Euro Cup 2008

I've had this on my livejournal for about a week so it's a little dated and some team advancements have already been decided, but I figured I'd throw it on here anyways. I'll do more coverage of it when it gets past the round robin.

My thoughts are the teams most likely to make a run are

Spain
Portugal
Netherlands
Croatia
Germany

I'm putting my vote in on the Netherlands to take the whole thing.

After the Germany - Croatia game, it's hard to say whether Croatia is a real contender or if Germany is either overrated or just had an off day. After the thrashing the Netherlands gave Italy in a game I predicted correctly, I don't think Italy has enough to make if far in this tournament. It is even possible that they won't make it out of the first round.

However even with the impressive win over Italy, the Netherlands still have a long road just to make it out of the round. Their next game is against France, who didn't look great against Romania, but it is still France. They seem to start slow in most major tournaments, but I suspect with the way the Netherlands smashed Italy, France will be ready to go.

Quick group predictions (I should have done this way earlier since it is now into 2nd matches of groups, but I won't change my original predictions)

Key

1st **
2nd *

Group A

Portugal**
Czech Republic*
Turkey
Switzerland

Group B

(obviously this group has changed since the Croats dominated zi Germans, and now they have to battle it out with Austria to make the quarterfinals)
Austria
Croatia*
Germany**
Poland

+PREPARE FOR A GERMANY VS PORTUGAL QUARTERFINAL!

Group C AKA Group o' Death

France*
Italy
Netherlands**
Romania

Group D

Sweden
Spain**
Russia*
Greece

Spain looked ridiculous against Russia. Villa and Torres are a fucking deadly combo. Russia missed a lot of opportunities however, and it could have easily been a 3:3 game. I think Russia will be able to deal with Sweden and Greece, but it definitely isn't a given.