The European Summit

When you’re talking about potential winners of Euro 2008, I don’t think you can ignore Italy, with them being the reigning World Champions. They’re a side full of talent who’ve got lots of experience, and I don’t think you can compare their club teams to their national teams. With the likes of Cannavaro, Zambrotta and Grosso and Materazzi at the back, they’re going to be a very hard team to beat, and you can tell they’re going to come up with goals. Del Piero has had a great season for Juventus, and I’m sure he’ll play his part for Italy.

Admittedly, Italy are in a tough group alongside France and Holland, but I must say I’m not a great fan of the Dutch and I think they’ll underachieve. France, meanwhile, are difficult to assess. They can be frustrating to watch and there isn’t any real star in their team this time around. Henry has had an indifferent season and isn’t this side’s Zidane, that’s for sure. Also, Viera has been patchy for Inter when’s he played. Ribery looks like the one player who might produce big things for them, and if France are to really make an impact on the tournament, he’ll have to deliver the goods.
Germany have been quoted as favourites, and in the 2006 World Cup Klose was the top scorer, but I’m not sure if he’ll even play this time around. They played with a very aggressive style in that tournament, and I don’t know if they’ll adopt a similar approach in Austria. But they had a good qualifying campaign and secured their place in the competition quite comfortably. In much the same way that Ribery will have to perform for France to do well, Ballack needs to be on form for Germany to succeed, because he is one player who can turn games.
Overall, I just feel that Germany might be a bit lacking in the goalscoring department. Klose has had a funny season and I’ve never really been convinced by Podolski. FC Schalke striker Kevini Kuranyi is another player with a lot of potential, but I really feel that Germany’s fortunes will hinge on how Ballack performs. Germany are in the same group as Croatia, who some people have tipped as a good outside bet, but I thought they were pretty mediocre in their qualifying campaign. Yes, they knocked out England, but I felt that England handed them the game at Wembley. Croatia could easily get out of their group, but I don’t see them progressing much further than that.
Another team many are tipping to do well are Spain, who certainly have quality forwards in the likes of Villa and Torres, but again a lot will depend on what system they play. If they play an aggressive style with two up front, Torres will be a serious threat to any team. Defensively, though, Spain are suspect and I feel that Puyol in particular is slightly overrated. They will definitely have plenty of flair in midfield with the likes of Fabregas and Alonso, but I just feel that their defence could be a weakness.
In terms of possible winners, I actually would fancy Portugal a bit more than Spain. I’ll be interested to see whether Ronaldo lines out as a centre-forward or a winger. As always, Portugal have a talented squad, although they’ve lacked a proven striker since Pauleta, and even he failed to deliver in the goalscoring stakes. But Portugal are capable of going far in the tournament and will no doubt be keen to make up for 2004, when they lost the final to Greece on their home turf.
Speaking of the Greek side, this time around the holders are in the same group as Spain, Russia and Sweden, but they’re unlikely to repeat the success of four years ago. In tournament football, upsets are always possible, but I fancy one of the traditional powers in international football to be crowned European champions this time around.
Of course, Ireland won’t be travelling to the finals, although a new era commenced over the past fortnight, with Giovanni Trapattoni taking charge of the team for the first time. One of the interesting aspects surrounding the games against Serbia and Colombia was Brian Kerr alleging that several players had broken a curfew at the training camp in Portugal. Unfortunately, Brian seems like a man who is very bitter about the way in which his tenure as Ireland manager came to an end. I don’t think that goes down well with people, because he’s been highly critical of the FAI and what happened towards the end of his spell in charge.
The players have had a hard season and the fact is that no footballer is going to get unfit in one night. If it was a regular occurrence during a qualifying campaign, then I could understand where Brian was coming from, but there was nothing wrong with giving the players a night off between friendly games.
In terms of the actual matches themselves, one aspect I noted during the Colombia tie was that we didn’t get close enough to anybody in midfield. We need players who get on tight on the opposition and win back possession, because if we don’t, we’re going to have teams running at our back four, and we can’t afford to let that happen. On the plus side, I thought Damien Delaney did well as left back, and it was good to see Dean Kiely impress, because we don’t know when Shay Given is going to be back.
Overall, though, we need to be more solid and organised as a unit. If Colombia had taken any of their chances they could have easily won the game, and those are the kind of mistakes that we need to eliminate before our World Cup qualifying campaign.