Euro 2004

[Edward]

boo yeah!

Portugal here we come

[keira loves lipgloss]

Originally Posted by Edward

boo yeah!

Portugal here we come

come on Rooney make england proud lol

[Sarah]

Rooney is fantastic. A true gem.

[Elijahfan]

my brother is obsessed with football even though we like in the States. we dont have cable or anything so me goes to his friend's house even just to watch, sometimes that friend isn't even there. it's crazy. he has like 10 jersey's that cost him 60 US dollars from teams in europe. i hope england wins though.

[Newell4keira]

England will win with performances like that.

Tomorrow night, hopefully Latvia will beat Holland and the Czechs will beat Germany so Latvia and the Czech republic go through

[Kelsey]

I've changed my mind...I want Portugal to win. That's my new country.

[Sarah]

Portugal? Pppphfff no way. They don't deserve to win. We're going to knock them out on Thursday!!!! Come on England!!!!!! ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONEY!

[Hazzle]

I think Latvia may well surprise Holland tomorrow...they deserved to beat the Germans, and even to get a draw out of the Czechs...that earns them a lot of credit for their first ever major tournament for me.

As for Portugal...we should knock them out in the next round...they have so many fewer goal threats than England...Deco was anonymous against Spain, Figo was poor, Ronaldo was average and Nuno Gomes' goal was flukey...Spain deserved to beat them and England will, especially as we were easily better than France.

Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard and Scholes all have goals...and our two best players Beckham and Owen have yet to score...their time HAS to come, and when it does we'll have a front 6 with goals in it, compared to the Portuguese team which doesn't have one player with more than one goal. We're the top scorers in the tournament, and have a defence that should cope with Portugal's one man up front tactic well.

Plus we owe Phil Scolari revenge for knocking us out of the World Cup with Brazil.

We should then probably face the Swedes next, which'd be our hardest game as they're a bogey side for us, but we owe them revenge for earlier this year and it will come. Sven's due a win over his home country.

The French in the final, hopefully, with the chance for revenge. They certainly should despatch the Greeks even if they play poorly, and if they play like they CAN, they should even beat the Czechs. I'd like to have the chance to prove we ARE better than them by beating them in the final.

Best young talent in Europe...what more do we need? 4 goals already and I see Rooney finishing as the youngest ever golden boot winner. Scholes will now start to get the goals he used to and has been getting for United, Lampard is a constant goal threat and will get more, Gerrard is lethal and Becks and Owen will get their chance.

Mark my words...England...European Champions 2004. Then to march on to Germany and take back the World Cup 40 years after beating the Germans in England in 66...be ironic to beat them in their own back yard 40 years later I think.

[DragonRat]

As strange as my time tramping around (or rather, vacationing with family) in Asia, I still have a chance of catching Euro 2004 games in the wee hours of the night. England, in my opinion, have looked the best team of the tournament (discounting the stoppage time against France), although the Czechs are no longer the dark horses we expect, and I expect them to beat the Germans.

France do not look like the powerhouses of the past six years, but their last win against the Swiss showed the better side, with Henry finally getting on the map. Of the games against the Swiss and Croatia, though, England have looked fantastic. Rooney, I must admit now, is the best player that you English have.

Portugal, in beating Spain, deserved to win. Spain still does not have the ability to beat past all their good players and get a real victory in the major tourneys. In a way, I always thought Greece could come away with an upset. They're not a brilliant side, but they're not an average team that anyone can dust off. (Still, Greece will be licking Henry's boots, and Rooney will probably score another brace against Portugal...)

The Czechs have already won Group D, and they've showed their class already against Holland, coming back from 2-0 to get three straight unanswered goals. If only Baros could be as effective for Liverpool as he is for his national side, heh. I probably see Holland getting in anyway before Germany, although Advocaat is a dolt, sticking with the old crew when you got van der Vaart, Sneijder, and Robben. All three of them are potential world-beaters, especially van der Vaart. Advocaat was stupid to play Seedorf ahead of Raphael against the Czechs.

Denmark and Sweden got through, and though their 2-2 draw was quite suspicious, Italy didn't deserve to get through anyway. Again, because Trap did not start Cassano ahead of Del Piero, he stuck with the old guard, when Del Piero's starting to lose his quickness, and Cassano and Totti already had a partnership in Roma. The Totti thing was a real loss, too, but he spat at a player, and that's not really cool. Anyway, the Scandinavians deserve to go through: Sweden's got a good-looking offense with an above-average midfield and a strong defense; Denmark's got an incredible defense and a decent front.

My prediction for the final: England 3, Czech Republic 2

[Hazzle]

I hope it's not the Czechs...I want to beat the French We need our revenge!

I think the French at their best can just edge out the Czechs, but I'd say the Czechs are certainly one of the favourites for the tournament now. I'd say it's unlucky for the Danes to have to face them, as they probably won't quite be good enough.

I see France beating Greece, England beating Portugal in a tight game, The Czechs beating the Danes and Sweden perhaps even managing to shock the Dutch (whose goal to chance ratio is worse than ours and who were most flukey in the way they beat the Latvians with two dodgy goals...if they're descending to cheating against a team like Latvia, how do they hope to beat the Swedes who've been sensational?). For me neithing Bouma nor De Boer are convincing against the best, and it often looks like Stam and Van Der Sar hold their defence together...against the strike force of the Swedes which is sensational, I think the Swedes should take it 2-1.

I see us beating the Swedes on pens (it's always the way...the Swedes are hard to beat...and we've got to break our bloody duck on penalities eventually...) and the French just edging the Czechs on pens too...France England final, with the Czechs beating the Swedes for third place.

EDIT: PS, the report on Euro 2004 will be finalised after the tournament and posted...I'll need to edit it for past tense and of course erase my eroneous predictions (actually, there haven't been that many...I predicted the Swedes drawing with Denmark 2-2...you just knew it would happen! Just as you just knew the Germans were out tonight...I of course WANTED Latvia to do it, as they've been such a credit to their nation, but the Dutch did always looked favourites...though weren't convincing at all)

[tarmadir]

Yes, Germany is out. And our trainer, too. And there are two questions now: Who will be the next Bundestrainer: Daum or Hitzfeld. And where the hell we get some good strikers till 2006. My tip for the final is the Czechs against England, too. The Czechs will win 3:1.

[Edward]

wow

too much to read

can't wait for england tonight

[Sarah]

Considering how much effort England have put into the Euro 2004, we really do deserve to win. I've never said that before. We deserve to win. Another thing I can't stand is European countries being bitter towards England because we've got through.

[apoggy]

Predictions for tonight?

My guess 3-1 England win, Goals from Lampard, Owen and Rooney

[Sarah]

Originally Posted by apoggy

Predictions for tonight?

My guess 3-1 England win, Goals from Lampard, Owen and Rooney

Thats funny, I was having a discussion about this with my friends this morning. Oddly, I predicted the same score as you, but my prediction was as follows:

3-1 . England win, Goals coming from Lampard once, and then Rooney twice. I don't think Owen will score, I believe he is going to make a big come-back in the final.

As for Portugal's goal, it comes from Ronaldo.

Come on boys!

[Flightfreak]

belgium has not even made it in to the pre selections

[acliff]

1 nil to ENGLAND !!! OWARHASWRWHAH

[acliff]

FUCKING ROBBED!!!!!!!!!!1one
A fucking swiss ref is gonna die.

[Sarah]

We were robbed!!!!!!!! IT WAS A FUCKING PERFECT GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM GOING TO MURDER THE REF!!!!

[Jacoby]

Not a very good time to be English. :/
It's too bad...