Euro 2008

[Quintus.JC]

I won’t be able to update the leader board on time next week because of exams. Half of them are only mocks but there is also lots of important course work deadlines. I’ve got work experience the week after next so it shouldn't be a problem by then.

[Louis VI the Fat]

Thanks for the time you are putting into this game, Quintus.

I felt sorry for the Swiss, they were doing alright. It should've been 1-1. The Czechs look past their prime.
Portugal looked stronger than ever. A clear title candidate.


New predictions:

Croatia 2 - 0 Austria
Germany 2 - 0 Poland

Monday:

France 1 - 1 Romania (optimist )
Italy 1 - 1 Netherlands

[Scurvy]

Slightly disappointed by Turkey, didn't see the Swiss/Czech game...

Day 3.

Romania 1 v 3 France

Netherlands 1 v 1 Italy


Day 4.

Spain 2 v 1 Russia

Greece 0 v 2 Sweden

[cegorach]

Germany 1-1 Poland Wow, Scurvy, I cannot wait either! Rivalry, German strike force vs the mighty Boruc. I think Poland will do well overall.

Ehh if we only could field all our goalkeepers at the same time...


I am not joining the game and I won't post any predictions - but this time there is a good reason to say a draw is a very probable result, besides it cannot get worse than during the last World Cups, can it ?

[Afonso I of Portugal]

Good performance and result for Portugal, better that i expect. We could easily scored more 1 or 2 goals. Feel sorry for Switzerland but no surprises for match day 1 as favourite teams had won.

My predictions for Match Day 2:

Croatia 2 - 0 Austria

Germany 2 - 1 Poland

[scotchedpommes]

Who dares fails, though only just.

Matchday 2 Predictions

Austria 1-3 Croatia (1800)

[Reliable sources would have me believe that Austria tend to start well - the Dutch game being a prime
example. That being the case, the extent of my daring now is to say that they might even take the lead
before being crushed.]

Germany 1-1 Poland (2045)

[Nothing reasoned to say, so I'll settle with mon 'e polskis!]

[Craterus]

Match Day 2 UPDATE

Not sure what I was thinking before, but I'd like to change my Croatia 1-1 Austria prediction to Croatia 2-0 Austria. Leave the other match at Germany 2-0 Poland.

Thanks

[Gaius Scribonius Curio]

Excellent now I know where I stand.

Matchday 2:

Austria 0 - 2 Croatia

Do I really need to say? Its almost a certainty that the Croats will win, but the question is how much by? I don't think they'll run away with it though.

Germany 1 - 0 Poland

Germany seem to have a certain teutonic effiency about them, they won't fail at the first hurdle. Having said that Poland have the beast that is Artur Boruc. A slim German win for me.

Edit: I hate to point this out Cicero, but I got botht the opening results right... shouldn't I be on 20pts, rather than 10?

[Ser Clegane]

Edit: I hate to point this out Cicero, but I got botht the opening results right... shouldn't I be on 20pts, rather than 10?

AFAIK, the Portugal - Turkey match is not included in the score yet.

Next predictions:

Sunday:
Germany - Poland 2 - 1
Croatia - Austria 3 -1

Monday:
Romania - France 1 -1
Netherlands - Italy 0 - 0

Tuesday:
Spain - Russia 1 - 2
Greece - Sweden 0 - 1

[Quintus.JC]

Leader board updated again. The admin is currently top having got his first 2 predictions perfectly right. followed by atheotes who's sure bet paid off. Craterus, LittleGrizzly and Tristan are closely behind.
The majority have 20 points. 3 players who went for upsets on the first day have yet to get any points...

[Quintus.JC]

Match Day 3
Final predictions

France 2 - 1 Romania
Italy 1 - 1 Netherlands

[LittleGrizzly]

ok for grizzys predictions...

Sunday:
Germany - Poland 2 - 1 Im going for the underdogs grabbing a draw, just so i can cheer them on because thier underdogs ad to help my score here
Croatia - Austria 2 -1 austria to give it hell of a try but fail...

Austria and Poland will battle hard but the skill of croatia and germanywill overcome in the end

[InsaneApache]

Okey dokey here's day 2....

Croatia 3 - 0 Austria
Germany 2 - 0 Poland

[LittleGrizzly]

Just to clarify as i have now made 2 sunday matches guesses (though g-p stayed the same)

Germany 2-1 Poland

Croatia 2-1 Austria

theres something i like about the score 2-1 both teams get a goal but its pretty close

[PBI]

Right, here are my picks for Monday and Tuesday's games:

Match Day 3:

France 2-1 Romania

Italy 1-0 Netherlands



Romania I suspect good enough to snatch a goal, but France to win through by the strength of their national anthem alone. Italy are pretty much the worst possible team Netherlands could have picked for the opening match, I hope I'm wrong but I suspect Italy will frustrate the Dutch and keep them from playing at their best.



Match Day 4:

Spain 0-0 Russia

Greece 0-1 Sweden




Generally a safe bet to predict Spain to underperform, and my understanding is Russia aren't much to write home about going forward (they could only manage two against England, so surely have no chance of scoring against a proper team) so I predict this as the first 0-0 of the tournament. Sweden-Greece, I can't see anything other than a Swedish win unless lightning strikes twice, but I'm not expecting a high score.

[naut]

Match Day 2:

Croatia 2 - 0 Austria

Germany 1 - 0 Poland

Match Day 3


France 2 - 1 Romania

Italy 1 - 1 Netherlands

Group of death, who dares wins. French experience will give them the edge. Italy look shacky at the back and Netherlands haven't been on form recently.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Phew, just in time.

Croatia-Austria 3-0.

Germany-Poland 2-1.

[Quintus.JC]

Looks like who dares fails... For a third time. That has left me rooted at the bottom. Croatia really missed Eduardo, and I really need some points.

The leader board is updated again.

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Really disapointed with Croatia's performance, they won't beat the Poles and Germans playing like that. They look toothless up front without Eduardo-Olic and Petric work hard and do a lot of running, but neither of them seems much of a goal threat.

[cegorach]

I am writing this totally drunk and with my web transfer slowed down to a crawl so don't worry about the spelling (football mixed with the first Kubica's victory - too much to bear sober... ;) )

Clearly in Poland vs. Germany it is a bit tense with much action and quite predictable considering the respectable levels of both teams mixed with old grudges (a bit exaggerated by tabloids from the same publisher BTW), but don't you agree that the German goalkeeper (regardless of the outcome) is the weakest link of the entire team ?

I feel his mistakes will be exploited sooner or later. He seems to be almost asking for that, honestly ...


It is the 75th minute when I am writing that...


EDIT- sorry for posting in such a terrible shape, but I am living too close to the city center with circa 10 000 people (some of them apparently British and drunk...) - not to mention the guys right here - to ignore the thing...
Hopefully moderators will cut any ninsense messages I have managed to write...

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Well, the game is practically over, and it looks to be a 2-0 German victory. Podolski had an excellent game, along with Schweinsteiger, and the Polish keeper Boruc played quite a good match as well.

[KrooK]

Yes - Germany won cause they were better.
However I'm not agry, I'm not sad. Poland wasn't worse = we were not afraid of attack and 2nd goal was just a result of offensive tactic. If Poland will be playing same style against Austria and Croatia, we will win both game and pass.
GL HF
and good game Germans

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Indeed - I think that after the Croatian performance today, Poland has a pretty good chance to come second in the group.

[Craterus]

Match Day 3 Predictions

Romania 1-2 France
Holland 1-1 Italy

[cegorach]

Hmmm at least all the goals were scored by a Pole*.



Ineed it seem we have a decent chance against Croatia after all. It is a fact they underestimated the Austrians and later noticed they can do fine with weak performance since the Austrians cannot really play the game properly (the second half 'siege' of the Croatian defence was really poor), but they seem more 'in our reach' than earlier.

BTW The fans outside are shouting 'Robert Kubica' right now... The Pole in the German team - reminds me why the whole German-Polish animosity is such a waste of time and effort. The Commonwealth ( 1569-1795 and later) dealt with ethnical questions in really examplary way, but hell we didn't start the whole mess after all... the wizard... I mean Bismarck did it...

P.S. Sorry for this off topic - it is not meant to be continued in any way, except some discussion under spoilers or via PMs if anyone cares...




* Podolski doesn't have any trouble with the complicated national heritage, unlike Klose who 'stops' understanding Polish if Germany is losing. :)

[Louis VI the Fat]

Croatia was rubbish. Nowhere near the dangerous outsiders they were hyped up to be. I only saw the second half, in which the Austrians rather amused me with their game. They lack quality, but I thought they were fun.

Germany is uberstrong. A machine. Dang it.
Actually, no, not dang it. Germany plays fine, attractive football, so if they win the tournament, it will be well-deserved.
Poland should be able to beat Croatia and Austria. The second place in this group is up for grabs, with the Croats being much weaker than expected.

Tomorrow will be good, and very exciting. Three traditional powers in action - France, Italy and Holland. And Romania could well prove to be the dark horse of this group. Plus, tradition demands that in Groups of Death the overlooked outsider triumphs.


Did you cope, Cegorach? No heart attack or a televison thrown out of your window?

[Big King Sanctaphrax]

Although they were helped by some truly shambolic defending by the Poles, whose back four's attempt to play a George Graham-era Arsenal style offside trap was hampered by the fact they didn't have the slightest ounce of positional sense, I think after that display, Germany must be the favourites to win the tournament. Their very balanced team and excellent squad depth is one thing, but combine this with their somewhat fortuitous draw on the opposite side of the tournament from most of the other powerful nations, and I think it's a sure bet they'll reach the final at the very least.

On the other hand, I was very impressed with the Pole's Brazilian acquisition. Can the England team get some citizenships rushed through for tasty South Americans?

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Did you cope, Cegorach? No heart attack or a televison thrown out of your window?

I threw a television out of the window, but it was more of a joyous type of destruction.

[cegorach]

Did you cope, Cegorach? No heart attack or a televison thrown out of your window?

He, he

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

You are judging me in a wrong way - that is my general thought.

Since the alcohol is flowing in my veins and I feel more talkative (the usual effect - shouldn't it be in the drunkards thread BTW ?) I will answer in a rather simple way.
Too often in the ORG I am talking in uber serious threads where I need to keep straight and serious attitude (and unforgiving facing the points I consider the final ones) - unlike in the reality or in some other forums (I have a very surreal sense of humour, especially targeting the pompous nationalists). ;)

I and possibly everyone here know what to expect from out football team, still at least now it is decent - there were jokes about them losing to some outlandish teams only a few years ago - unlike in the past e.g. the joke about our team in Korea-Japan World Cup - 'the coach to the pilot - don't turn off the engine, we are right back.'

And I was watching the game (at least I tried too because the transfer was poor and I don't use a TV set) on my home PC and mostly reading the best - and most hilarious - blog about sport 'Z Czuba.pl' which is swarming with questions such as who will win and why all those unknown Belgian 'possible singers' and 'probable actresses' are necessary to decide if we will win against that country.
Not that I dare to complain about the new hopes of Belgian show business...

BTW We lost against Germany and that was more than fair - they were the underdogs this time - apparently about 100 000 000 Chinese and a few Tibetan villages were supporting our team too - that according to one of Polish fotball fans at that time in China (conspiring and intriguing as we always do).

P.S. I can recall one particular episode - in Barcelone in the 1990s our football team was playing for gold against the Spanish and after we lost someone really thrown a TV from a window which ironically hit a Seat 'killing it' instantly.

[Louis VI the Fat]

I'm not judging you, Cego! I love you mate, and was wondering how you coped!

Me, I always stock up on old televisions before every tournament. Then I throw beer bottles at them during matches.
It helps me cope.

On the other hand, I was very impressed with the Pole's Brazilian acquisition. Can the England team get some citizenships rushed through for tasty South Americans?

This nationalising of Brasilian footy players is getting a bit out of hand, isn't it? The Portuguese, the Poles, the Croats...