Euro 2008 Preview

So England are not in the tournament; big fucking deal. I for one am glad England are not in the competition because the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Wes Brown, Owen Hargreaves, Michael Carrick will all get the summer off. I’m not a big follower of England for reasons I will not delve into. Anyway I love International tournaments like Copa America, European Championships and of course the World Cup.

The BBC and many tabloid newspapers have been voicing their “Who Will You Support?” campaign in a plea to get more people interested. I said from day one I was going to support Portugal and I stand by that because I love big Phil Scolari, Ronaldo, Nani, Veluso, Quaresma, Mouintho, Pepe, Ricardo – fuck it the whole team (I may become Portuguese just because I love Nando’s so much as well).

I suspect the usual suspects to be challenging for the crown the likes of Italy, Germany and France. Many are suggesting it could be the year of Spain when you look at the talent they have in Torres, Silva, Villa, Fabregas, Puyol etc. Could it be the year of Croatia? I like their team spirit and have many really good passers of the ball. Undoubtedly they will miss their main scorer Eduardo, just like Italy and France will miss their captains Cannavaro and Vieira respectively.

Through a lengthy working out going through every fixture I have come to the conclusion that Portugal will knock out Germany in the Semi-Finals to face Spain who will knock out France in the Semi-Finals. To get a final of Portugal against Spain, which I think is the final we all want to see, probably the two best attacking sides in the competition against each other. Who would win out of those two? I think it could come down to penalties, and then my money would be on lucky Ronaldo and Portugal.