The official CFC Euro 2004 warm-up thread!

[Hitro]

I'm not exactly sure about the degree of rivalry involved in Portugal-Spain but Holland - Germany is probably the hottest possible in Europe, far worse than England - Germany.

 

[MCdread]

My only wish was avoiding Netherlands and that was done.

 

[MCdread]

I think Portugal has a bigger grudge about France than Spain to be honest.

 

[Dell19]

Yes but you are still next to each other and both big teams so it should still be a nice match to watch

 

[Hitro]

Makes alot of sense...

 

[MCdread]

A nice humiliation to watch you surely mean...

 

[MCdread]

And we are the humiliated ones in case you're wondering. We have no chance to compete with Spain in our present state.

 

[Hitro]

A tournament is always different, and you're the home team. And Spain traditionally screws up.

Btw, does anyone think Italy will not reach the quarter finals?

 

[MCdread]

Italy's group is very levelled, so it won't be a walk in the park for them, but I think they'll make it.

 

[Hitro]

Huh? That's by far the easiest group possible.

 

[MCdread]

Great! France-England and Germany-Holland are the first games of each team, so the first days promise to be fun.
Portugal-Spain is the last, so I can hope that by then, we're already through.

 

[MCdread]

Originally posted by Hitro
Huh? That's by far the easiest group possible.

I didn't say it was hard, I said it was levelled.

 

[MCdread]

France-England will be in Lisbon. Damn!! And wanted those english far away. You never know what's coming. Czech Republic-Germany is in Lisbon too, so I'll wait for you Hitro.

 

[kryszcztov]

OK. So France-England to show them we're far better football players than rugby players ! And you know we're fair rugby players...

Switzerland and Croatia won't be any problem for us. If the French team is in a good shape, we're gonna make a great tournament ! The only thing I'm afraid of now is the Korea syndrom : I hope that they won't be scared and haunted by our terrible mess over there in 2002... I'm sure that they're mature enough, though, and that they have put those memories to a forgotten past. And I'm sure everyone in Europe would be disappointed if France played like they did in the World Cup... Don't rejoice too early, England !...

As for other groups, I think the usual teams will make it to the quarter finals. Maybe one or two little surprises... Who knows ?

 

[Dell19]

I would say it was the other three teams that were more equal...

 

[MCdread]

Originally posted by kryszcztov
And I'm sure everyone in Europe would be disappointed if France played like they did in the World Cup...

Are you sure about that?

And if I were you I wouldn't be so over confident, this ain't exactly the easy group you had in the qualifiers.

 

[willemvanoranje]

Mwahahahaha! We got Latvia and Germany! Pretty ****ty for Germany that they're not gonna survive the first round two euro's in a row...

 

[Håkon]

Group A:
Portugal
Greece
Spain
Russia

well now, Portugal are out of form according to MCdread, so that should mean Spain has a walkthrough (although they did lose to Greece in the qualifiers). Russia only just edged Wales and were beaten by Switzerland

Group B:
France
England
Switzerland
Croatia

France to win. Switzerland to be last. England and Croatia to fight for 2nd place.

Group C:
Sweden
Bulgaria
Denmark
Italy

Italy to win. Bulgaria were pretty impressive in their qualifiers - so were Sweden, but both had easy groups. Denmark could only take 16 points in a group with Norway, Romania, Bosnia and Luxembourg...should finish last.

Group D:
Czech Republic
Latvia
Germany
Netherlands

Latvia last, that's for sure. Think Czech Republic will get the better of the Netherlands again, but this one is impossible to predict.

 

[u-gene]

It's not a good idea to have the hosting country in the same group. Still, if we are in good shape, we will be capable of entering quarterfinals phase.

 

[col]

Every group is tougher than the corresponding group in the World Cup. There are no pushover countries here.