Euro 2008

[Afonso I of Portugal]

Maybe a red kit can add a little help together with many other factors. In my point of view the main diference is the way each team face each game, the way each team respect the opponents. The mental factor is the most important.
In fact i think today team shirts are made mostly because of merchandising concerns rather than club traditionaly colors, etc.
Brazil, Germany or Italy don't need a red shirt to win the WC/Euro, and they win a lot.

[PBI]

I think Grizzly's right about why a red shirt helps in club football but not international; if a red shirt gives you an edge in a game, no matter how slight, then there will be a gradual tendency for red teams to do slightly better than others. In turn this will let them make slightly more money, which will allow them to do better still, which will continue until the red teams dominate.

Whereas in international football past form is less important (the fans are pretty much a captive market and money is not relevant to the quality of players available), so the very slight advantage of a red shirt gets overwhelmed by all the other factors that are more important in the short term.

[Quintus.JC]

Match Day 1.
Switzerland v Czech Republic
Portugal v Turkey

Match day 2.
Austria v Croatia
Germany v Poland

Match Day 3.
Romania v France
Netherlands v Italy

Match Day 4.
Spain v Russia
Greece v Sweden

I think I'll have all of them in one go, but not today... Looks like no one sees an upset on the opening day. Switzerland have a good defence infront of home crowd, and Portugal are inconsistant as proven in the opening day of the previous European championship against another Balkan side.

[Mediolanicus]

Well, I took a guess at Turkey beating Portugal.

I think I'm going to put my prognostics up for the match day 2-4 too before friday because it could be I won't be able to get on my pc for the weekend + Monday.

[Ser Clegane]

Switzerland - Czech Republic 0 - 1

Turkey - Portugal 0 - 2

[scotchedpommes]

Who dares wins, eh.

Matchday 1 Predictions

Switzerland 2-1 Czech Republic (1800)

[Despite gut feelings, and even with their defence centred around Senderos, the
Swiss can pull it together. From watching our loss to the Czechs last week, I'd
still say they look relatively weak and lack creativity. If Switzerland find any of
their spirit, which they should do in the opening game of a home tournament,
they can win. Honest.]

Portugal 2-2 Turkey (2045)

[Depends which Turkey turns up tactically, I think. They are weak at the back
and Portugal should be setup to exploit that perfectly, but I still feel Portugal
might just collectively bottle it.]

[Tamur]

Czech Rep. 0 - 1 Switzerland

One cannot forget the Korea effect...

Turkey 1 - 2 Portugal

I think Portugal will struggle to pull together as a team, especially the back line, until later in the tournament. But they've too much going forward to stop.

[Quid]

Switzerland - Czech Republic 2 - 1
Portugal - Turkey 1 - 1

There is too much pressure on the Swiss to play well in the first game as for them to cock it up.

It will depend on whether Müller will be able to play the match as he just came back from injury. In fact, there are a number of players that have had injury problems throughout the season (Frei, Barnetta, Müller, Von Lanthen etc).

Barnetta still isn't sure to play as is Müller... we will see.

Quid

[Mediolanicus]

I'm not sure I'll be able to get on my pc the until monday, here are my guesses for the first 8 matches.

Match Day 1.
Switzerland v Czech Republic 0-2
Portugal v Turkey 1-2
As I posted earlier.

Match day 2.
Austria v Croatia 0-3
Germany v Poland 4-2

Match Day 3.
Romania v France 2-3
Netherlands v Italy 0-1

Match Day 4.
Spain v Russia 2-1
Greece v Sweden 0-2

[naut]

Match Day 2:

Croatia 2 - 0 Austria

Germany 1 - 0 Poland

Croatia will struggle without their highest goalscorer, Eduardo. And Germany, well they looked less than impressive against Serbia, they'll win, marginally through some Gomez-Klose brilliance.