Euro 2004

[GiorgioII]

Of course the big tournament kicks off today. Portugal-Greece and Spain-Russia.

Anyway, I was slightly bored and decided that it might be fun to have a thread where after each game we can come on here and post about players that we have seen playing who would be useful at Inter :smoking:

Cheers

[Zek]

Of course the big tournament kicks off today. Portugal-Greece and Spain-Russia.

Anyway, I was slightly bored and decided that it might be fun to have a thread where after each game we can come on here and post about players that we have seen playing who would be useful at Inter :smoking:

Cheers

you're right man nismo and CV are all over the place with their dumb ;) arguments...

I was trying to think of a team that will win the tournament and can't think of any 100% leaders to beat, maybe France?!

Italy has internal clash within the team after Gattuso incident, Spain - business as usual, Portugal - good, but is really good enough to win the cup (?), England - don't know what to expect but certainly not championship, Holland - ???, Chech republic - could be finalists as this is the last try for many of their players and yet France again has the most likely chance of raising the cup...

Personally will be supporting Sweden and maybe Greece just for fun :)

[GiorgioII]

Well......Karagounis scores the 1st goal of Euro 2004! He was good in the first half but had to be taken off.

Zisis Vryzas of Fiorentina was good as well and so was Christeas of Werder Bremen.

For Portugal nobody really impressed me. Deco and Ronaldo made Portugal tick a bit more once they came off. But onbody on display tonight was the type of player Inter would want or could get, except for maybe Deco. Anybody see Ferriera? He was shit..and Chelsea have just forked out 13million for him. Haha!

[GiorgioII]

Spain1-0Russia

Another entertaining match. Not much about Russia was impressive, but Spain were good. Marchena at CB looked very good. He's at Valencia and could be a realistic target. Puyol was outsdanding at RB IMO but he's probably out of our financial depth. Baraja had a good game also. But the two stars were Spain's wide men;Exteberria and Vicente. Morientes and Raul were a little dissapointing up front though.

[adrianofan]

As a person of Portuguese descent (I'm born in Canada, but parents are portugeuse), I was greatly disgusted by how Portugal played against Greece... The Greeks have a strong defensive team but Portugal's offense was piss poor pathetic for the most part...

I really think its time that Luis Figo hangs up the boots... he had one good free kick that assisted in Cristiano Ronaldo's header goal but thats it... and his set pieces weren't consistently good anyway.. Rui Costa also dissapointed me as did Pauleta (I thought this guy scored like 20+ something goals with Bordeaux? Isn't the french league supposed to be one of the hardest leagues to score in?... besides Italy of course :D)... oh and their defense was asleep on that first goal. (Paulo Ferreira what the heck where you doing?!)

And then theres Cristiano Ronaldo... Now I know some will argue that he played well because he got that goal but I really think that fault in the box committed by him really killed off Portugal's momentum... He had no business being there, why did he rush into defense and tackle the guy from behind? It's dumb... when you tackle from behind inside the box, you are 100% asking for that penalty. Anyway, I don't forgive him just because he scored a goal... in injury time when it was too late to make a come back. And what in the heck is with the diamond earrings? Like honestly, I am seriously re-considering being a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo... He was one of the few players I admired from EPL... Not anymore. :D

And where in the heck was Calvalho on the Portugeuse lineup? If this guy was so successful with FC Porto in Champions League and is being targeted by the nerazzurri... shouldn't he be good enough to play for portugal's national team? Ah well. Maybe Scolari would be better off coaching Brasil again.

[GiorgioII]

The reason that Carvallho isn't in the starting line-up is because Couto is portugese captain and Andrade is also a strong player. Carvallho should have been in it nonetheless.
I agree with you about Figo. He really should retire, he was useless yesterday.

Today's Games:Croatia-Switzerland and

France-England

[GiorgioII]

Italy drew 1-1 with Sweden today. Italy dominated the first half, but were poor in the second. Cassano scored a cool goal, but Vieri spurned numerous chances.
Cannavaro is having a good tournament and perhaps we should build around him in defence with a taller man coming in.
There haven't been any players yet though who have been amazing.
Poulsen of Denmark was good as a DM I felt. Deco and Ronado have done quite well for Portugal also. And Van der Vaart looks to be full of promise. He would be useful here at Inter. :smoking:

[adrianofan]

Cannavaro seems to be more yellow card-prone than he is injury-prone though... two yellow cards already in the tournament... he's out for next game... That's the only thing that concerns me about him is if he plays like that in Inter, especially if he fouls a guy in the box (which he hasn't done yet...unlike silvestre from france who did it TWICE already!) ... Of course Gattuso also got 2 yellow cards but hes Gattuso. :D

[chu_chu]

italy are in trouble...
maybe they couldn't qualify to the big 8.... especially if denmark and sweden draw their game... sometimes it's the best way to avoid the future meeting with a dangerous team.... i love to see that... vieri wasted numerous good chances.. his price would go cheaper if he couldn't score any goal in the tournament.... i think it was better to let him go to juve...

[GiorgioII]

Yes, I am sorry to say it, but Vieri is playing really poorly.
I still think Italy will qualify....just about anyway! :silly:

[nismo]

Italy aren't out just yet
If Sweden-Denmark draw 0-0, Italy are thru, but if the game ends in 2-2 or more then Italy is out. uefa use this mathematical coefficient system to work out the best peforming teams in cases of levelled point. What ever happened to the good ol' goal difference :rolleyes:

[adrianofan]

Italy has a good chance of qualifying... very good chance... since their last opponent is bulgaria and this could easily be a sqwash... I think Sweden is going to beat Denmark for it to be Sweden as 1st seed and Italy as the 2nd... I don't think Denmark is going to hang with Sweden... not after the way they played against Bulgaria. lol.
So the thing doesnt go by goal difference? whats this mathematical coefficient system?

[chu_chu]

looks like italy won't qualify...
there are only few minutes left.... and the referee are either blind or on opponent's side...

[Pazza]

Ciao Italia is all i heard this past week! I cant blame the Sweds or the Danes thou it was trap that should be blame. Italy should have killed the match againts Sweds to make their path to quater-finals but instead they changed tactics taking out most of the attacking players! i gone mad when trap does that and he soon paid for it. defending againts a team like sweds who have Ibrahimovic, Ljunberg and Larsson was outta mind. :mad2:

[adrianofan]

Yep the swedes can't be underestimated.... I think they have Holland tomorrow... this will make for a very interesting game... As for France-Greece, I think France is going to take it... unless France pulls a Paulo Ferreira and screws theirselves over.

[chu_chu]

france are out...
greece did very well!!

how many giants are left now?

[GiorgioII]

1 of Portugal and Greece will be in the Final and neither of these teams are even in Fifa's top 15 ranked teams!
I suppose Holland and Czech.Rep could be considered giants, but they're not giants like France, Italy, Germany and Spain.

[GiorgioII]

Whoops!

Sorry about that mistake, I just realised that Greece and Portugal will not be meeting in the SF's.Sorry.

[adrianofan]

Yeah its going to be Portugal Vs. Sweden/Holland... Greece Vs. Czech Republic/Denmark... I'm going to make some predictions and let's see how accurate I can be (so far, I suck at them. lol. I thought Germany was going to meet Spain in the final before the tourny started and well we all know what happened. :D)

Quarter-Final predictions:

Holland over Sweden: I think that this contest will be VERY close... Holland has a better team on paper but Sweden has been impressive... I would normally root for Sweden but since one of these two teams will face Portugal (team im supporting here), I'm not sure what to choose since I think that both teams would be a definate challenge. My prediction- Holland... but they will edge over Sweden probably... it will be a close match.

Czech Republic over Denmark: Ok maybe I'm biased because I'm a Nedved fan. lol. But Czech have a very strong team... Nedved may be the only "star" player there but the whole team is strong and their squad depth is superb (they beat Germany with their B-team pratically).. Besides Czech Republic can put on a show so besides Portugal, I'd want to see Czech win the Euro Cup or possibly Sweden as I'm a fan of the Ibrhamovic-Larsson factor.:)

Semi-Final Predictions

Holland over Portugal: On paper, definately Holland... logically it would make a lot of sense since Ruud van Nistelrooy, Arjen Robben and of course nerazzurri Andy van der Meyde are very dangerous... Portugal however works well as a team and while we dont have any superstars besides the washed-up Figo, this team is very dangerous... especially Cristiano Ronaldo and Deco.... Deco may not be as recognizable as Totti or anything but he is a player of great quality (why a big team hasn't made a move for him is beyond my understanding) and he brings that sexy brasilian futebol influence to the team. :)

But I still think Holland is going to win... I may be a portuguese supporter but as I learned from WC 2002, it may very well be the best thing to under-rate your team in predictions just to give your team good luck. lol. Back in WC 2002, I predicted that Portugal would make it to the final with Argentina (both teams I like) and guess what, they were both out in the first round. And then with Brasil, (my favourites) I predicted that they would make it to the Quarter-Final only... but they eventually won the World Cup :)

Czech Republic over Greece: I think that the Czechs should win but don't underestimate the greeks.. it WILL be a close match... those greeks have excellent organization and they work hard.

Finala Prediction

Czech Republic over Holland: I see the Czechs going all away... they have had an amazing showing this year... what a re-match this would be. If this match takes place, hopefully it will be better than the last.

[GiorgioII]

It's going to have to be one hell of a game to be better than the first time the two teams met in the tournament!

[CV32 Top Ah Top]

I am 100% behind Czechs for the rest of the tournament as they have been the only team to play clean and attracting footy thus far. Sweden is out, Denmark is next. Mavaffunculo Svedsi e Danimarca.

[GiorgioII]

Yes, the Czech are the team that I'm going for also.

Have any of you other people been surprised by how well Helveg has been playing for Denmark?

[chu_chu]

helveg is even better than i thought he was.... i saw his game against italy... he made totti and del piero almost invisible during the match... i think he is one of the best in this tournament... i hate to say this but it was true that in that match, helveg was even better than a group of italy players combined on the left....

czech has more complete players than other team.. i think
they have great mid, great defenders..., good teamwork strikers... they have great mentality and winning attitude.... they lost the lead thrice but they were still able to beat all the team and get the full 9 points...

france that are everybody's favorite don't have good defense.... calling silvestre to the national team and listing him in the starting eleven was the biggest mistake done by santini...

england... need a good and enough tall striker.... although rooney did good for england... i don't think that was enough to win the tournament even if they reached the final...

spain... i think their defensive line are also their main problem...

portugal and germany... they need better strikers....

italy's team is more complete than czech's team is... but the coach and the main striker ruined their days... i prefer a non-greedy strikers like koller who always help his teammates to score to a striker like vieri who only tried to made himself a top scorer of the tournament....