so maybe in a few years it will look a bit better.