Euro 2004 draw FOOTBALL (soccer)

germany vs latvia should be a good game too. i mean...latvia "eliminated" turkey from this last phase of the european cup (turkey was classified 3rd in the past world cup), so they must be good!

i hope portugal doesnt play sucky (as many times they do), and players like figo, rui costa, pauleta, simao, ricardo (gk), deco, be at their best.

Wellcome to A2K, skuamb!

Thanks for your response ... and enjoy the other categories of this site as well!

England vs France - now that would be match to watch !! The poms are already sh**ting in their pants

Walter,

The UK commentators on TV and radio are naming Group D the "Group of Death" - there's always one!

Welcome, skuamb - Portugal certainly have some great players - they just need to play together!

KP

Yes, pete, I've heard, the German players have booked their summer holidays from 24th June onwards :wink:

Group A seems to be the easiest, and has already an Iberian flavor. Of course, one can always count on Spain giving a terrible game or two.
Group C is deceptive. Scandinavians are often full of surprises.
England is also often full of surprises (bitter for their fans), but it should win Group B.
Whoever goes through in Group D will either be too exhausted to do anything else or will be too strong and win the championship.

fbaezer,

I hope you're right about England winning the group. I know France did badly in the World Cup but the English still consider them to be the better side (OK, I'm an Arsenal fan - I know just how amazing Henry, Pires and Viera can be!).

KP

i'm sure france will go to the finals. i mean... look at their team. they have such a good chemistry between all the players, and they have been playing together for a long time...

barthez, desaily, lizarazu, thuram, zidane, vieira, pires, henry, trezeguet, ETC, have been playing together since the last eurocup in 2000 if not longer.

couldn't agree more about groups A and C. You are also quite right about Group D, although it can be easily said for C as well...
However, I think your perception of Group B is completely wrong (we'll see however) - France is stronger then England from absolutely every point of view - this doesn't mean that England absolutely cannot win the group, but to put it in the position of favourite...well, I think you are very wrong - England can even have problems with Croats that usually play great on big competitions and England is still group of great, even brilliant players that does not work as team.

France will win. Just think......
Coupet

Thuram Mexes Gallas Silvestre

Pires Vieira Makelele Zidane

Trezeguet Henry

Hi Cristiano, welcome to A2K.

France may win.
But you don't win with names.
What ever happened of Real Madrid in 2004?
Not the Champion's League, not the Liga, not the Copa del Rey.
And you couldn't ask for better names.

I know you don't win w/ names but Real Madrid's defence is very weak. R. Carlos is the best defender they have but he leaves a lot of space when attacking.

Italy is looking like a well-oiled machine. I look for Azzuri to take it all.

You both may be right. France has best players, Italy might have best TEAM. But, it's also quite important that players will once again be extremely tired. France had best players on World Cup as well and they couldn't even pass through group stage.
Okay, Euro will be more fair in that matter, because more or less all teams will be in similar position, not like in World Cup where for example asian national teams were made of players that played 40 games less during season then French players for example.
Here only Latvia will have that advantage, because other teams are either completely (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, England....) or partially (Scandinavians, Croatia, Bulgaria...) filled with "tired" players.
Russia may be potential surprise, especially if they start well. Why? Because they will be the most fresh team. They had their vacations, then pre-season, and now they played around 10 rounds of national championship - they should be in top form. And fact that they are not as good as others...well, Senegal, South Korea, USA...are not as good as France and Argentina and they were all much better placed on World Cup.

I've already made my fantasy teams.

My choices for the first games go for players from Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden and Croatia. Too scared to put any (expensive) French, English, Dutch or German players in my teams (I think I got Davids in one of them, he was the best my spare virtual money could buy).

In one of the teams, I was so bankrupt I chose the Latvian coach.
Hope they make a point, at least.

hey, do you have some links? Except uefa.com I hate their fantasy games!

Sporting Life Fantasy Football:

http://sportinglife.fantasyeurofootball.com/?page=rules

(now, I'll look into uefa.com)

I hope it's free.
I never pay for fantasy play.

well, Germany is in the crisis, but it will be the Champion!Netherlands without Makaay.

Tomorrow the EURO starts.......