[au_revior]

Well lets start the ball rolling.
Tournament will Start on the 7th June 2008 between Switzerland and the Czech Republic
For further info click here.
Will update the 1st post in a few days time. Anyway cheers.

Quotes From Each of the Coaches After the Draw.

Group A

Turkey

I think it's a very competitive group, a really serious group. What happened on the pitch (following Turkey's 2005 World Cup qualifying playoff defeat to Switzerland) remains on the pitch. The last person I embraced before coming here was (Swiss striker) Alex Frei. So you can see there is no problem.

Switzerland

There is no problem between Switzerland and Turkey. Too many people have been fixating on things that should have been long forgotten. I think we will see a fair game with no spectator problems.

Portugal

All the coaches in this group are obviously very experienced and of course that always helps. We have been through several different moments with our players. I hope it's a fair group with good matches and let's see who can benefit the most from the experience we all have.

Czech Republic

All the teams participating at Euro 2008 have their own qualities and I don't want to speculate about whether it's a good or a bad draw for us. I will only be able to say I'm satisfied if we go through

Group B

Austria

For me Germany are the clear favourites. We are of course the outsiders but there are worse things than being outsiders.
It's just a question of how you handle the situation and we will try to do our best from this position.

Croatia

People talk about the group of death but I can give you 20 reasons why this is the most difficult group. Here are three: Austria are playing at home, Germany are one of the best teams in the world and Poland are here for the first time which is a good motivation.

Germany

We're excited. When we played Poland in the last World Cup we only scored in the last minute. They were very strong and remember that game was in a German stadium with 80,000 fans. They showed great courage. I'm sure Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski will be excited to be playing Poland because of their origins. It's a group that's not as difficult as Group C but everyone has to play at a high level to win this championship."

Poland

Its a big challenge but I love big challenges and so do my players. Germany especially are one of the great teams of the world and it is always good to play against the best. We'll also be playing very close to Poland so hopefully a lot of supporters will come and support us."

[au_revior]

Group C

France

I have to say the way the seedings are worked out is madness. Not to have Italy, as the world champions, in the first pot is crazy. I would have also preferred to have played in Austria and not Switzerland because we would have been hassled less. I am not happy, nothing I wanted has worked out. In fact, I don't think we're the happiest four coaches here after the draw and the way it worked out. We would love to have avoided the three other teams but now we've got it we'll have to deal with it.

Netherlands

At the last World Cup we were already in the 'group of death'[2006 World Cup Group C with Argentina, Serbia and Montenegro & Ivory Coast]. I don't know what we're going to call this one. We're playing the finalists of the last World Cup so we'll have to make sure we're very well prepared. I think everything went normally and legally in the draw so what can you say.

Romania

For us it's a very nice, easy group. We're up against the world champions, the World Cup runners-up and Holland, who we know are very good. I hope it will be an extraordinary experience and why shouldn't we be one of the teams to make it through to the quarter-finals?

Italy

We didn't have an easy qualification group and we haven't been lucky here either. I had a gut feeling on the way here it would turn out like this, but you cannot change the rules and when you get to a final, every opponent is tough. I spoke with Marco before the draw and told him I thought we were going to play each other and thats the way its worked out. We have to meet France again which is tough -- but every past match is history. We now look forward to the next game.

Group D


Greece

2004 is in the past, it doesn't count any longer, now we have 2008 and we focus on that. We are all starting from scratch. I won't speculate on who is favourite for the group. For me the important thing is that my players are sound, in order that I can bring them here safely. With Werder Bremen I also played a lot of games against Russian teams, Spartak Moscow in the time of the Soviet Union. They are very good players, very good with the ball, but like we said before, all games are important because we are competing for the Euro Championship, and all teams here are first class teams.

Spain

I still think our time might have come. It's my job to think that, of course, but I believe that everything we went through to get here will serve us well. We have a group of players who have worked hard and deserve it.
Personally, I think it's a manageable group but we have to keep our desire to win under control, respect our rivals and show that we're superior on the field.

Russia

We, the Russian team, the Russian Federation, are very happy to be on this stage next year. Everybody here will be very competitive. I think Greece surprised in 2004 but deserved to win at the end in the last championships and they will be very eager to go on to the second round. So it will be very competitive and there's no underdog in the group, regarding Greece. If you read the press, then everyone wants us to be in their group, then these three are the luckiest that they have us. But at the end we'll see. As Mr Rehhagel said, we all start from scratch and you can have surprises in this group as well. We are very happy to be here, but that's not enough for me. Let's try to surprise as well in this group.

Sweden

We know we are in a tough group and we will do our best. We will see how it will go.I think Spain is one of the absolutely best teams in Europe so it's always a challenge to play teams like that and it's a good thing, I think, that we had the experience of these two matches in qualification.

all quotes are from Reuters


Group Of Death to be pulled in EURO 2008 Draw ?

The seedings for Sunday's Euro 2008 draw have thrown up the possibility of Holland, Italy, Germany and France all being in the same group. The emergence of a 'group of death' in Lucerne is a distinct possibility, as is an 'easy' group with Greece, Sweden, Romania and Poland all able to be drawn together. UEFA have calculated the seedings on the basis of results in the qualificationtournaments for the 2006 World Cup and Euro 2008 and not taken into account performances in the finals in Germany last year. As a result, world champions Italy find themselves among the pot of thirdseeds and beaten finalists France among the four bottom seeds. France coach Raymond Domenech has lambasted the seeding system though hiItalian counterpart Roberto Donadoni has insisted he is not worried by his country's position. Domenech said: 'It's laughable if the world champions don't get the final top seeding.'Who does deserve to be top if not Italy? We were finalists in the World Cup, we qualified for this with points to spare, and there are practically 12 teams ahead of us.
'I do not understand how.' Donadoni said he was simply happy to have qualified. He added: 'There is no point making a fuss about it, we will wait for the draw and then assess it.' The top seeds, for once, do not contain the strongest teams because three of the four spaces are reserved for joint hosts Austria and Switzerland and reigning European champions Greece. As a result, a place among the second seeds was more highly-prized but Holland found themselves in the top pot despite being defeated by Belarus in their last Euro 2008 qualifier. Italy are among the second seeds - along with the Czech Republic, Croatia and Sweden - and Germany one of the third seeds alongside Romania, Portugal and Spain. France's position among the bottom seeds - the other countries are Poland,Turkey and Russia - can be explained by their unimpressive qualifying campaigns for this tournament and the last World Cup. They were beaten home and away by Scotland and drew with Ukraine. In qualifying for the World Cup, Domenech's side drew five of their 10 matches against the likes of Switzerland, Israel and the Republic of Ireland.


credit: soccernet.com

[Aziraphale]

SPAIN ARE THE EURO 2008 WINNERS!



EURO 2008 FIXTURES
- all times GMT


Group A: Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal, Turkey
Group B: Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland
Group C: Holland, Italy, Romania, France
Group D: Greece, Sweden, Spain, Russia


Saturday, 07 June 2008
Portugal 2 Turkey 0, A, 19:45
Switzerland 0 Czech Republic 1, A, 17:00

Sunday, 08 June 2008
Austria 0 Croatia 1, B, 17:00
Germany 2 v Poland 0, B, 19:45

Monday, 09 June 2008
Holland 3 Italy 0, C, 19:45
Romania 0 France 0, C, 17:00

Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Greece 0 Sweden 2, D, 19:45
Spain 4 Russia 1, D, 17:00

Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Czech Republic 1 Portugal 3, A, 17:00
Switzerland 1 Turkey 2, A, 19:45

Thursday, 12 June 2008
Austria 1 Poland 1, B, 19:45
Croatia 2 Germany 1, B, 17:00

Friday, 13 June 2008
Holland 4 France 1, C, 19:45
Italy 1 Romania 1, C, 17:00

Saturday, 14 June 2008
Greece 0 Russia 1, D, 19:45
Sweden 1 Spain 2, D, 17:00

Sunday, 15 June 2008
Switzerland 2 Portugal 0, A, 19:45
Turkey 3 Czech Republic 2, A, 19:45

Monday, 16 June 2008
Austria 0 Germany 1, B, 19:45
Poland 0 Croatia 1, B, 19:45

Tuesday, 17 June 2008
France 0 Italy 2, C, 19:45
Holland 2 Romania 0, C, 19:45

Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Greece 1 Spain 2, D, 19:45
Russia 2 Sweden 0, D, 19:45

Thursday, 19 June 2008
Quarter-final 1
Portugal 2 Germany 3, 19:45

Friday, 20 June 2008
Quarter-final 2
Croatia 1 Turkey 1 (Turkey win 3-1 on penalties), 19:45

Saturday, 21 June 2008
Quarter-final 3
Holland 1 Russia 3 aet, 19:45

Sunday, 22 June 2008
Quarter-final 4
Spain 0 Italy 0 (Spain win 4-2 on penalties), 19:45

Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Semi-final 1
Germany 3 Turkey 2, 19:45

Thursday, 26 June 2008
Semi-final 2
Russia 0 Spain 3, 19:45

Sunday, 29 June 2008
Final
Germany 0 Spain 1, 19:45

Source: BBC Sport

This post has been edited by Aziraphale: 30 June 2008 - 12:33 AM

[Gullwings]

yeah I watched the draw this morning <33 can't wait to see the games ^^ I, of course, will cheer for Germany <33

[Megumi]

Group C: Holland, Italy, Romania, France

I'm really.. grabbing my heart for this poule O_O! I mean... NL's first match is against the World Champion XD

/fails

Nah, the Oranges will win =3

[ChairmanLMAO]

lol, talk about the group of death, and then you know what it happens lol. My money is on Portugal to win the Euros!

[Volts]

i'm still shocked that England didn't qualify.....

[roneddski]

This is crazy.. u know something like tis would happen when they were discussing the possibility of a 'Group of Death' before the draw. haha, they did get Italy, France and Holland rite. To me, adding Romania to the gp is as tough as having the Germans. Dont forget Austria n Swiss are the co-hosts... if at least one of them makes the knockout stages, we could b lookin at a quarter-final list tat doesnt include France, Holland, or even Italy, the Czechs, Portugal or even 3-times winners Germany!!

[au_revior]

I watched the draw too, kinda shocking, especially when Germany were drawn in Group B, the whole stage were in gasps!!!! Lol even more when France was drawn with Holland, Domenech (france coach) was in shocked i can tell, he would be saying ITALY AGAIN! Anyway making it alive in Group C, pretty much have a nice clear route to the semis against Spain( if they managed to get that far). Well as it stands, Germany have a better chances now to go Final IMO, cos in the semis will be against probably Portugal, and we know the Germans are pretty resilient, organized and discipline especially in major tournaments. And they will play at 'home' essentially, those Bavarian will invade to Swiss and Austria just to support their team. Anyway just my opinion. And also Spain have a good chance too i believe, since their real test would be in the quarter final. And the Group C quotes from the coaches are kinda serious especially Domenech. I like the Romania's coach quote better albeit sarcastic in a good way.

[crackednut]

i'm still shocked that England didn't qualify.....

Looking at who they had to play to qualify, I was shocked.
But seeing how they played against those teams.....
If they HAD qualified, it would have been an even bigger embarrassment in the making

Spain should make it through easily...
though they've made it a habit to surprise me -- in the worse ways possible

[kaka22]

England had the level to qualify, they were just unlucky with injuries and the coach didnt always made the best choice
im disapointed, they have a good team....

[jeanhee]

ALL RIGHT!!!!!

It officially kicks off June 7!!!

So far, here are the qualifying teams:

Group A
Czech Republic
Portugal
Switzerland
Turkey

Group B
Austria
Croatia
Germany
Poland

Group C
France
Italy
Netherlands
Romania

Group D
Greece
Russia
Spain
Sweden


Who are you gunning for???

Personally, I was torn between Spain and Portugal up until about three days ago. Then, I realized that no matter how much I try to be objective, I can't get past the image of Torres in a Liverpool jersey. And David Villa, as sexy and talented as he is, cannot make up for that. So, I'm ditching my Spain gear and going for the Portugal kit.

Ronaldo, Deco, Quaresma, Simao, and Nani - let's make it count, boys!

[hoonznq]

Deutschland!!!!!!!!!!!Deutschland!!!!!!!!!!!!!Deutschland!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

[kimkarlo]

i'm rooting for España! Torres anyone? xD

[pharpooto]

==============Forza AZZURI================

Cheer up!!

Fighting!!

[GO!zilla]

as long as italy doesnt win, im happy~

[Sonia.Shin]

Portugal Won!!! yay 2-0

I'm for Portugal and Spain!

C.Ronaldo and F.Torres!!!

[Rikayla]

Two words after Day 1 of Euro 2008:

FORÇA PORTUGAL!

And honestly, Luiz Felipe Scolari is seriously just so adoringly passionate. <3
I quote from my LJ post:

Pepe is undoubtedly the Man of the Match. I mean, gosh, how often do we get defenders shooting in a goal? And I'm incredibly happy about the other dude who shot in at the 93-minute point too. So happy for him that it's his first goal in the international playing field. Gosh, I feel like rambling on about how well Portugal played. The teamwork, the happiness the new dude showed when his goal went in... His expression was half-surprised, half-happy. Gosh. I love footie. I love international footie. Club!footie isn't half as amazing. The passion of Luiz Felipe Scolari, who is undecidedly the most passionate coach in all of European football (in my biased opinion). But the teamwork! Gosh, for both goals, if the two assists didn't happen, and the players hogged the attention, the two goals wouldn't have happened. I quote from a commentator: The vision.

[nK)Duke]

So much soccer fans on soompi...................SCHLAND SCHLAND!

[naoto]

my beautiful switzerland lost omggggggggg help meeeeeee