Euro 2008 Anticipation thread: 20 Days to go.

Stew · 18th May 2008, 11:48am

The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2008, will take place in Austria and Switzerland, from 7 June to 29 June 2008. It is the second successful joint bid in the competition's history, following Euro 2000 hosted by Belgium and the Netherlands. The 2012 competition in Poland and Ukraine is scheduled to become the third jointly-hosted tournament.
A total of 16 teams will participate in the tournament. Austria and Switzerland will automatically qualify as hosts; The remaining 14 teams have been determined through qualifying matches which started in August 2006. Austria and Poland will be making their first appearance in the tournament. The winner of Euro 2008 will represent the UEFA at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.

Here are the groups:

Group A

Czech Republic
Portugal
Switzerland
Turkey

Group B

Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Group C

France
Italy
Netherlands
Romania

Group D

Greece
Sweden
Spain
Russia

As for the squads, some provisional ones have been announced so far:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spain

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid CF), Pepe Reina (Liverpool FC), Andrés Palop (Sevilla FC).

Defenders: Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid CF), Álvaro Arbeloa (Liverpool FC), Carles Puyol (FC Barcelona), Carlos Marchena (Valencia CF), Raúl Albiol (Valencia CF), Juanito (Real Betis Balompié), Joan Capdevilla (Villarreal CF), Fernando Navarro (RCD Mallorca).

Midfielders: Marcos Senna (Villarreal CF), Xabi Alonso (Liverpool FC), Xavi Hernández (FC Barcelona), Cesc Fábregas (Arsenal FC), Andrés Iniesta (FC Barcelona), Rubén De la Red (Getafe CF), David Silva (Valencia CF), Santiago Cazorla (Villarreal CF).

Forwards: David Villa (Valencia CF), Daniel Güiza (RCD Mallorca), Sergio García (Real Zaragoza), Fernando Torres (Liverpool FC).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Germany

Goalkeepers: Jens Lehmann (Arsenal FC), Robert Enke (Hannover 96), René Adler (Bayer 04 Leverkusen).

Defenders: Christoph Metzelder (Real Madrid CF), Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen), Philipp Lahm (FC Bayern München), Arne Friedrich (Hertha BSC Berlin), Marcell Jansen (FC Bayern München), Clemens Fritz (Werder Bremen), Heiko Westermann (FC Schalke 04).

Midfielders: Michael Ballack (Chelsea FC), Thomas Hitzlsperger (VfB Stuttgart), Simon Rolfes (Bayer 04 Leverkusen), Torsten Frings (Werder Bremen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (FC Bayern München), Piotr Trochowski (Hamburger SV), Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen), Jermaine Jones (FC Schalke 04), David Odonkor (Real Betis Balompié), Marko Marin (VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach).

Forwards: Miroslav Klose (FC Bayern München), Lukas Podolski (FC Bayern München), Mario Gómez (VfB Stuttgart), Kevin Kuranyi (FC Schalke 04), Oliver Neuville (VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach), Patrick Helmes (1. FC Köln).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russia

Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (PFC CSKA Moskva), Vladimir Gabulov (FC Amkar Perm), Vyacheslav Malafeev (FC Zenit St. Petersburg).

Defenders: Aleksandr Anyukov (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Aleksei Berezutski (PFC CSKA Moskva), Vasili Berezutski (PFC CSKA Moskva), Sergei Ignashevich (PFC CSKA Moskva), Denis Kolodin (FC Dinamo Moskva), Roman Shirokov (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Renat Yanbayev (FC Lokomotiv Moskva).

Midfielders: Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (FC Lokomotiv Moskva), Dmitri Torbinskiy (FC Lokomotiv Moskva), Vladimir Bystrov (FC Spartak Moskva), Aleksandr Pavlenko (FC Spartak Moskva), Yuri Zhirkov (PFC CSKA Moskva), Konstantin Zyrianov (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Igor Semshov (FC Dinamo Moskva), Oleg Ivanov (FC Krylya Sovetov Samara), Sergei Semak (FC Rubin Kazan).

Forwards: Roman Adamov (FC Moskva), Roman Pavlyuchenko (FC Spartak Moskva), Dmitri Sychev (FC Lokomotiv Moskva), Pavel Pogrebnyak (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Andrei Arshavin (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Ivan Saenko (1. FC Nürnberg).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweden

Goalkeepers: Andreas Isaksson (Manchester City FC), Rami Shaaban (Hammarby), Johan Wiland (IF Elfsborg).

Defenders: Mikael Dorsin (CFR 1907 Cluj), Petter Hansson (Stade Rennais FC), Daniel Majstorovic (FC Basel 1893), Olof Mellberg (Aston Villa FC), Mikael Nilsson (Panathinaikos FC), Andreas Granqvist (Wigan Athletic FC), Fredrik Stoor (Rosenborg BK).

Midfielders: Niclas Alexandersson (IFK Göteborg), Daniel Andersson (Malmö FF), Kim Källström (Olympique Lyonnais), Sebastian Larsson (Birmingham City FC), Fredrik Ljungberg (West Ham United FC), Tobias Linderoth (Galatasaray AS), Christian Wilhelmsson (RC Deportivo La Coruña), Anders Svensson (IF Elfsborg).

Forwards: Marcus Allbäck (FC København), Henrik Larsson (Helsingborgs IF), Johan Elmander (Toulouse FC), Zlatan Ibrahimović (FC Internazionale Milano), Markus Rosenberg (Werder Bremen).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Portugal

Goalkeepers: Ricardo (Real Betis Balompié), Quim (SL Benfica), Rui Patrício (Sporting Clube de Portugal).

Defenders: Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea FC), Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea FC), Bosingwa (FC Porto), Bruno Alves (FC Porto), Jorge Ribeiro (Boavista FC), Miguel (Valencia CF), Fernando Meira (VfB Stuttgart), Pepe (Real Madrid CF).

Midfielders: Petit (SL Benfica), Deco (FC Barcelona), Raul Meireles (FC Porto), Miguel Veloso (Sporting Clube de Portugal), João Moutinho (Sporting Clube de Portugal).

Forwards: Nuno Gomes (SL Benfica), Simão Sabrosa (Club Atlético de Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United FC), Nani (Manchester United FC), Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen), Ricardo Quaresma (FC Porto), Hélder Postiga (Panathinaikos FC).

I honestly can't see past Italy winning this, especially with France dropping their deadliest finisher. Nutters.

Syxx · 18th May 2008, 11:51am

Fuck this tournament.

Zippy · 18th May 2008, 12:04pm

Aye, I've no real interest in it.

JZY · 18th May 2008, 12:08pm

aye whit. its still gonna be good international football ya dobbers.

Jaemi · 18th May 2008, 12:25pm

I actually agree with JZY.
This is going to be good.

Quiz Bhoy · 18th May 2008, 12:26pm

Aaargh Sweden and Spain are in the same group! I was gonna support both (mind you, if they qualify 1st and 2nd in their group.........)

Semprini · 18th May 2008, 12:26pm

Stuck a tenner on Spain to win it, in the vain hope that this might be the time they don't choke.

Jaemi · 18th May 2008, 12:28pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semprini

Suck a tenner on Spain to win it, in the vain hope that this might be the time they don't choke.

Waste of a tenner.
Wack it on Italy.

Quiz Bhoy · 18th May 2008, 12:29pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semprini

Suck a tenner on Spain to win it, in the vain hope that this might be the time they don't choke.

Same here. So much potential and never get anywhere. Supporting Sweden for obvious reasons of course

Stew · 18th May 2008, 12:38pm

I don't get why people aren't going to enjoy this. It's top-class international football on pretty much every day. I just love football as a whole, mind.

Zippy · 18th May 2008, 12:39pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stew

I don't get why people aren't going to enjoy this. It's top-class international football on pretty much every day. I just love football as a whole, mind.

I only really watch football if I have an interest in who's playing - none of the countries in the Euro's mean anything to me and neither do a majority of the players. I'll watch some of it but with a busy summer coming up I won't be arsed if I'm not catching most of it.

Semprini · 18th May 2008, 12:41pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stew

I don't get why people aren't going to enjoy this. It's top-class international football on pretty much every day. I just love football as a whole, mind.

Not only that, it's top class international football where we won't have to wait until the latter stages before commentators stop talking about England winning it.

Syxx · 18th May 2008, 12:41pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zippy

I only really watch football if I have an interest in who's playing - none of the countries in the Euro's mean anything to me and neither do a majority of the players. I'll watch some of it but with a busy summer coming up I won't be arsed if I'm not catching most of it.

Pretty much. That and i'm totally burned out after this season, i've just been overexposed to both the SPL and EPL this year. Need a break for a few months.

Zooropa · 18th May 2008, 12:45pm

I don't watch loads of games, but i do love big tournaments.
Everywhere seems to buzz and it gives folk something to talk about.

As usual, big love for Spain and Sweden.

JZY · 18th May 2008, 1:03pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syxx

Pretty much. That and i'm totally burned out after this season, .

why, were you atually playing all season?