Elite battle it out for European Crown

Back in 2002 Ireland and Scotland made a joint bid to host the 2008 European Championships. The bid, like both side’s subsequent qualification campaigns, ended in failure, and over the past six years Ireland’s absence from major competitions has become all too familiar.

Usually Irish fans compensate by watching England proclaim themselves as champions in waiting,
before they’re knocked out, usually in the quarter finals, and usually by Portugal.

However this summer English players and fans will be joining their Irish and Scottish counterparts at home as they also failed to make it to Austria and Switzerland.

But despite the absence of Ireland and England, most of Europe’s big teams will be represented come June. Italy will be hoping to add to their victory in the World Cup two years ago, while Portugal, Germany, France and the Netherlands will feel positive about their chances of winning the Henri Delaunay
Trophy. Meanwhile holders Greece will be trying to somehow repeat their shock triumph of four years ago.

When the draw was made last December one group clearly stood out, Group C, which contains Italy, World Cup runners-up France, the Netherlands and Romania. Dubbed ‘The Group of Death’ upon first glance each team seems too well matched to tip who’ll progress into the quarter finals.

However the results from the qualifiers can be one way of indicating who’ll advance from this tight group, as France topped the group containing themselves and Italy and Romania finished first above the Netherlands.

Former Liverpool manager, and current French technical director, Gerard Houllier, seems upbeat
despite the difficult draw; ‘We'll have to be very good from the first game and it may all come down to the game against Italy…I think Italy will be eliminated because the Netherlands will be better." France begin their campaign against Romania on June.

Croatia, who knocked England out in the qualifiers, will be confident of progressing from Group B, which also features Germany, Poland and co-hosts Austria. Greece begin their title defence against Sweden in Salzburg, before facing Russia and finally Spain.

While co-hosts Switzerland face the Czech Republic, who topped Ireland’s group in the qualifying campaign, in the tournaments’ opening fixture. However both sides will find it difficult to advance from a group that contains Portugal and Turkey.

Portugal will be desperate to capture the European crown following their devastating defeat to Greece in the final four years ago. The Portuguese hosted the tournament, swept aside England in the quarter finals, before defeating the Netherlands in the semis, only to lose in the final to an Angelos Charisteas goal.

In Lisbon four years ago the Portuguese players were inconsolable as they watched Greece lift the
trophy that, at kick-off, seemed destined to be theirs.

The side recovered from the crushing defeat and finished fourth at the World Cup two years ago. And
although they no longer have players such as Luis Figo, Rui Costa or Fernando Couto, Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side can still call on the talents of Deco, Ricardo Carvalho and, most importantly, Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Manchester United winger has been in inspirational form this season, scoring over 30 goals and if Ronaldo can carry his form into the finals then Portugal will arguably have a better chance of winning than they did four years ago.

Quite simply no other team at the finals have a player who can match him. His few remaining critics have said he has often failed to perform against the bigger sides in the Premier League and the Champions League, but if the United star can inspire his side to European glory then it’ll be hard to deny his place as the best footballer in the world.

The World Cup two years ago was dominated by defensive teams and failed to produce many memorable games. In contrast Euro 2004 was a tournament full of upsets, dramatic moments and high scoring matches.

The Cup tends to be a bloated, exhausting month of football with many irrelevant games, (not even their own fans probably wanted to watch Togo versus South Korea in 2006), but recent European Championships have produced high quality games.

The finals in June should be no different, despite the Irish fans watching from a neutral perspective.

- Robert Redmond